Our Team
D. Robert Black, Esq.
President
Mr. Black’s former client assignments and interesting cases include;
Serving as a director of the American University of the Caribbean (“AUC”), an allopathic medical school located in St. Maarten, Netherlands Antilles. He subsequently resigned from the AUC board to assume a greater role in the management of a number of legal and development projects involving the School and its principals. The American University of the Caribbean was recognized by the Accreditation Commission of Colleges of Medicine, an accrediting agency determined by the United States Secretary of Education to have accrediting standards for medical education comparable to those of the United States. DeVry Education Group (DV-NYSE) purchased AUC in 2011.
Assisting lead counsel and trial team for the American University of the Caribbean Companies through protracted litigation in courts around the world that resulted the defeat of all opposing claims; a recovery of $100 million; an award of $3.4 million in attorneys’ fees as sanctions for fraud on the court against the prime opposing party; and a treble damage recovery against the opposing parties for sums taken. Legal issues turned on the laws of Florida, Delaware, the U.S., the Cayman Islands, Montserrat, the Turks & Caicos Islands, Nevis, St. Maarten, and Taiwan. See, e.g.: Wachovia Bank, etc., 534 F. Supp.2d 1267 (S.D. Fla. 2007).
Significant involvement, since inception in 2006, with a successful effort to establish one of the newer osteopathic medical colleges in the United States, Rocky Vista University College of Osteopathic Medicine, in Parker Colorado. Upon the admission of the first class of 150 students in 2008, Rocky Vista University College of Osteopathic Medicine was believed to be the only for-profit medical school established in the United States in the last century. The Rocky Vista University College of Osteopathic Medicine received full accreditation from the Commission on Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine (“COCA”), an affiliate of the American Osteopathic Association (“AOA”), in 2012. Licensed osteopathic physicians enjoy full medical practice rights in all 50 states, and Rocky Vista University (“RVU”) graduated the inaugural class in Spring 2012. Mr. Black was instrumental in liaising with the AOA during the application and early development phases of the RVU project. His contributions included the development of the requisite financial plans, staff recruitment and governmental and regulatory relations which allowed RVU to meet the standards for pre-accreditation, provisional accreditation, and degree-granting authority established by COCA and the State of Colorado. Mr. Black continued to advise ownership on a number of financial and legal matters, and significantly contributed to the establishment of a branch campus for RVU in Ivins, Utah, including the sourcing of non-recourse bank financing in a challenging lending environment. Bob formerly served as both a member of the Board of Trustees of RVU and Interim President, and provided assistance with the eventual sale of RVU to a consortium of U.S. and internationally-based private equity funds in 2019.
A successful recovery of a substantial sum involving a general unsecured five million dollar claim against IREP-Montgomery MRF, LLC (the “Debtor”, and where the claim was represented by defaulted bonds issued in 2014 by the Debtor) on behalf of a Florida trust that retained a team of Florida and Alabama counsel as legal representatives, and where the Debtor filed a Chapter 11 Petition in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Alabama. A Buyer filed a secured claim in the Bankruptcy Case, claiming approximately $30 million against the Debtor. The Buyer entered into an Asset Purchase Agreement with the Debtor, pursuant to which the parties thereto agreed to seek Court approval under 11 U.S.C. § 363(f) of a sale of the Debtor’s assets. Thereafter, the Trust commenced an Adversary Proceeding against Buyer (Case No. 17-03038), asserting various claims and objections to positions taken in the Bankruptcy Case and seeking inter alia equitable subordination of the Buyer’s claims to the claims of the Trust.