Commercial, Corporate and Securites; Franchising; Partnerships
The firm provides legal services to a broad range of domestic and foreign corporations and other related entities, both public and private. Lawyers in the firm provide representation in the following areas:
- Day-to-day general corporate counseling of a variety of manufacturing, distribution, retail and service businesses with annual sales ranging from $500,000 to over $400 million.
- Corporate formation, including preparation of entity agreements, employment contracts and day-to-day general corporate counseling.
- Asset and stock purchase and sales, stock option agreements and reorganizations.
- Private placements of equity securities and debt securities, and public offerings and regulatory transactions (with the assistance of securities co-counsel).
- Antitrust and related unfair and deceptive acts and predatory practices under federal and state laws.
- Partnership and limited liability structuring, together with partnership and operating agreements.
- Franchising Law.
- Health care transactional matters.
- General Counsel services to several nationally active public companies.
The firm has particular expertise in franchising matters, and represents numerous franchisors and franchisees on a local, state and national basis. Ronald R. Fieldstone and Paul A. Lester have both been members of the American Bar Association (" ABA") Forum Committee on Franchising. Mr. Fieldstone has been a frequent lecturer on the subject of franchising and has served on the Franchise Law Committee of the Florida Bar. He was also a Blockbuster Video franchisee for approximately 8 years and was also a principal of Barnie’s Coffee and Tea, which company franchises retail coffee stores on an international basis. Mr. Lester previously served as an attorney with the Federal Trade Commission in Washington, D.C., and was directly involved in the drafting of national franchising regulations. Mr. Lester also previously served as an editor of the ABA Franchise Law Journal.
