Fired Miami City Attorney Victoria Mendez gets new gig at big firm, award

Victoria Mendez sure knows how to land on her feet.

The former Miami city attorney, unceremoniously fired for incompetence and conflicts of interests, is also in the midst of a Florida Bar investigation. Yet, she's winning awards and landing a new job.

Mendez was named "Attorney of the Year" in July by the Florida Municipal Attorneys Association — which must mean the the organization likes to see city attorneys who spend a ton of money on outside consultants, get investigated by The Florida Bar, lose lots of cases and break the rules as often as possible for the corrupt electeds they represent and their owner personal gain.

Yeah, let's reward that!

Mendez is also now a partner at Shutts & Bowen, the law firm where former Miami Commissioner Marc Sarnoff hangs his hat — and which the city of Miami paid hundreds of thousands of dollars (or more) as part of the $2 million in defense funds for Joe Carollo's outside attorneys in the First Amendment case brought by two Little Havana businessmen that Carollo ended up losing to the tune of $63.5 million.

The announcement from the law firm says she will be a member of the "land use practice group." That is code for she will be a lobbyist for developers.

Read related: Joe Carollo, Vicky Mendez lose motion to keep their depositions confidential

"Victoria is an experienced municipal lawyer with a wide range of capabilities in all phases of municipal operations, including general municipal law; land use and zoning; environmental law; election law; eminent domain; civil rights law; public finance; building and code enforcement; procurement law; utilities law; real estate; platting; and the litigation thereof," the firm's post says.

"Victoria uses her vast experience advising local agencies on policy matters, statutes, rules and regulations, so that she can better advocate for and serve her clients' strategic business interests."

Francis "Frank" Rodriguez, chair of the firm's Executive Committee, said in a press release on the company website that Mendez joining the team "continues our success in recruiting and onboarding high-value laterals. her in-depth knowledge of local governments, coupled with her vast legal experience, will undoubtedly benefit our clients and strengthen our firm's position in the South Florida market."

Everybody is saying this is pay back for all her, ahem, loyalty. Sarnoff did not return a call and text to his phone, knowing what Ladra was calling about. In the firm's press release, Mendez gushed about her new gig.

"I am incredibly excited to be part of such a prestigious firm," Mendez said. "Shutts & Bowen's reputation for excellence, combined with their commitment to client service, aligns perfectly with my professional values.

"I look forward to leveraging my experience to serve our clients with the highest level of dedication."

Mendez sent out an email blast announcement Friday.

"I am excited to announce that I have joined Shutts & Bowen's Miami office. Established over a century ago, Shutts & Bowen is a full-service business law firm with eight offices in the state of Florida. I look forward to providing clients with the same exceptional service they have come to expect while surrounded by a highly qualified team of lawyers," she said.

"I am thrilled to begin this new chapter."

That's likely very true.

Read related: Miami commissioners give city manager a pass, but city attorney gets the boot

Mendez was removed as city attorney by the commission in January. It was the first real victory of newly elected commissioners Miguel Gabela Damian Pardo. Tricky Vicky was going to stay on through May — so she could be fully vested and get more in her retirement — but then she was demoted to a transitional, lame duck position and Deputy City Attorney George Wysong became the boss in April.

Her teary goodbye speech was full of overly-inflated accolades that any real municipal attorney wouldn't even put on their résume. Political Cortadito won't post a single word of it.

Mendez began at the city in 2004 as a deputy city attorney. In 2013, she took over for former City Attorney Julie Bru in a selection that was described as too political from Day 1. Then she basically helped City Commissioner Joe Carollo turn the city attorney's office into his own private law firm.

In July, Mendez was named "Attorney of the Year" for her hard municipal work.

FMAA Executive Secretary Rebecca O'Hara said in a statement to the Miami Herald that Mendez was basically being rewarded for serving since 2017 on the executive committee of the organization with more than 1,100 members.

"During her time on the Executive Committee, Ms. Mendez provided invaluable guidance to the organization in helping to develop the topics and speakers for our annual continuing legal education seminar, including this year's Seminar, which was held last week," O'Hara told the paper of record late last month. O'Hara, also deputy general counsel for the Florida League of Cities, said Méndez "routinely encourages other municipal attorneys to participate in the development of the profession through the FMAA," and has served over the years as a speaker and moderator for the association's seminars.

Well, whoop de doo. In reality, Mendez gave municipal attorneys a bad name.

Read related: Judge scolds, mutes Miami Attorney Victoria Mendez in virtual hearing

In 2020, she violation of the First Amendment when she silenced more than 360 people who had called and left voice mail messages about an agenda item: an amendment to beef up the noise ordinance. The city set up a phone number for remote public comments and got eight hours worth. Mendez told commissioners they didn't need to hear it because they were scripted and "pretty much exactly the same public comments" she said, adding that she had gotten an opinion from the attorney general that she never really got.

She created the "cheat sheet" — which she named herself — to try whatever the city could do (even cheat) to get the recall effort against Carollo, which collected more than the required signatures, invalidated by a court. Even before the recall began, she was getting ready to fight it with lies.

In February, a judge had to scold her for speaking continuously out of turn. It was embarrassing.

More to come as Ladra reports throughout the day. Please come back and get the rest of the story.