Not following her mentor this time

Former Epstein Becker & Green associate Rashida Ivy could have followed litigator Joseph Klock Jr. a second time as he switched firms.

After all, she joined Klock when he left Squire Sanders & Dempsey for Epstein Becker & Green in 2007. Klock headed Steel Hector & Davis as managing partner before it merged with Squire in 2005.

Klock announced in January that Ivy would be going with him to Coral Gables-based Rasco Klock Reininger Perez Esquenazi Vigil & Nieto along with another Epstein Becker associate and a former Berger Singerman shareholder.

Instead Ivy, a black woman associate with 10 years of criminal and civil litigation experience, swerved last month and joined Zumpano Patricios & Winker, the diversity-rich Coral Gables-based firm.

Ivy said she joined Zumpano because of the opportunity to make partner and the flexibility to have time for her children.

"I have two kids. That’s always a concern for me," she said. "They don’t do the mommy track. At a lot of firms, they’ll work with you but you’ll never make partner."

Klock met Ivy when representing a pro bono client against her in a criminal matter when she was with the Miami-Dade state attorney’s office. He described her as an aggressive litigator who was bold enough to have armed officers serve papers on one of his clients at his law office.

Klock said he was so taken aback — not to mention impressed — that he began recruiting her. Ivy said she wasn’t interested at first in going to a law firm environment, but after several months she made the leap in 2004.

"She was kicking me around big time," Klock said. "Naturally she wasn’t successful. She came close to it. Close enough that we had to hire her."

Ivy didn’t move with Klock this time but said she has a positive relationship with him and considers him a valuable mentor.

"Just because we’re not in the same place doesn’t mean we’re not friends," she said. "That’s a good fit for him. This is a good fit for me."