Alexanders’ attorney out, replaced by experienced rape-defense lawyer

Prominent South Florida attorney Jim Ferraro withdrew as counsel representing top real estate broker Oren Alexander and his twin brother Alon in two lawsuits alleging the brothers raped and sexually assaulted women. 

Ferraro confirmed to The Real Deal that he was pulling out of the cases, but declined to comment further. Criminal defense attorney Isabelle Kirshner of Clayman Rosenberg Kirshner & Linder is the Alexanders’ new lawyer of record, court filings show. 

The consent to change attorneys for both cases was submitted on Monday. 

Rebecca Mandel and Kate Whiteman filed separate lawsuits against the Alexanders in March alleging attacks in 2010 and 2012. They filed the complaints in New York under the Adult Survivors Act, which temporarily eliminated the statute of limitations for civil sexual assault claims.

Ferraro has known the Alexanders for more than a decade. In Oren’s first deal, in New York City in 2009, he was the attorney’s real estate agent. The two are also friends, and can be seen in a photo partying together.

“With Jim, I jetted with him to Miami for a weekend. I jetted with him to Martha’s Vineyard for a weekend. I jetted with him to Aspen—that’s when the deal was put together,” Alexander told the Observer in 2009. 

Ferraro, of the Coral Gables, Florida-based Ferraro Law Firm, has focused on asbestos and mass tort litigation. His firm primarily focuses on personal injury, product liability, environmental toxic torts and wrongful death, according to his bio.

The twin brothers’ new lawyer, Kirshner, is known in part for helping a former New York City gynecologist accused of sex abuse negotiate a plea deal that kept him out of prison.

Oren Alexander and his brother Tal, who is not named in the complaints, rose to prominence during a decade-long tenure at Douglas Elliman, the New York-based brokerage firm led by Howard Lorber.

Oren and Tal co-founded Official, a brokerage firm backed by the white label firm Side, which is led by Guy Gal. The brothers partnered with former Elliman employees Nicole Oge, her partner Richard Jordan and Andrew Wachtfogel to launch Official. 

After TRD reported on the rape allegations more than a week ago, Oren announced he was stepping back from Official. 

In an attempt to distance Official from the allegations against Oren, Oge announced on Friday that she and her partners were severing ties with Oren, that he was “immediately isolated from the business” and that they were in the process of removing him from ownership. The firm did not respond to additional questions about what that process entails.

Oge, Jordan and Wachtfogel have not responded to requests for comment over the past week.

In the days after TRD’s reporting on the lawsuits, scores of additional alleged victims have come forward with similar claims, according to Evan Torgan, the attorney who filed the first suits.  Last week he said he and his partners had engaged with at least 28 more alleged victims.

Sheridan Wall contributed reporting.