EXPECT FOCUS - Key Persons
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- Director of Administration
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- Shareholder / West Palm Beach
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- Shareholder / West Palm Beach
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- Shareholder / West Palm Beach
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- Shareholder / West Palm Beach
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- Shareholder
- Shareholder / Miami
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- Associate / West Palm Beach
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- Shareholder / Washington, D.C.
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- Director of Marketing & Business Development / Tampa
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- Shareholder / West Palm Beach
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- Director of Administration
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- Shareholder / Los Angeles
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- Director of Human Resources / Tampa
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- of Counsel / Washington, D.C.
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- Shareholder / Los Angeles
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- Director of Administration
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- Executive Director - Financial Services Consulting / New York
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- Director of Legal Project and Practice Management / Hartford
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- Director of Administration
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- Shareholder / Los Angeles
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- Chief Financial Officer / Orlando
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- Carlton Fields Attorney
- Shareholder / Tampa
Matt Allen has particular emphasis in class action and antitrust litigation, having litigated dozens of class actions last year alone. More broadly, his area of practice is complex litigation, including antitrust law, deceptive trade practice law, insurance litigation, employment law (including collective actions), appellate law, and general business disputes.
Matt is board certified in Antitrust and Trade Regulation Law by The Florida Bar. He is the chair of the firm's National Class Actions Practice.
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- Shareholder / Washington, D.C.
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- Shareholder
- Shareholder / Orlando
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- Certified Planner / Government Consultant / Tallahassee
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- Shareholder / West Palm Beach
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- Senior Counsel / Washington, D.C.
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- Chief Information Officer / Tampa
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- Director of Administration
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- Shareholder / West Palm Beach
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- of Counsel / Washington, D.C.
- Real Estate Finance Attorney
Dewey Nguyen is a real estate finance attorney whose practice focuses primarily on multifamily commercial financing. He represents publicly traded and privately held lenders nationwide in the origination, sale, and servicing of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac multifamily program loans. Dewey counsels clients on numerous transactional and regulatory issues, including delegations, agency guideline interpretations, land use restrictive covenant agreements, and complex ownership structures.
Dewey also has experience handling general commercial real estate matters, including the acquisition, disposition, leasing, development, and financing of real estate assets.
Prior to entering private practice, he clerked for the chief justice of the South Carolina Supreme Court.
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- Shareholder / Los Angeles
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- Shareholder / Washington, D.C.
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- Staff Attorney / Washington, D.C.
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- Senior Government Consultant / Tallahassee
Florida Super Lawyers Ranks 92 Carlton Fields Attorneys as 2017 "Super Lawyers" and "Rising Stars"
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- Shareholder
- Real Estate Finance Specialist
- Shareholder / Hartford
Frank Appicelli concentrates his practice in the areas of commercial finance, real estate, and investments, and regularly represents lenders, investors, owners, sponsors, developers, and operating companies.
Frank advises insurance companies, investment funds, and commercial banks in commercial real estate financings involving acquisition, bridge, construction, permanent, mezzanine and subordinate loans, and commercial credit and asset-based financings involving revolving credit and term loans, letters of credit, and liquidity and other credit enhancement facilities.
Frank also represents developers, investors, owners and operators in real estate transactions, including acquisitions, dispositions, project development, joint ventures, and management agreements. The properties involved in these transactions include retail, multifamily, office, industrial, warehouse, assisted living, senior housing, medical, hotels and hospitality facilities.
Frank also counsels clients in distressed real estate transactions involving workouts, forbearances, restructurings, deeds-in-lieu of foreclosure, discounted payoffs, distressed debt sales, foreclosures and bankruptcies. He is involved with properties throughout the United States in single-asset real property and multi-asset portfolios.
Frank is identified as a "Band 1" real estate lawyer by Chambers USA, a compilation of America's leading business lawyers, and was named the Best Lawyers 2021 Real Estate "Lawyer of the Year" in Hartford. Frank serves as an officer and member of the board of directors of the Real Estate Finance Association of Connecticut (REFA). He chairs the firm's Real Estate and Commercial Finance Practice.
The "smart and effective" Frank Appicelli is a real estate finance specialist. He advises insurers, commercial banks and other entities on matters including mortgage and construction loans and leases. Appicelli also counsels parties in commercial and retail property transactions.
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- Chief Operating Officer / Miami
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- Shareholder / West Palm Beach
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- Director of Security & Business Continuity / Tampa
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- CEO
- President
- President and Chief Executive Officer / Tampa
Carlton Fields offers its clients, its professionals, and all of its employees a preferred alternative to the experience they might have with any other law firm in important ways. We do not seek to emulate other firms; we strive to outperform them. We do not like to talk about innovation.
