Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 1975 Certified Public Accountant in Florida and Puerto Rico (currently inactive); admitted in 1979 to bar in Illinois, and U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico; 1982 in the U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. Tax Court, U.S. District Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit; 1983 to bar in Florida and the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida ("general bar"); in 2010 designated as Florida Supreme Court Certified Circuit Mediator; in November 2014 listed in Certified Arbitrator by Tribunal General de Justicia for cases referred by the courts of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (November 2014); in 1995 designated arbitrator in American Arbitration Association; designated arbitrator in International Centre for Dispute Resolution (ICDR); designated arbitrator in  International Institute for Conflict Prevention & Resolution as Distinguished Neutral of Panels for Insurance policyholder coverage, Certified Public Accountants, Miami ADR, Real estate, Cross-Border, and Taxation; admitted in The Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, Chartered Arbitrator, Presidential Panel of Arbitrators, and Fellow Member; and designated arbitrator in Certified Arbitrator of ARIAS-US, Inc..

Education

GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY B.A., summa cum laude, 1974
YALE LAW SCHOOL J.D., 1978
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW L.L.M., in Taxation, 1979

Activities & Affiliations

Arbitrator, umpire and mediator.

 

Bar Admissions

Florida, Puerto Rico, Illinois Bar

Practice Areas

Taxation

Cross Border Transactions

Banking

Insurance (ranging from reinsurance, corporate, regulatory, licensing, agents, brokers, intermediary reinsurance manager, managing general agent, treaty drafting, portfolio acquisition, life, health, P&C, cancer, group policies, claim coverage, insurance exchange reconciliation, IBNR issues, allocation of reserves among different insurer participants, TPA, claim management practices, and others)

Debtor/Creditor Workout

Real Estate

Joint Ventures

Complex Litigation Strategy

Service Marks

Licensing of Intellectual Property

Commercial Divorce

Patent Development

Civil Rights and First Amendment (Compelled Membership)

Asset and Entity Acquisition

Distribution Agreements and Termination in US and Overseas

Breakups of Professional Practice and Valuation Issues

Regulatory Work to Form Armored Car Service Hub In and Out of US and Foreign Countries

FINCEN Licensing

Flagship Project for Local Exchange Carrier in One of The Largest Shopping Centers in the US

Joint Venture to Operate Public Telephones in Prisons

Telephone Manufacturing for Sale to Government Run Telephone Company

Professional Sports Disputes

HMO/Medicare Provider Contract with National Health Insurer

Noncompete

Aviation Sales and Tax Planning

Franchise Deceptive Practice

Tax Malpractice

PUBLICATIONS

Carlos A. Romero, Jr and David Ichel, "Comparing Policyholder Arbitrations to Reinsurance Arbitrations, ARIAS-US Quarterly Q2-2018; “How Did the Spanish Language Contribute To The Financial Demise of Puerto Rico?", Bloomberg BNA, Daily Tax Report: State (May 2017);  CBI Not Likely to Benefit from Section 936," TAX NOTES, February 10, 1986; speaker, "Section 936 - Its Repeal and Restructure of Tax Benefits for American Companies Operating in Puerto Rico," First Circuit Judicial Conference, 1985;  "Federal Inconsistencies in the Treatment of Taxation of Income Derived from Puerto Rico by Individuals", published in 1984 in La Revista Juridica de la Universidad de Puerto Rico; "CBI Not Likely to Benefit from Section 936", Tax Notes, February 10, 1986; "The Defenseless Commonwealth", three part editorial published in The San Juan Star; "Position Paper on Disadvantages of the Commonwealth Status From a Practical Viewpoint in the Business Environment", presented in June 1989 to United States Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

SPEECHES

"Export Trading Companies" (delivered in a workshop sponsored by the International Business Center of New England) dealt with the legal aspects of the Export Trading Company Act, as it related to private industry and banking (1983).  "Computer Awareness for CPA's" (delivered in a workshop sponsored by the Cuban-American CPA Association) dealt with various state, federal, and foreign tax issues relating to computer hardware and software (1984).  "The Success or Lack of Success of the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act" (delivered at the 1984 Florida Consular Corps Conference) dealing with the pitfalls of CBI (1984).  "Section 936 - Its Repeal and Restructure of Tax Benefits for American Companies Operating in Puerto Rico" (delivered at the First Circuit Judicial Conference) dealing with the repeal of section 936 of the Internal Revenue Code (1985).

