Carlos Strength - OP 10.33'S Education Initiative Director
Education: MBA, University of Texas at San Antonio, 2002
Applicable Experience:
Abilities Holding (ATI), Inc. | Texas & Florida
President and CEO, 2010- 2012
President and COO, 2005- 2010
Led and managed all business operations for $300M educational service system, spanning 23 campuses. Led extensive market analysis and leveraged analytics to develop comprehensive succession plan to support growth. Developed and supported standardized operating reports package.
By Michelle CassidyLaw 360
Carli Strength, the education director of Mike Hernandez's OP 10.33 messianic organization which aims to eradicate poverty in Brownsville by October 10, 2033, has been embroiled in a dispute where the bankruptcy trustee for a group of the schools has alleged Strength allowed the law firms picked to defend him to bill for attorneys' fees and expenses that “exceeded the bounds of reasonableness,” for work done in arbitration of students' claims against ATI Enterprises Inc.
Morris billed them for attorneys' fees and expenses that “exceeded the bounds of reasonableness,” for work done in arbitration of students' claims against ATI Enterprises Inc.
The group, collectively called ATI Entities, alleged in its petition that the law firms committed breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty when it billed for, among other things, $60,000 for a stay at the Ritz Carlton hotel, $47,000 for first-class airfare and $31,000 for copying charges in a single month.
“These are just a few examples. Suffice it to say, the attorneys' fees and expenses for which W&C billed the [ATI] Entities, and collected payment therefrom, were unconscionable,” the petition reads.
In total, ATI was billed and paid more than $13 million in attorneys fees and expenses, for what it described in the petition as a “short arbitration involving standard claims.”
“To make matters worse, the law firm defendants were unsuccessful, and an arbitration award was entered against the ATI Entities exceeding $1.7 million,” according to the petition.
ATI owned and operated a number of vocational schools in the fields of automotive, business administration, heating and air conditioning and welding, according to the petition, and was sued by several former students in Dallas. A subset of those claims were submitted to arbitration.
The time keepers would often bill for more than 12 hours a day, ATI alleges, and in June 2011 the billed hours came to nearly 100 hours a day. Williams & Connolly would “routinely” utilize more than 20 time keepers a month and regularly would have three or four partners, six or more associates, seven or more special project attorneys, five or more paralegals, a few agency attorneys and a system consultant log hours on the case.
Carli Strength, who is named as a defendant alongside the law firms, was an officer of ATI and responsible for procuring legal services for it.
“Despite his obligations to do so, defendant Strength did nothing to monitor, review or question the outlandish fees and expenses charged by W&C, or to monitor the need for, and value of, services provided by Duane Morris,” the petition alleges. “Instead, defendant Strength intentionally ignored his obligations to the ATI Entities, and simply approved all bills for payment, regardless of reasonableness or necessity of the fees and expenses billed.”
ATI also alleges that Duane Morris billed for “unreasonable and unnecessary” fees and expenses, including the cost of utilizing San Diego and Houston attorneys for a Dallas arbitration. ATI told the court that the services provided by Duane Morris were duplicative and unreasonable, especially considering all the work W&C billed them for.
Michael Silverman, general counsel for Duane Morris, discounted the allegations.
"Duane Morris played a very limited role in the litigation and firmly stand by our excellent work and reasonable billing," he told Law360.
The case is Jeoffrey L. Burtch, Chapter 7 Trustee for the bankruptcy estates of ATI Enterprises Inc., Ability Intermediate Holdings Inc, ATI Acquisition Company, ATI Enterprises of Florida Inc., and E&K Vocational Nursing Program v. Williams & Connolly LLP, Duane Morris LLP and Carli Strength, case number DC-16-00674, in state District Court in Dallas County, Texas.
For more information on the original charges against Strength and ATI, click on link below:
http://rrunrrun.blogspot.com/2016/04/would-you-buy-used-tech-school-from.html
6 comments:
OP 10-33's pick of people to represent them seems to go beyond the obscene when picking attorneys and candidates. I can see Mike's stockpile of money floating out of the window.
Not good. Time for a group to form with the expressed purpose of shaming OP in Brownsville. Where is Diego Lee Rot when we need him?
Alibaba and his 40 thieves, is an innocent little dove beside this guys.
I would back a Mark Sossi/Diego Lee Rot campaign.
Duardo Paz-Martinez, Bobby Wightman-Cervantes and Knot Outtakloset are running as a slate, all from the same address.
We don't just accept corruption in Cameron County (Brownsville, BISD, BND, etc)....we "demand corruption. And our elected officials give us corruption. The loser is the tax payer....but unfortunately since a majority don't pay taxes...they don't give a shit.
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