We provide a broad range of real estate-related services. I began representing real estate developers and builders in 1983, and over the years have broadened my real estate practice to include just about every conceivable aspect of that area of the law. We regularly draft and negotiate both residential and commercial real estate sales contracts and leases, including joint ventures. We regularly represent either party in disputes between contractors or builders and property owners, homeowners and condominium associations, realtors and real estate brokerages, and property owners who have title or boundary line issues. I serve as a special master in the Georgia Superior Courts, in quiet title actions and tax sale matters. We represent residential and commercial landlords in disputes with their tenants, and tenants in disputes with their landlords. We represent private lenders, in foreclosure and eviction matters.

We regularly craft a wide variety of contracts for our clients, including business and real estate partnership agreements, operating agreements, real estate purchase and sale agreements, leases, business purchase and sale agreements, prenuptial agreements, dispute settlement agreements, and many more. Yes, you can sometimes buy standardized forms online, but we tailor our contracts for your particular situation and transaction, not based upon "one size fits all." Whatever type of business you own, and whatever type of you transactions you need, you should make sure that you are using contracts and contract forms that best suit your particular needs. Before signing any contract, consult with a competent attorney before doing so. We have broad experience with just about every type of transaction.

We provide business organizational services, including helping clients set up and operate limited liability companies, corporations, partnerships, and joint venture agreements. I pride myself on still representing some of the same business clients I originally began representing in 1983. If you have employees, you should use written employment contracts. If you are taking a new job and have been asked to sign an employment contract, you should consult with qualified business counsel before doing so. Having trouble getting paid by your clients? Hire us to help collect what you are owed. Need to expand your business and bring in more investors? Call us to help put together an appropriate shareholders agreement or operating agreement to accommodate the new owners. You've been asked to loan some money to a friend, family, or a business colleague to capitalize his or her business? Get the deal in writing while the relationship between you is at its best. Get security for repayment of what you are owed.

If you die without a Will or Trust in the State of Georgia, your assets pass automatically to your closest living relatives. That may be what you want. It might not. If your heirs and beneficiaries are under-aged or simply do not know how to manage the assets which you leave them, you can provide guidance, or limitations, in trusts and creative Will provisions. In addition to Wills and Trusts, you need to consider execution of Advance Healthcare Directives, to provide guidance to your family and physicians about medical decisions to be made if you can no longer make them for yourself. If a loved one has died, probate or estate administration may be necessary. You may be able to avoid probate or estate administration altogether, by executing "living" trusts, or by simply transferring property into "survivorship" names. Consider executing a General Power of Attorney to allow someone to manage your finances when you are unable to do so. We can help you and your family navigate your way through these often complicated situations.

We do not do traditional divorce, child support, child custody, or adoption work, per se. But, we share offices and work collaboratively with a domestic relations firm and can certainly refer you to other qualified legal experts in those areas. That said, we regularly draft prenuptial agreements for our clients. We have decades of experience in drafting domestic partnership forms of agreement for legally unmarried couples. We do guardianships, conservatorships, and can consult with you about your family's estate and succession planning and special needs.

I started practice in 1983 as a commercial trial lawyer. I now consider myself to be a recovering litigator and frankly try to keep my clients out of court, unless absolutely necessary. It is my personal belief that, especially in the area of real estate and in most business litigation, the principal winners are the lawyers and expert witnesses who get paid big fees to help resolve disputes which the parties should have been able to resolve on their own, with proper help and guidance from qualified professionals. If there are viable alternatives to litigation, such as mediation or arbitration, I urge my clients to explore them. I am also a trained civil mediator. However, if litigation is unavoidable, I am a zealous advocate for my clients. I fight, and I fight to win.