Contact

Location:

One Biscayne Tower
2 South Biscayne Boulevard, Suite 2030
Miami, FL 33131

Phone:

(800) 863-1462

Direct:

(305) 266-1224

Email:

lharke@uww-adr.com

About

Lance August Harke, as a founding partner of his South Florida law firm before joining UWWM as a full-time mediator and arbitrator, has concentrated his practice in the areas of multi-state consumer class action litigation, insurance litigation, employment matters, professional malpractice, products liability defense, and general and complex commercial litigation.

He has served as lead class counsel or as a member of the plaintiffs’ steering committee in a wide variety of national multi-district mass tort and class action litigations, including some of the largest and most significant cases in United States history.

His experience includes serving as co-lead counsel in 30 of the largest settlements obtained in the United States on behalf of borrowers against banks over their force-placed insurance practices. These actions have led to regulatory and structural changes in the force-placed insurance industry nationwide yielding more than $5.1 billion in monetary relief for more than 4.1 million class members.

His experience also includes serving as Co-Lead Counsel in In Re: Heartland Payment Systems, Inc. Customer Data Security Breach Litigation, Civil Action No. H-09-MD-2046, (pending in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas). Distinguished as the largest data breach multidistrict litigation in United States history, the action consisted of hundreds of millions of class members, including consumers and financial institutions, and resulted in a multi-million dollar settlement on behalf of the consumer class.

Beyond Florida, Lance has tried matters to verdict in numerous states and federal venues, including Pennsylvania, Nevada, New Mexico, Iowa, Illinois, and New York.

Lance is actively involved in numerous legal, business and community organizations. He is current president of the Miami Shores Bar Association, and he is past president of the Greater Miami Shores Chamber of Commerce, past president of Temple Israel of Greater Miami and past president of Legal Services of Greater Miami.

Throughout his career, he has received numerous awards and accolades for his legal work and contributions to the field of law and the general community.

Education/Distinctions

• Bachelor’s degree in philosophy, with honors, University of Florida (1987)
• Juris Doctor, magna cum laude, University of Miami School of Law (1990)
• Editor-in-Chief, University of Miami Law Review
• Recipient, Soia Mentschikoff Award for Excellence in Scholarly Writing
• Florida Supreme Court Certified Circuit Civil Mediator
• Florida Supreme Court Qualified Arbitrator

Admissions

• The Florida Bar
• United States District Courts for the Southern, Middle and Northern Districts of Florida
• United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit

Honors

• Listed, “Most Effective Lawyer” in complex business litigation, Daily Business Review
• Listed, Super Lawyer, Florida Super Lawyers
• Listed, “Top Lawyer” in corporate and business litigation, South Florida Legal Guide
• Listed, Florida’s Legal Leaders, Florida Trend magazine’s Legal Elite
• Rated, “AV” by Martindale Hubbell

Accreditations/Memberships

• Fellow, Litigation Counsel of America
• Member, Million Dollar and Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum

Publications

• The Scope of Discovery in the Federal Courts: A Survey of Published, Post-1980 Cases From the Federal Courts Regarding the Scope of Permissible Discovery in Civil Litigation, Editor, American Bar Association Section of Litigation
• Product Liability Desk Reference: A Fifty State Compendium, Contributing Author, Aspen Law and Business
• Positive business climate requires well-funded court system, Contributing Author, The Miami Herald
• Board of Contributors: Proposed legal services funding cuts would hit the less fortunate hardest, Contributing Author, Daily Business Review
• Judge Joan A. Lenard’s order for state to provide services to autistic children an important one, Contributing Author, Daily Business Review

Practice Areas

• Civil Litigation
• Class Action Litigation
• Commercial Litigation
• Insurance Litigation