The firm's founding partner, Mr. Richard J. Lydecker, has a diverse and extensive background in the general practice of civil litigation, mainly concentrating in the areas of commercial litigation, insurance defense, professional liability, and coverage.

Prior to Richard's career in civil practice, he was a Senior Major Case Bureau Prosecuting in New York with an outstanding record of success in preparing, managing, and trying high-profile cases. Casework involved high-profile, high-visibility criminal prosecution of homicides, robbery, arson, rape, and burglary. Richard successfully tried in excess of 100 criminal cases, many resulting in guilty verdicts carrying up to life sentences. Before accepting his appointment to the District Attorney's Office, Richard was an attorney at a prestigious Wall Street, N.Y. insurance defense firm.

Richard's founding philosophy was to create an aggressive and responsive mid-sized law firm specializing in commercial litigation, professional liability defense, insurance defense, general tort and insurance litigation.

Richard is a Magna Cum Laude J.D. graduate, received his Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, and offers a proven track record of success. He is a member of the Florida Bar, New York Bar, Dade County Bar Association, the American Bar Association, the United States District Court of New York and the Southern District of Florida.

NOTABLE CLIENT WORK

• Outside General Counsel (Florida) for Extended Stay America Hotels, Inc.  Successfully representing this large national corporation in commercial litigation actions for $40 million dollars. This case included construction defects actions, toxic torts, premise liability actions, insurance coverage disputes, and appellate practice.
• General Counsel for the Florida Workers’ Compensation Insurance Guaranty Association (FWCIGA).
• Lead counsel for the Florida Department of Insurance, Division of Liquidation and Rehabilitation, for complex reinsurance and excess insurance litigation seeking a $41 million recovery for fraud and various other business torts. A variety of legal actions brought including Director and Officer liability, legal malpractice against corporate accountants for fraud, reinsurance brokers for fraudulent misrepresentations, breach of contract, offset, conspiratorial liability with the President of the Corporation, and the aggravation of an insolvency - multiple and complex legal issues occurring at every level of the case.
• Lead counsel in the case of Attorney General State of Florida versus Wyndham Hotels to seek and recover damages in excess of $120 Million.  Mr. Lydecker just days before trial successfully settled the case for a nominal amount on behalf of Wyndham International, one of the firm’s clients.
• Lead trial counsel for the Florida Department of Financial Services, Division of Rehabilitation and Liquidation versus Cura Group, resulting in a $2.9 million favorable trial verdict.

E-mail: rl@lydeckerlaw.com