AXS Law Group PLLC

Senior Partners: Jeff Gutchess, Geoffrey Stover, James Kawahito, Aleida Martinez-Miolina, Rossana Arteaga-Gomez, Josh Shore.

Other Partners & Legal Counsels: Brian Tinkham, Andrea Loveless, Alice Ferot, Bernardo Franco, Joanna Niworowski, Sam Kramer

Number of attorneys: 14

Locations: Miami, Florida and Los Angeles, California

Firm Overview

Legal REvolution  

AXS LAW is a cohesive team of 14 award-winning trial and appellate lawyers with top-flight credentials, experience, and connections who challenge the notion that “Big Law” should make litigation “Big Business” and instead AXS LAW aims to achieve the most advantageous results and solutions for its clients.

After being named the Best Commercial Litigation Department in South Florida for two out of the past three years, AXS LAW was recently selected as a “Spotlight” firm for South Florida, recommended by Chambers to its corporate clients across the globe.

In the last year alone, AXS LAW secured several significant victories, including a $63.5 million judgment on behalf of community leaders and entrepreneurs responsible for the revitalization of Miami’s famous Calle Ocho District against City Commissioner Joe Carollo; a series of decisions securing more than $30 million for a collection of doctors and hospitals against CIGNA Healthcare; an $8.5million judgment on behalf of a famous restaurant and nightclub brand in a trademark infringement suit; as well as upholding on appeal its successful defense of a top motorsports brand against a $10 million lawsuit by its former CEO and recovering its attorney’s fees for the litigation.

AXS LAW’s key to success stems from its unique commitment to foster creative thinking, to avoid tunnel vision, and to better understand the concerns and motivations of all parties by representing clients on both sides of high‑stakes business disputes.

AXS LAW remains on the cutting edge of specialization by representing leading corporations in a variety of industries—including aviation, entertainment, hospitality, health care, sports, media, transportation, and technology. At the same time, AXS LAW devotes a substantial portion of its practice to standing up to corporate interests on behalf of individual entrepreneurs, executives, entertainers, inventors, creators, business owners, and stakeholders.

Trial and Appellate Victories

There is no substitute for success. 

AXS LAW’s trial and appellate victories include the following representative cases:

• AXS LAW represented Miami-based real estate developers in an action for First Amendment retaliation against an influential City of Miami Commissioner, and not prevailed on appeal when the City Commissioner sought to dismiss the case on immunity grounds in a decision that the United States Supreme Court declined to review, but also won a jury verdict of compensatory and punitive damages totaling over $65 million following a seven-week high-profile jury trial that was covered daily by local media and spurred widespread calls for reform.
• AXS LAW represented a famous international restaurant and nightclub brand in a dispute against a former operator of the brand who tried to misappropriate its trademark, winning a jury verdict of $8.5 million, resulting in a settlement before the court resolved AXS LAW’s post-trial motions seeking to increase the amount of the verdict and enter a judgment for $25.5 million.
• AXS LAW represented hospital and physician practice groups in an action alleging that CIGNA Healthcare improperly denied, delayed, and diminished the payments that they were owed, and not only secured the dismissal of CIGNA’s appeal to delay the final hearing, but also obtained an award of $16million, bringing the total recovery to date to $30million, and continues to seek additional funds.
• AXS LAWrepresented the world’s largest motorsport media company against a $10 million claim by its former CEO, and not only secured a full defense victory by prevailing on summary judgment without the need for a trial, but also defended that victory on appeal and won an award of its attorney’s fees.
• AXS LAW represented a contemporary art museum seeking to enforce its option to purchase the property, winning a trial victory and an award of attorney’s fees for the museum that not only saved the museum from having to close, but also preserved free-admission contemporary art for the community.
• AXS LAW represented an independent healthcare company accused of breaching an agreement to pay its CEO millions of dollars in bonuses, and not only won a full defense verdict, but also prevailed on a counterclaim requiring the CEO to return the salary he was paid while setting up his competing business.
• AXS LAW recovered over $3 million in fees, interest and attorneys’ fees in an arbitration against a hospital that refused to honor its contract.
• AXS LAW represented a medical device inventor an entrepreneur, and secured an emergency nationwide preliminary injunction in federal court that prevented a competitor from launching a competing product based on the theft of trade secrets which resulted in a settlement favorable to AXS LAW’s client.
• AXS LAW represented a world-renowned psychiatrist who was wrongfully terminated as the CEO of an anti-addiction company by a foreign investor, and forced an immediate favorable settlement by securing an extraordinary pre‑arbitration order enjoining certain critical bank transfers.
• AXS LAW represented a Middle Eastern victim of computer hacking, and obtained a sealedex parteemergency temporary restraining order to obtain a forensic inspection of the computers necessary to prevent an extortionate threat to his life and his family’s safety based on the exposure of his private financial and business information.
• AXS LAW represented a a global leader in the private aviation industry who was faced with an emergency motion for temporary injunction and preliminary injunction in federal court in Manhattan while AXS LAW was in the middle of litigating a complex federal jury trial in Miami. During breaks in the jury trial, AXSLAW attended proceedings remotely to prevailed in the emergency proceedings both before the New York State Commercial Division as well as in the Southern District of New York, to position its client for a favorable outcome.

