Akerman is facing a malpractice lawsuit from a former acquaintance-turned-business associate of corporate raider Victor Posner who is claiming that she suffered damages after the firm gave “negligent and reckless” legal advice to a court-appointed overseer of Posner’s estate. A complaint filed April 10 in Miami-Dade Circuit Court pits Brenda Nestor against the law firm over its representation of Philip von Kahle, a lawyer and a broker with Fort Lauderdale estate planner Moecker & Associates. von Kahle took over from Nestor in 2015 as the curator of Posner’s estate. Posner, who built a fortune and reputation specializing in hostile business takeovers, reportedly left behind a $321 million estate when he died more than a decade-and-a-half ago at age 83. “The curator and Akerman were negligent and reckless in the exercise of their fiduciary duties to Nestor, resulting in damages to her,” the complaint said. “Akerman breached its fiduciary duty to Nestor by improperly advise the curator to take actions not for the benefit of the estate and its beneficiaries and interested persons he owed a fiduciary duty to, including Nestor but instead for its own self-interests.” The malpractice complaint—which does not name von Kahle as a defendant—walks through Nestor’s ties to the Posner estate, of which she was initially appointed personal representative shortly after Posner’s death in February 2002. In the years that followed, Nestor agreed to pay a bond to Fidelity & Deposit Co. of Maryland Inc. that, in effect, allowed her to operate a Posner realty business through the corporate raider’s estate. That bond was initially worth $16 million but was upped to $23.1 million. After more than a dozen years as the estate’s representative, a Florida judge in 2015 ruled that Nestor had failed to obey court orders directing her to provide an accounting of the estate’s financial situation at the time. The judge, Celeste Hardee Muir, then appointed von Kahle to take over as the estate’s representative, or curator. Represented by Akerman, von Kahle filed a lawsuit against Fidelity to claim the $23.1 million bond. In that suit, which was later settled, von Kahle alleged that Nestor’s time as the estate’s representative had coincided with $375 million in losses, bringing the value of the estate to negative $50 million. In the malpractice complaint, however, Nestor alleges that during her time overseeing the estate, she had to work through a number of issues—including disputes with Posner’s children, tax liability, potential environmental liability tied to Posner’s businesses, and continuing to fund pension plans among some of Posner’s business holdings—that drained the estate’s resources. She alleges that von Kahle, under Akerman’s legal guidance, acted in complete ignorance of those issues by filing the Fidelity lawsuit. "Boiled down, the curator's claims are not just equivalent to ‘Monday-morning quarterbacking’ Nestor's decisions, but rather do so under an acknowledgment from the curator that he has not even watched the game, doesn't know who the players are, and didn't know the rules of the game being played,” the complaint said. Christopher Carver, an Akerman litigation partner in Fort Lauderdale who is defending the firm against the malpractice case, did not immediately respond on Friday to a request for comment. But Akerman responded in court to Nestor’s malpractice suit on May 9, raising several arguments that the firm believes should put an end to her claims. “Nestor lacks standing to bring these claims against Akerman, even if she had standing (which she does not), her claims are barred by the applicable two year statute of limitations and by judicial estoppel,” Akerman wrote. “And, of course, they are meritless on the facts.” The firm also said there may be no need to weigh the merits of the malpractice suit in light of a recent ruling in federal bankruptcy court. Nestor filed a personal Chapter 11 case in August 2017, telling a federal bankruptcy court in Miami that she had assets worth between $10 million and $50 million, and liabilities within that same range. Earlier in May, the bankruptcy court issued an order that a trustee should be appointed for Nestor’s Chapter 11. Akerman argued that ruling should trigger a stay of the malpractice suit. “A stay is warranted until both the trustee has been appointed and the trustee has had the opportunity to evaluate this action and determine whether it should even be prosecuted,” Akerman wrote in its May 9 motion to stay the malpractice suit. Maury Udell of Beighley, Myrick, Udell & Lynne in Miami, who represents Nestor against Akerman, said in an email Friday that Akerman’s alleged advice to the curator had a direct impact on Nestor and Posner’s estate. Udell also questioned Akerman’s decision to defend itself in the malpractice suit. “Apparently Akerman has decided initially to defend this case in house after refusing to provide its insurance information to my client,” said Udell. “Abraham Lincoln once said that a lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client. We shall see.”