The Florida Supreme Court had found the lawyers guilty of stealing clients from their former boss to start their own law firm, 11 years ago. The court found that stealing clients from an employer law firm to set up own business constituted a criminal act reflecting on an attorney's “honesty, trustworthiness or fitness” and tantamount to conduct involving deceit, dishonesty, fraud or misrepresentation.
During their suspensions, the duo is also barred from soliciting new business or advertising in Florida, a condition due to which the law firm's advertisements were stopped. Though none of the lawyers is licensed in Kentucky, a partner at the Louisville office said the firm had decided to stop airing its advertisements “because we didn't want to step on any toes in
Florida.”
Winters & Yonker are known to be “aggressive” lawyers. In 2010, The Courier-Journal had reported that a company owned by a Florida chiropractor refers hundreds of cases to the law firm, and in exchange receives reciprocal referrals from the law firm. According to experts, such reciprocal referrals are unethical for attorneys in Kentucky and Florida, where lawyers are barred from giving anything against receiving referrals.
There are several lawsuits pending against the duo in the matter of reciprocal referrals where clients say that they were denied the best medical provider due to suggestions of the law firm.
In the ‘let's get the boss' clients' matter, the Florida Supreme Court clearly observed, “The Bar argues that Winters and Yonker's “personal use” of their ex-boss' client files constituted acts of criminal theft …We agree.”
