Juan Franco

Juan Franco is a partner at the firm’s Miami office handling high-stakes and complex business and commercial disputes, securities litigation and shareholder disputes, labor and employment compliance and litigation, fiduciary disputes, aviation litigation, premises liability, and theft of trade secrets. Juan’s international law practice involves cross-border litigation and transnational issues, including complex jurisdictional disputes.

Juan also provides general counsel services, including contract drafting, review and negotiation, advising on corporate governance and regulatory matters, and advising on general business law matters to companies of all sizes, from multibillion-dollar foreign and domestic corporations to local enterprises across various industries, and individuals such as company executives, business owners and professionals.

Prior to joining Cole, Scott & Kissane, Juan practiced at a prestigious complex commercial litigation and white-collar defense firm in Miami, where he worked on a number of high-profile cases, including a $200-million Medicare fraud and kickback conspiracy, a professional sports conspiracy to distribute illegal substances, and a $1-billion embezzlement scheme involving a foreign government.

Juan attended Florida International University, where he received a B.A. in Business Administration. He then earned his Juris Doctor degree from Samford University, Cumberland School of Law. While in law school, Juan earned Dean’s List honors, achieved the highest grade in International Law, and was a teaching assistant for the law school’s legal writing class. He also interned for a judge in the Eleventh Judicial Circuit Court of Florida, who headed the complex business litigation division for a number of years.

Juan is fluent in Spanish and has extensive experience working on cases involving complex legal and business documents in Spanish.

Representative Experience:

· Obtained numerous dismissals for multinational foreign corporation from lawsuits in the United States on forum non conveniens grounds, forum selection and choice of law provisions, and for lack of personal jurisdiction

· Procured full defense verdict at arbitration for directors and officers in shareholder dispute claiming over $20M in damages due to purported share dilution following a merger and purchase of the company’s assets, and defeated attempt by the claimants to convert the lawsuit into a shareholder derivative suit

· Successfully defended mixed-use condominium in complex business litigation division court against summary judgment motion by plaintiffs attempting to convert case into a class action and prevailed in counter-motion for summary judgment, obtaining full dismissal with prejudice on the merits in developing area of law

· Prevailed on dismissal for improper venue in case against private client accused of sexual battery in a foreign country

· Defended in arbitration restrictive covenant and contractual dispute, including rights to social media and images and likeness of famous sports athlete

· Represented directors and officers of a bankrupt multinational architectural design corporation with global offices and with Chinese parent company in a breach of fiduciary duty and corporate waste action

· Argued and prevailed at multiple motion for summary judgment hearings, obtaining full dismissal of lawsuits against clients

· Prepared terms and conditions of international resort chain

Publications:

Abuses of the Act of State Doctrine, 50 U. Mem. L. Rev. (2020