la firma - Rasco Klock Reininger Perez Esquenazi Vigil & Nieto International and Public Law Firm

Joseph P. Klock, Jr.,is a named Partner in the Firm. He is also the former managing partner at Steel Hector & Davis. Mr. Klock represents individuals and family groups who control large publicly held business enterprises with family control, entrepreneurship, and family investment issues. He has extensive experience working on financial, trust and family wealth and interpersonal planning matters, as well as interfamily disputes and enterprise structuring. His practice includes representation of foundations and other NGOs, formal and informal matters involving government and regulatory issues, defense of professional licenses, election law and constitutional/civil rights issues. He also handles corporate sales, combinations and mergers, and litigates civil, criminal, appellate and administrative cases in federal, state and foreign courts.

Mr. Klock is widely known for successfully representing then-Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris in the 2000 presidential election challenges and leading the teams that defended Florida elections laws during 2001-2003 in state and federal courts. He headed a team of 27 lawyers in the representation of a major health insurer in a $2 billion-plus False Claims Act litigation regarding alleged Medicare overpayments, resulting in a favorable settlement for the client.

Mr. Klock is deeply committed to pro bono practice and has successfully handled more than 80 cases in state and federal courts for indigent clients involving criminal and dependency law, landlord/tenant rights discrimination issues, as well as administrative actions in Florida courts for individuals and nonprofit institutions. He is extensively involved in dealing with the issues of drug abuse and the response of the judicial system to the challenge of cure and recidivism on the adult and juvenile level. In addition, Mr. Klock has served and is currently serving as guardian ad litem for a number of orphans and children in state dependency custody.

Mr. Klock serves on the board of trustees of Barry University, Belen Jesuit Preparatory School and the Miami Art Museum, and has served on the boards of trustees of Carrolton School of the Sacred Heart (chair 1987-91; 1994-98) and St. Joseph's Preparatory School in Philadelphia. He is the secretary and a board member of New Hope Charities, Inc., which sponsors schools and various support and medical programs for the indigent in the western part of West Palm Beach County, Florida, as well as Fundacion Mir in La Romana, Dominican Republic, which runs trade schools, AIDS clinics and an orphanage for the underprivileged in La Romana. Mr. Klock serves as board chairman at the Bay Point Schools, a boarding school for young men with behavioral and delinquency problems, where he also teaches on an informal basis. He also serves as a board member of a nonprofit corporation that supports the work of the Miami-Dade Drug Court and on an advisory board to the County's Juvenile Justice Center.

Mr. Klock has been honored with the University of Miami Center for Ethics and Public Service Lawyers in Leadership Award and served as president of the University of Miami Law Alumni Association, where he was later honored with the Outstanding Alumnus of the Year Award.  He also served as an adjunct professor of law at the University of Miami teaching civil procedure, federal jurisdiction and real property for 10 years following his graduation from the school.  Mr. Klock earned his law degree from the University of Miami and his Bachelor of Arts from La Salle University. He is a member of the District of Columbia, Florida and Pennsylvania Bar Associations.

Phone: 305-476-7111
Fax: 305-476-7102
E-mail: jklock@rascoklock.com