LawyerASAP,

formerly the K.E.L. law firm, lays off more than 50 employees.

A troubled Orlando law firm has laid off more than 50 employees and shut down a network of offices in Florida.

At least two attorneys at LawyerASAP, formerly K.E.L. Attorneys, are also facing open investigations by the Florida Bar for failing to communicate with clients about their cases, according to a spokeswoman for the Bar.

The firm changed its name in February to LawyerASAP, and two of K.E.L.’s founding partners split off from the new firm’s managing partner, Matt Englett.

Englett has only seven attorneys working for him now, and 53 employees, he said. In April, he’d said that he had 160 employees. He said he’s focusing on debt-harassment cases now.

“The financial cases have dropped considerably. I also stopped doing other types of cases that I had done in the past. I want to focus more on contingency-fee cases. They are less headaches,” Englett said in an email.

He is one of the attorneys facing investigation, according to the Bar.

He and the other two founders of the K.E.L. firm, Craig Lynd and Jeffrey Kaufman, were all disciplined previously by the Bar, twice.

The latter pair’s new firm, called Kaufman and Lynd, is promoted as a personal-injury firm.

The three men acknowledged last year that they violated the state’s attorney regulations regarding regular communication with clients, and also allowed non-attorney staff to share in legal fees.

In 2010, all three received admonishments for violating advertising rules.

The LawyerASAP layoffs this year were scattered and over a period of several months, so they didn’t trip the requirement that he notify the state of mass layoffs, Englett said.

“It has been a progression which started at the end of last year. Our case count is a fraction of what it was,” he said.

K.E.L. was best known for taking on hundreds of foreclosure-defense cases during the recession, and it got into trouble with the Florida Bar over failing to communicate with its clients at that time.

Raymond J. Shaffer Jr., of Daytona Beach, said he complained to the Bar after paying LawyerASAP a $1,500 deposit, in an effort to get a lien removed from his property.

“It was three months of back and forth, from one paralegal to another,” he said. “Then they said there was nothing they could do for me.

Englett said he believes he and the firm have satisfied all clients that have expressed any dissatisfaction.

“If there is any client I am not aware of, that may have an issue, I want to know so I can reach out to the client and resolve the matter,” he said.

After the breakup with his former partners, Englett said he kept most of the firm’s portfolio of clients, and its new name, LawyerASAP.

The firm’s remaining branch offices are in Tampa and West Palm Beach, Englett said. Each has one attorney and one paralegal.

Englett has also used the name Englett & Associates since dropping the K.E.L. name.