An independent consulting firm, AdvanceLaw, working with numerous general counsel of major companies, recently completed and published the results of trailblazing studies that warrant our full attention. These studies concluded that law firms that are based outside major money centers perform as well as or better than the top firms in New York across a range of legal engagements, outranking the most prestigious and expensive firms by being more solutions-focused, client-service oriented, efficient and effective, and by offering superior value. Clients that default to the best-branded and most expensive firms may be basing their decisions on reputations those firms earned 15 or 20 years ago rather than today.
The authors and participating GCs attributed these findings to the following factors. Top partners at the most profitable firms now provide less personal attention to client matters, deploying teams of less experienced associates instead to do much of the work, and driving sky-high profits from this leverage to the top. The most profitable firms place far less importance and priority on clients or engagements that firms outside the money centers highly prize; and superbly talented lawyers now often prefer to practice in firms that provide a better balance of what they seek as professionals. I discuss these studies at greater length in my article, "Clients and Lawyers Have Choices."
For good reason, these findings are leading general counsel to rethink who they hire as outside counsel even when facing the top-branded New York firms across the courtroom or conference table. We are quite confident that we can demonstrate the validity of these findings in the experience we provide to our clients and the professionals who work here. - Gary L. Sasso, President and CEO
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- of Counsel / Washington, D.C.
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- Shareholder / Washington, D.C.
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- Shareholder / Washington, D.C.
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- of Counsel
- of Counsel / Tampa
Ray Allen has experience in the areas of judicial and administrative litigation, appellate practice, land use law, and environmental and water permitting. As a result of his long history of representing local governments, he is intimately familiar with the inner workings of local governments and has significant relationships with government officials and staff members at the local, state, and federal levels.
Prior to joining the firm, Ray served as the managing attorney of the Land Use Section for the Hillsborough County Attorney's Office in Tampa, Florida. He also previously served as assistant county attorney in Sarasota, Florida, and assistant general counsel for the Florida Department of Environmental Regulation.
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- Shareholder / Los Angeles
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- Shareholder / West Palm Beach
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- Shareholder / West Palm Beach
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- Shareholder / Washington, D.C.
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- Shareholder / Los Angeles
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- Shareholder
- Shareholder / Tampa
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- Shareholder
- Shareholder / New York
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- Shareholder / West Palm Beach
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- Senior Writer and Editorial Manager / Tampa
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- Shareholder
- Shareholder / Orlando
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- Shareholder
- Shareholder / West Palm Beach
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- Shareholder
- Shareholder / Tampa
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- Co - Authors Article for Journal of Corporate Taxation on Application of Section 199A
- Shareholder / Tampa
Jordan August practices in the areas of taxation, estate, and business planning. Jordan advises individuals and businesses on a variety of federal income, gift, and estate taxation and state taxation planning and controversy matters. His practice focuses on providing tax advice and long-term planning to individuals, closely held companies, including partnerships, S corporations, and C corporations, limited liability companies, tax-exempt organizations, and trusts.
He counsels high net worth individuals regarding their wealth preservation, estate planning, business succession planning, and charitable and family gifting needs, including multigenerational transfers of wealth. Jordan has experience in the areas of probate, estate and trust administration, federal gift and estate taxation, and representation of fiduciaries and beneficiaries of estates and trusts.
Jordan represents businesses and nonprofit organizations on organizational and corporate governance matters, mergers and acquisitions, restructurings, and other business transactions. As a business and nonprofit advisor, Jordan counsels clients on life cycle events, including entity formation, reorganizations, both taxable and non-taxable, and liquidation events, and drafts corporate governance documents, including limited liability company operating agreements, partnership agreements, and bylaws. He also advises and assists clients with the preparation of rules, terms, and other contractual arrangements regarding product and branding promotions and charitable fundraisers, including raffles, sweepstakes, contests, and other games of chance and games of skill.
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- Shareholder / Washington, D.C.
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- Certified Planner / Government Consultant / West Palm Beach
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- Director of New Business Intake / Tampa
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- Senior Counsel / Los Angeles
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- Shareholder / Washington, D.C.
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- Senior Government Consultant / Tallahassee
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- Senior Public Relations Manager / Tampa
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- Director of Administration
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- Associate / Washington, D.C.
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- Shareholder / West Palm Beach
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- Associate / West Palm Beach
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- Shareholder Richard J. Ovelmen to Be Honored at the Florida Bar Convention
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- Director of Administration
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- Shareholder / West Palm Beach
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- Shareholder
- Shareholder / Los Angeles
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- Shareholder / Washington, D.C.
