The Florida Supreme Court in recent court orders disciplined 15 attorneys, disbarring five, revoking the licenses of two, suspending six, and reprimanding three. Two attorneys were ordered to pay restitution.

Gerald W. Adams, 1314 E. Las Olas Blvd., Suite 1059, Ft. Lauderdale, disbarred effective immediately following an April 28 court order. (Admitted to practice: 1984) Adams continued to engage in the practice of law in contempt of the Supreme Court’s Order of Suspension by continuing to run his law firm. Attempting to circumvent the rules, Adams transferred ownership of the firm to his office manager (a non-lawyer) without the office manager’s knowledge. Adams continued to advertise his legal services online under the guise of document preparation offering to prepare legal documents/forms not approved by the Florida Supreme Court for use by non-lawyers, which constitutes the unauthorized practice of law. (Case No: SC20-1810)

Damien Aranguren, 725 E. Silver Springs Blvd., Suite 1, Ocala, suspended effective 30 days following a March 30 court order. (Admitted to practice: 2009) Aranguren entered pleas of no contest to three counts of grand theft (statutory theft), a third-degree felony, one count of trespass to structure, a second-degree misdemeanor, and one count of Trespass in Occupied Structure or Conveyance, a first-degree misdemeanor. The court withheld adjudication as to all counts and sentenced Aranguren to two years of conditional probation as to the felony counts and to credit for time served as to the misdemeanor counts. (Case No: SC21-468)