Attorneys & Staff

Curtis Alva comes to Gunster from Yale Law School and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom

Practice Areas

Corporate litigation requiring sophistication, extensive experience or special attentiveness, including mergers & acquisitions, corporate control, corporate governance, class & derivative actions involving fiduciary duties, securities, RICO and fraud.

Representative Matter(s)

• Defended Bankrate in shareholder class actions challenging a $570 million merger with Apax
• Defended U.S. Sugar in shareholder & ERISA class actions regarding a $1.7 billion sale of assets to Florida
• Defended Hard Rock Café International regarding the $965 million sale from Rank Group to Seminole Hard Rock Entertainment
• Represented Republic Services against Waste Management to enforce contracts implementing antitrust decrees
• Defended Great Western Financial against $6.5 billion hostile takeover attempt by H.F. Ahmanson
• Lead trial counsel in a RICO jury trial among international telephone companies
• Counsel to Cendant Corporation in its $3.1 billion hostile takeover of American Bankers Insurance Group

Education

• Yale Law School, J.D., 1988
  Editor-in-Chief, Yale Journal on Regulation
  John M. Olin Scholar
• Idaho State University, B.A., with honors, 1985
  Phi Kappa Phi and Mortar Board

Reported Case(s)

• Okeechobee Landfill, Inc. v. Republic Services of Florida, LP, 931 So. 2d 942 (Fla. 4^th DCA 2006)
• Julia v. Russo, 984 So. 2d 1283 (Fla. 4^th DCA 2008)
• H.F. Ahmanson & Co. v. Great Western Financial Corp., 23 Del. J. Corp. L. 633; 1997 WL 305824 (Del. Ch. 1997)
• In re Delmarva Securities Lit., 794 F. Supp. 1293 (D. Del. 1992)
• In Re RJR Nabisco Shareholders Lit., 576 A.2d 654 (Del. Ch. 1990)
• In Re RJR Nabisco Shareholders Litigation, 576 A.2d 654 (Del. Ch. 1990)

Bar Memberships

Florida and Delaware

Publications

• "Pretrial Preparation And Trial Procedures; Direct Examination, Cross Examination, Redirect, and Rebuttal" Co-author for a chapter in Business Litigation in Florida, 6th Edition, Lexis Nexis, 2010
• Trial Procedures in Business Litigation in Florida (Florida Bar, 6^th ed. 2009)
• Delaware and the Market for Corporate Control: History and Agency, 15 Del. J. Corp. L. 810 (1990)

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• Of Counsel
• Group Leader, Corporate Goverance & Securities Litigation

Main Office
450 East Las Olas Boulevard, Suite 1400
Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33301-4206

• Business Litigation
• Insurance Coverage
• Probate, Trust & Guardianship Litigation