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Coffee Talk (Tampa edition)
Windfall
The lawyer referral service at the Clearwater Bar Association just earned the single largest rebate in the programis recent history. The $19,830 that Clearwater attorney Kalju Nekvasil paid to the referral service is almost 80% of all rebate fees the program earned last year.
iItis the largest award weive gotten in the seven years Iive been here,i says Karen France, the associationis executive director.
In exchange for referrals, attorneys such as Nekvasil agree to rebate 10% of any fees or awards over $100 they receive from the clients referred to them.
The Clearwater Bar referral service refers only to qualified attorneys o those Florida Bar members who practice within Clearwater and maintain professional liability insurance.
Last year, the referral service received about $25,000 in rebates from member attorneys. That amount includes the $125 in dues Clearwater lawyers pay to receive referrals and $40-per-client initial consultation fees. However, the association waves the $125 in dues for all new members of the association.
Bank spars with analyst
A SunTrust Banks Inc. spokeswoman doesnit hide her employeris feelings about Pinellas County banking analyst Richard X. Bove.
iWe hate him,i Susie Findell says flatly.
Hate is such an ugly word. But how else would you describe this relationship?
Bove says SunTrust executives no longer return his telephone calls, even when he is calling Atlanta to offer them an opportunity to present their side for his increasingly critical research reports.
iThey think itis personal and all this crap,i says Bove, who works for Punk Ziegel & Co.
There is a smidgen of truth to that. Bove, the consumer, used to bank at SunTrust. But he switched to Wachovia, for the same reason Bove says hundreds of other Floridians left SunTrust. He was tired of getting hit with new fees for banking services that used to be free.
Howis that for doing your own market research?
SunTrustis purported attempt to squeeze every last dime of profit from its customers, which Bove says ceased about 18 months ago, is the main reason that its Florida share of deposits has been dropping. It has declined to 10.21% from last yearis 10.96%.
To its credit, SunTrust brass is trying to make amends. iOur argument is itis too late,i says Bove.
Bank of America Corp. and Wachovia Corp., which abandoned their own the-customer-is-always-wrong thrust a good year before SunTrust, is way ahead in stroking the Florida retail banking consumer. Both SunTrust rivals have the state market share gains to prove it.
While BB&T Corp. and Fifth Third Bancorp move aggressively into Florida, another industry analyst, Steven C. DeLaney at Ryan Beck & Co., says SunTrust is scouting for possible acquisitions in the Carolinas.
Bove has further alienated SunTrust by linking the departure of key Florida executives, including George Koehn, to the vanishing deposits. Koehn, SunTrustis 61-year-old Florida chief executive who previously headed the bankis Tampa operation, says his leaving is a routine retirement.
There is also an exodus of lower-level suits, particularly in the booming suburbs north of Tampa, which Bove finds peculiar. A few of those SunTrust veterans are turning up at community banks, where Bove doubts they are as well compensated.
That suggests to him that those bank officers did not leave voluntarily.
iThe bank says this is all coincidence,i says Bove. iI just put the facts out there for people to decide.i
Findell told GCBR that she had no further comment from SunTrust, which saw its stock fall nearly a dollar to around $71 during early trading on Nov. 10.
Fire intensifies
New Port Richey lawyer John A. Majestic faces another lawsuit. Another female client has publicly accused him of sexual misconduct. He has denied the accusation in published news reports.
Tampa attorney Brett Geer represents Laura R. Berger in a new civil action filed in Pasco County. Majestic, a family law lawyer, already faces a wrongful death action and a Florida Bar complaint related to the suicide of Donna Roth.
In her complaint, Berger accuses Majestic of threatening to disclose confidential information during her divorce action unless she submitted to his sexual advances. She seeks damages on charges that include civil battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
This Dow is up
Fear, uncertainty and doubt.
Phil Dow calls them FUD, for short. But the director of equity strategy at RBC Dain Rauscher Inc. is no fuddy-dud.
Speaking in Tampa recently, Dow says investors are too afraid of what can go wrong and have forgotten history. The markets have been generally kind to sober investors since World War II, reminds Dow.
For certain right now, there are budget deficits, high petroleum prices and a sagging dollar. But economists foresee growth in our gross domestic product of between 3.3% and 3.5% next year, with continued low inflation.
iWeire heading down a road where everybody is going to have to be an investor and be able to tolerate a little risk,i Dow told the Financial Analysts Society of Tampa Bay at the University Club downtown.
What else do you expect an investment firmis chief fortuneteller to say? RBC Dain Rauscher, which is wholly owned by the Royal Bank of Canada, acquired venerable St. Petersburg bond dealer William R. Hough & Co. last winter.
But Dow, whose recent book iThe Citizen Investori echoes President George W. Bushis call for an iownership society,i really does seem to enjoy walking on the sunny side of Wall Street.
iThereis more reason to be optimistic than realistic,i jokes Dow.
Mr./Mrs. Clearwater
Know someone who has contributed greatly to the Clearwater business community over the past year? You might be looking at the 2005 Mr. or Mrs. Clearwater, an annual award sponsored by the Clearwater Regional Chamber of Commerce.
Past recipients include Ed Droste (2004), Marion Rich (2003), Bill Johnson (2002), Dave Stone (2001), Herb Brown (2000) and Jim Stewart (1999).
Nominees should be active in civic affairs and organizations, a community volunteer and not a holder of public office. The recipient will be honored at the chamberis annual meeting in January.
Send nominations to (727) 461-0011, Ext. 223, by Dec. 3.
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