Jorge Mestre

Career

Jorge A. Mestre practices exclusively in commercial litigation and is Board Certified in International Litigation and Arbitration by the Florida Bar. A Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (FCIArb), he is one of six Band One lawyers in Chambers USA—Florida Litigation, praised for his “strategic sense and creative thinking” he’s been called “a brilliant litigator with the creative edge” who “sees a tactical advantage in what seems like an intractable problem.”

Mestre has handled many high-stakes matters, including representing Mario Echevarria, an heir of a Cuban family that owned Cayo Coco, against Expedia Group, Inc., under the Helms-Burton Act. After six years of litigation, a federal jury in the Southern District of Florida awarded $29.8 million in damages (including treble damages) against each of four Expedia defendants, totaling $119 million—the first-ever jury trial victory under the Act. This marked a major win for plaintiffs seeking recovery from entities trafficking in property confiscated by the Castro regime.

In another high-profile case, Mestre represented Dr. Craig Wright in a lawsuit alleging David Kleiman partnered with Dr. Wright to invent and mine Bitcoin, seeking $600 billion in damages. After four years of litigation, four weeks of trial, and seven days of jury deliberations, the jury returned a verdict in Dr. Wright’s favor, finding no business partnership and awarding none of the Satoshi Nakamoto fortune.

Mestre also successfully represented a Chevron attorney in the $100 billion, 18-year litigation over alleged environmental damage in the Amazon. As part of the defense, U.S. discovery proceedings led to the Second Circuit ordering production of over 600 hours of outtakes from “Crude”—the most ever ordered in U.S. history. The Wall Street Journal called the case the “Legal Fraud of the Century,” and Rivero Mestre was honored by American Lawyer with a Global Legal Award for Global Dispute of the Year: U.S. Fraud Litigation.

Mestre has tried cases in U.S. federal and Florida state courts, handled appeals before numerous courts, and litigated domestic and international arbitration matters in English and Spanish.

Florida Governor Rick Scott appointed him to the Judicial Nominating Commission for the Eleventh Circuit, Miami-Dade County. Florida judges have appointed him as a Receiver. He was also appointed by the New York City Bar Association to represent the 74th session of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law Working Group II on dispute settlement.