Legal News

Ben Kuehne Wants to Party With You (Yes, You)!

By Ashby Jones

It seems that Ben Kuehne still hasn’t come down from the jolt of good news he got just before Thanksgiving. That’s when the Miami lawyer got word that federal prosecutors were dropping their charges.

Early last year, Kuehne was hit with money-laundering charges stemming from his decision to sign off on the decision of Roy Black, an even more prominent Miami lawyer, to accept legal fees from the family of Colombian drug kingpin Fabio Ochoa. Kuehne had determined the money was clean after the family had sold off assets to pay Black.

But about a month after the 11th Circuit upheld the dismissal of a key part of the government’s case, the government dismissed its claims, prompting a thankful Kuehne to cast far and wide his words of gratitude. Said Kuehne: “This decision is a complete vindication of everything I have fought for in my 30 years of practicing the law.”

We got word earlier Monday that Kuehne is still riding high. In fact, he’s throwing a party. A potentially big party. He sent us this invitation earlier today, asking us to post it.

We weren’t entirely sure we were clear on Kuehne’s meaning. Did he intend for us to post the invitation as a sort of announcement to the fact he was throwing a party? Or did he really mean for us to invite anyone who might happen to read the invitation. We sent him a note, asking:

[D]o you mean to extend the invite far and wide or simply to announce that the event is happening?

To which he promptly replied:

Far and Wide. I owe the community my deepest gratitude, and hope to have a respectable turnout.

There you have it, LBers. Anyone who happens to be in Miami on Thursday evening and wants to raise a post to bow-tied Ben, well, tell him we sent you. Have fun!

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on December 07, 2009 (boomark / email).