Susan Healy, a founding partner of Vernon Healy, represents individuals and businesses in cases involving financial disputes. She concentrates her practice on securities/investment litigation and arbitration and on business litigation with particular emphasis on representing investors who have suffered losses in business ventures, securities transactions and real estate deals.
Some of Ms. Healy’s recent noteworthy cases include:
- Arbitration claims relating to the marketing, recommendation and sale of Lehman Brothers “principal protected” structured notes to UBS customers who lost virtually their entire investment when Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy. To date, Vernon Healy has represented Lehman note investors with a total of more than $13 million worth of claims against UBS. Additionally, Ms. Healy has counseled Lehman note investors pursuing claims in Swiss and German courts.
- Representation of The Roman Catholic Church of the Archdiocese of New Orleans in federal court proceedings relating to the receivership of investment funds.
- Pre-filing demand to protect the interests of minority investors. Results were achieved without the need to file a formal complaint.
- Civil court case alleging fraud and mismanagement of land trusts. Ms. Healy brought claims on behalf of the land trust beneficiaries and the successor trustee against the former trustee.
- Pre-filing demand to protect a small business owner from theft of trade secrets by a competitor. No formal complaint was required to be filed.
- Litigation pursuant to Florida’s Complex Case Rule involving investors victimized by the operator of a Jackson Hewitt franchise. Ms. Healy’s clients included a young baseball player recruited out of high school by a major league team, who lost his signing bonus in this scam.
- Representation of small business owners who were victims of investment programs and employee benefit programs that turned out to be unlawful tax shelters, leaving them with not only the loss of their investments, but also IRS audits, bills for unpaid taxes and penalties.
- Ms. Healy was honored as 2011 Woman Lawyer of the Year by the Collier County Women’s Bar Association. She has been repeatedly recognized by her peers as one of The Best Lawyers in America in the area of securities law and has been named as one of è Bella magazine’s Women to Watch.
In 2011-12, Ms. Healy served as President of the Florida Association for Women Lawyers (FAWL). FAWL is a statewide organization comprised of 29 local chapters. Current FAWL members include representatives from Florida’s judicial, legal and political communities, including members of the Florida Supreme Court and the Florida Senate and House of Representatives. As President, Ms. Healy served as the FAWL representative on the Florida Bar Board of Governors. She remains an active FAWL Past-President.
She currently serves as a member of the Florida Bar’s Special Committee on Diversity and Inclusion, speaks to Florida voters as part of The Florida Bar’s voter education initiative The Vote’s In Your Court and was appointed to the Advisory Committee for the 2012 Tobias Simon Pro Bono Awards by the Chief Justice of the Florida Supreme Court.
In addition to her involvement in professional legal organizations, Ms. Healy is active in charitable activities and the community, sitting on the finance committee for the Collier County Education Foundation. In 2012, she completed her service on the City of Bonita Springs Zoning Board.
Bar Admissions include: State of Florida Bar (1984), U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida (1986) U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida (2002), Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals (1986) United States Supreme Court (1987). Ms. Healy is also a member of the Public Investors Arbitration Bar Association.
Contact Susan Healy
or by phone at (239) 649-5390