United States Legislative Hearing. - "Position Paper on Disadvantages of the Commonwealth Status From a Practical Viewpoint in the Business Environment", delivered in 1990 before the hearing held by the Subcommittee on Insular and International Affairs of the US Congress.

Caribbean Exposure. - In 1982, as International Tax Manager of Coopers & Lybrand (a big eight accounting firm), participated with the Project Development Assistance Program funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development to attract investors and capital from around the world to selected islands in the Caribbean like Barbados, Antigua, Bermuda, St. Kitts, and others.  The principal aim of the program was to increase employment, exports, monetary reserves, and improve the middle level management capabilities.  The development of this program coincided with the enactment of the Caribbean Basin Initiative under President Reagan.

ARBITRATOR

Participating arbitrator, umpire, and mediator for many organizations, both administered and non-administered proceedings.  

PANELS AT CONVENTIONS

Participated in panel on arbitration at: ARIAS-US 2018 Fall Conference, “Expanding ARIAS-US to Policyholder and Direct Insurer Disputes: Delivering the Best Arbitrators and Mediators for ALL Insurance Disputes”; ARIAS-US 2018 Spring Conference, Subject matter was arbitrations in Central and South America.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Since our office opened its doors in October of 1986, we have undertaken many challenging engagements and provided our clients with top quality service.  In light of the well varied scope of our work, we take this opportunity to share with you some of our accomplishments.  We strongly believe that these accomplishments have been a product of our commitment to timeliness, quality, and performance.

1. Expeditious resolution of administrative complaint before an administrative agency. -  In January of 1994, a competitor filed an administrative complaint with a government agency in Puerto Rico.  The complaint alleged numerous violations of multiple statutory provisions.  By the end of February of 1994, Post & Romero successfully persuaded the government agency to dismiss with prejudice the complaint.  The complainant filed a motion for reconsideration and alleged additional violations.  Post & Romero filed on March 11, 1994, which is a Friday, an opposition to the motion for reconsideration.  On the following Monday, the agency issued the order denying the motion for reconsideration with prejudice.  By mid March of 1994, the only option available to the complainant was to seek judicial review.  The complainant sought judicial review in April of 1994.  

The results achieved at the administrative level were beyond expectation for two reasons.  First, the complainant was a nonprofit association whose members comprised competitors of our client.  Second, the client had already been the target of multiple adverse newspaper articles and was under an agency inspection.  Yet, even though the client had been singled out and was subject to adverse press coverage, Post & Romero were successful in dismissing the administrative complaint with prejudice (subject to judicial review) in less than 60 days after appearing on behalf of the client.

2. Arbitration. – A client purchased a business with assets with a book value of about $6.0 million and liabilities of about $3.1 million, representing a net book value of about $2.9 million.  Post-closing, the client learned that the sellers overstated assets and understated liabilities by at least $2.9 million.  The arbitrator, after a one-week trial held within eleven months of filing the petition, awarded the client $2.9 million in damages plus certain inventory (that to date have generated over $150,000 in sales proceeds).  Second, the personal guaranties of the clients were discharged.  Third, the arbitrator determined that the client prevailed and is entitled to an award of attorney fees.

3. Investment recovery. – A client opened an investment account with a large European bank.  The investment agreement specified that investments would be made only at the express written authorization of the client.  The bank investment representative, without client authorization, invested six digit figures in certificates of deposit with a foreign bank.  Within five days after the investment was made, the banking authorities intervened the foreign bank.  For more than one year, the investor tried unsuccessfully, through another attorney, to recover the lost investment.  After engaging our firm, we initiated with bank counsel settlement negotiations to avoid arbitration.  Within two months thereafter, the bank agreed to pay 100% of the principal amount of the lost investment, interest that would have been earned on the certificates, interest from maturity of the certificates to date of payment of settlement, and attorney fees.  

4. Development of new insurance product. - An insurance company requested that we spearhead the development of a first party indemnity property and casualty insurance policy without a duty to defend the policyholder.  In essence, the policy insures the net worth of the policyholder.  It appears that this policy is the first of its kind in the nation.  As a result of the novelty of the product, it was necessary to develop special guidelines to educate the insurance agents as well as the policyholder.