Significant Confidential Settlements

Litigation against AXS LAW is a risk that its adversaries do not want to take.

When the opposition knows that AXS LAW’s clients are capable of winning—and winning big—at trial and on appeal, they are much more likely to settle the matter rather than taking their chances in court.

AXS LAW’s prominent settlements include the following representative cases:

• AXS LAW represented an executive and shareholder who alleged that he was denied his share of the carried interest from the rolling-up and sale of a collection of vitamin supplement companies to a multinational conglomerate for $700million. AXS LAW immediately appealed a significant pretrial ruling that could have resulted in substantial additional liability, which was pending during the opening statements of trial when the judge issued a number of key rulings in favor of AXS LAW’s client, resulting in a favorable settlement.
• AXS LAW represented the owner and designer of software used to streamline healthcare in hospitals, defeating an emergency motion for an injunction and settling the case favorably.
• AXS LAW represented the former CEO of Norwegian Cruise Lines in a trade secret misappropriation case against the Virgin Group and Virgin Voyages, which was widely covered in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and other publications and resulted in a favorable confidential settlement after discovery.
• AXS LAW represented a publicly traded company in an action stemming from an M&A deal that resulted in a favorable settlement under the Delaware Chancery Court’s confidential mediation program before a public complaint was filed.
• AXS LAW represented the owner and CEO of a financial services company acquired by a major credit card processing company and declared a “seller acceleration event” forcing an appraisal process, and a high-stakes “high-low” mediation that resulted in a settlement within six months.
• AXS LAW represented advertising companies who filed a lawsuit based on its contracts that were terminated when Shazam was acquired by Apple Computer, resulting in a favorable settlement.
• AXS LAW represented the shareholders of one of Miami’s most famous retailers, and induced the other shareholder to make a lowball offer which was then turned against that shareholder to gain complete control of the company, resulting in a favorable outcome without the need for litigation.
• AXS LAW represented the victims of sexual assault committed by a prominent international businessman, in which it prepared a lawsuit but did not immediately file it, and instead delivered it through a former FBI agent to immediately open settlement discussions, which resulted in a favorable settlement within weeks after AXS LAW presented a 20-minute video in the style of “60 Minutes” that contrasted the tearful stories of the young women he had harassed against the glamorous life of the businessman and his famous friends and the holistic brand image he had built.
• AXS LAW represented the CEO of a public company who was threatened with a frivolous claim for sexual harassment and responded by preparing a counter-suit for extortion, resulting in a private settlement within a matter of weeks.
• AXS LAW represented a minority law professor whose image was used to market a local university to other black females without her permission, and prepared a complaint that resulted in private settlement within a matter of weeks.

Main Areas of Practice

Complex Litigation

Dispute Resolution

First Amendment and Defamation Work

Insolvency and Ceditors Rights

Hospitality and Sports Law

Members

Jeffrey Gutchess

Geoffrey Stover

James Kawahito

Aleida Martinez-Miolina

Rossana Arteaga-Gomez

Josh Shore

Brian Tinkham,

Andrea Loveless

Alice Ferot

Bernardo Franco

Joanna Niworowski

Sam Kramer

Offices

Miami, Florida Office: 2121 NW 2nd avenue Suite 201, Miami FL33127

Tel.: (305) 297 1878

Los Angeles, California: 6080 Center Drive, Suite 210, Los Angeles, CA 90045

Tel.: (310) 746 5300

www.axslawgroup.com