Senior Litigation Attorney — Business Disputes

We are not your typical law firm. KEW Legal, P.A. is a boutique business and real estate law firm in Sunny Isles Beach, FL, and we are growing quickly. We currently have a team of 10 and are seeking an experienced, full-time Senior Litigation Attorney who can hit the ground running and carry an independent docket of business and commercial disputes.

Seven (7) or more years of civil litigation experience is required, including first-chair trial, arbitration, or contested hearing experience. Experience in commercial and business litigation is preferred. We are accepting applications on a rolling basis.

If you are good at this and your current firm hasn’t noticed, we would be interested in speaking with you.

About the Role

KEW Legal serves visionaries, investors, developers, and growing companies throughout Florida. Clients use us the way a company uses in-house counsel — for the deal in front of them and the strategy behind it.

We want someone who tries cases. When clients come to us with a dispute, something they built is at stake — a contract, a partnership, a business relationship that has broken down. Often the other side has taken its position, assuming the client will fold.

We need a litigator who can look at a matter, tell the client honestly whether it’s worth fighting, and then actually fight it: through discovery, through hearings, through trial or arbitration if that’s where it goes.

This is an independent docket. You’ll own your matters outright, set strategy, and answer for the results. When your litigation calendar allows, you’ll also handle transactional work, such as commercial agreements, entity matters, and business counsel.

This role does not carry real estate files; our real estate practice is handled separately.

You’ll be our senior litigator. No one will be second-guessing your case strategy, which is exactly why we need someone whose judgment stands on its own from day one.

Our mission is to provide strategic legal counsel while delivering an exceptional client experience built on trust, responsiveness, integrity, and results. The attorney in this seat is central to both.

Does This Sound Like You?

We are a small team, and at ten people, there are no passengers. To us, “team” means we win together, and we lose together: you will run your own docket, and what you do affects what the whole firm can accomplish. We look for people who anticipate problems, propose solutions, and carry their share without being asked.

Your contributions will be recognized, appreciated, and rewarded. If you are motivated by overcoming challenges and by personal, professional, and financial growth, this could be the right place for you.

Compensation:

• $160,000–$180,000 base, based on experience and billable target, + origination credit and performance bonus
• 10% origination credit on collections from files you bring in, plus a performance bonus

Process: Finalists complete a written assessment and background check with consent.

Compensation:

$160,000 – $180,000 yearly plus bonus DOE

Responsibilities:Litigation — The Core Of This Role

• Own business and commercial disputes end to end, from demand through resolution
• Prepare and review demand letters, and draft and negotiate settlement terms
• Draft pleadings, dispositive and discovery motions, and written discovery
• Take and defend depositions
• Handle evidentiary hearings, mediations, arbitrations, and trials
• Set case strategy and budget, with full accountability for the outcome
• Advise clients candidly on exposure, cost, and the realistic range of outcomes — including when settling is the right call and when it isn’t

Transactional — When The Calendar Allows

• Draft, review, and negotiate commercial agreements and vendor contracts
• Business formation, governance, and entity matters
• Renewals, amendments, terminations, and extensions of existing agreements
• Ongoing counsel to business owners and investors

Qualifications:What We’re Looking For

• J.D. and active Florida Bar membership in good standing
• 7+ years litigating business and commercial disputes
• First-chair experience — you’ve run your own matters, not staffed someone else’s, in trial, arbitration, or contested evidentiary proceedings
• A record of taking matters through contested proceedings, not just settling them at the first mediation
• Depositions you’ve taken and defended; dispositive motions you’ve briefed and argued
• The ability to listen to a client’s objectives and adjust strategy accordingly
• The composure to hold a position under pressure — from opposing counsel, and from a client who wants to hear something easier
• Willingness to be the least popular person in the room when the client’s position calls for it
• Working knowledge of Florida state and federal court practice and procedure
• The judgment to run a docket independently, from intake through resolution
• Competence drafting and negotiating commercial agreements — you don’t have to be a transactional specialist, but you should be able to paper a deal well
• The rigor to catch the detail a case turns on

Preferred Background

• Portable clients or referral relationships
• Jury or bench trial experience — cases you took to verdict
• Admission to the Southern District of Florida
• Spanish fluency, written and verbal — a meaningful share of clients prefer to work in Spanish
• Boutique or midsize firm experience where you carried your own docket
• Experience with Clio or a comparable practice management system

About Company Compensation & Benefits

• 1,560 billable hours per year (130 per month) minimum — deliberately below what most firms in this market ask
• Unlimited PTO — take the time you need, provided you’re meeting your billable requirement
• Medical insurance — the firm pays 50% of your premium
• IRA with a 3% firm match
• Dental, vision, and supplemental cancer and accident policies available at employee cost
• Medical insurance, supplemental policies, and IRA participation begin after 90 days
• Bar dues, CLE, and reasonable networking expenses paid
• 11 paid holidays
• Paid parking at our Collins Avenue office