5. Arbitration. - A client requested that we design an arbitration clause of an insurance policy to overcome arguments that public policy would render unenforceable an arbitration clause specifying the location of arbitration.  Not only was a clause drafted to overcome enforceability, but an innovative venue clause was introduced that would enable arbitration to take place in one of 15 different cities around the country.

6. Letters of credit. - In a litigation involving millions, the beneficiary of letter of credit notified the bank that the beneficiary would draw on the letter of credit.  The draw down on the letter of credit was for improper purposes.  Notice objecting to the draw was sent two weeks before Christmas.  Attorneys specializing in banking law advised the client (that posted the letter of credit) that nothing could be done to stop the draw down.  The client requested us to find a way.  We developed the theory and facts that formed the basis upon which the client successfully obtained a preliminary injunction prohibiting the draw down two days before Christmas.  In the history of this nation, there are but a handful of cases granting such injunctive relief.

7. Workouts. - A corporate client was insolvent, and the deficiency involved millions.  Two top bankruptcy attorneys recommended that the client file bankruptcy.  The shareholders refused to do so in order to preserve their reputation in the industry.  With the full support of the principal owners, the client was dissolved and all claims settled without an assignment for the benefit of creditors or bankruptcy.  Not one claim against the company went to trial.  All matters were settled or dismissed prior to trial, and in most instances prior to filing an answer to any filed complaint.

8. Securities violations. - A national securities brokerage firm had been violating for years the blue sky laws of Puerto Rico in which it was not registered.  A New York firm engaged our services to coordinate negotiations with the local regulatory agency.  The New York firm handled the securities research and preparation of documents, and we handled the negotiations.  After much effort, our office prepared a consent decree by which the firm was allowed to register in the jurisdiction.  The brokers were allowed to register.  The Commissioner did not require restitution of losses on customer accounts.  Finally, the fine was less than $6,000, which included the registration fee.

9. Utility dispute. - A corporate client sold in Puerto Rico a commercial rental building.  Two months later, the state owned utility company issued a retroactive adjustment on the bill for a ten year period.  The proposed adjustment in the low mid-six digit figures constituted about 15 percent of the sales price of the property.  Without litigation or an administrative hearing, we settled the dispute.  The present value of the structured settlement payments represented about ten percent of the total adjustment.

10. Legislative lobbying. -  A government agency in Puerto Rico proposed to submit legislation that would adversely affect the operations of a client.  Our office was engaged to prepare a position paper to oppose the bill.  A well documented paper was prepared and submitted.  Within 48 hours, the government agency contacted the client to inform it that the agency agreed with the position paper and abandoned the bill.

11. Supervision of complex litigation. - Our firm has been selected on various occasions to supervise and spearhead complex litigation.  Too often, litigators lack adequate time to develop the facts and the legal theories in the early stage of the case.  We have found that by doing so in early stages, we are able to enhance the chances of reaching a favorable settlement in the beginning.  We recently spearheaded an effort that resulted in a settlement of the opposing party’s claim of less than five cents on the dollar.  The settlement was reached within three months of our client filing a preemptive lawsuit.

12. Search warrants. - In a recent search warrant, a client requested that we obtain from the FBI the return of personal property items belonging to the house maid.  The return of these items was accomplished without resorting to litigation.

13. Rulings. – Over the years, we have sought and obtained favorable government agency rulings or interpretation letters from the Florida Department of State, Florida Department of Revenue, Puerto Rico Department of Health, Puerto Rico Department of Insurance, and others.

14. Telecommunications. – On behalf of a telecommunication provider, we negotiated a unique contract to install a complete communication system within one of the largest shopping centers of the United States to provide to all tenants a menu of services ranging from local calls, long distance calls, T-1 lines, to ISP services.  The provider would maintain, repair, and operate the entire system running 24/7.  The landlord compensation would be a percentage of the revenues generated from the tenants.

15. Reinsurance – We have handled an array of issues and transactions involving reinsurance: negotiated reinsurance agreements, handled claims of recovery against the reinsured and also on behalf of the reinsurer (or its reinsurance intermediary), arbitration on behalf of the reinsured, arbitrator in complex and multimillion dollar disputes, and litigation.  We have handled disputes in Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Colombia, and others.