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- Counsel / Washington, D.C.
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- Associate / Washington, D.C.
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- Shareholder / Los Angeles
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- Shareholder / West Palm Beach
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- Shareholder / Tallahassee
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- Director of Legal Talent Management / Tampa
Naila Ahmed oversees attracting, hiring, training, evaluating, and promoting legal talent in all office locations and manages a professional staff of four to ensure a consistent recruitment and talent development process. She is charged with effectively linking the firm's attorney recruitment, talent development, diversity, and retention efforts to overall firm strategic goals and objectives. Naila works closely with the chairs of the firm's Hiring, Associate Relations, Talent Development, Shareholder Selection, Retention, Pro Bono, and Diversity committees.
A key component to Naila's role is to be aware of recruiting and hiring emerging trends and best practices to ensure the firm is effective in recruiting and retaining world-class lawyers for the benefit of our clients. She is responsible for managing firmwide summer associate and lateral attorney recruitment including devising search strategies, managing relationships with legal search firms and law schools, pre-screening resumes and overseeing the coordination of interviews and offers. She collaborates with and supports shareholders engaged in the lateral recruitment process to develop and implement strategic approaches. Naila oversees all attorney orientation and integration processes.
In addition to recruiting activities, she oversees all aspects of training and development for the firm's legal talent. This includes developing numerous training and continuing legal education courses offered in-house. She also is responsible for the associate review and compensation process as well as the firm's annual shareholder selection process. Naila oversees the firm's associate mentor programs and targeted associate coaching.
Novera Ahmad is a defense litigator whose practice focuses on property and casualty insurance. She handles all aspects of litigation, including motion practice, discovery, depositions, court appearances, mediation, and trial preparation.
Prior to joining the firm, Novera practiced in a variety of areas of civil litigation defense, including transportation and automobile litigation, premises liability, and medical malpractice cases. Earlier in her career, Novera was a senior attorney at a health care company, where she represented hospitals in pursuing maximum recovery for complex health insurance claims. She also interned at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the General Counsel, where her work primarily focused on Medicare and Medicaid issues. Novera speaks Urdu and Hindi.
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- of Counsel / Washington, D.C.
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- Shareholder / Tallahassee
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- Shareholder and General Counsel / Tampa
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- Shareholder
- Shareholder / Washington, D.C.
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- of Counsel / Washington, D.C.
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- Shareholder / West Palm Beach
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- Shareholder
- Shareholder / New York
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- Shareholder / Los Angeles
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- Shareholder / West Palm Beach
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- Shareholder / Washington, D.C.
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- Senior Counsel / Washington, D.C.
Scott Abeles is a seasoned trial lawyer and appellate advocate with a particular focus on high-stakes antitrust and class action matters. With deep experience in each stage of the litigation life cycle - and having handled appeals in almost every federal circuit and before the U.S. Supreme Court - he counsels clients from complaint to trial through appeal.
Scott has significant experience in all manner of antitrust actions, including monopolization, restraint of trade, price discrimination, and merger review. Among those cases, Scott successfully defended a major automaker in a high-profile antitrust trial brought under the rarely invoked Robinson-Patman Act, with the jury delivering a complete victory to his client after less than a day of deliberation.
Scott has also represented technology and media clients in complex commercial litigation, and Fortune and Global 500 companies in matters involving cutting-edge issues of competition, constitutional, and administrative law. His casework includes the development of the winning argument in a case deemed the "U.S. Patent Case of the Year" by a leading publication; service as lead counsel for a coalition of Middle Eastern professionals in a case given the Outstanding Achievement Award in Public Accommodations Law by a major civil rights organization; and the securing of the largest individual customer award by a FINRA arbitration panel in 2018.
Outside the courtroom, Scott has lectured and published frequently, serving as a member of the Law360 Competition editorial advisory board, authoring chapters of several antitrust treatises, and appearing in numerous publications. He has been selected for inclusion in Washington, D.C., Super Lawyers and, before that, named to the Rising Stars list on numerous occasions.
Experience
Duncan v. Wells Fargo Advisors: Counsel to former Office Max/Supervalu CEO in widely reported FINRA arbitration. Following three-week hearing, panel awarded client $8.7 million in compensatory and punitive damages, restitution, and legal fees.
Bi v. McAuliffe: Counsel to 32 Chinese investors alleging $17 million fraud involving ex-Virginia governor and others relating to federal EB-5 program.
Mathew v. Chrysler: Counsel to Chrysler in $5 million price discrimination claim brought by a dealer; obtained a complete victory following a two-week jury trial.
Castro v. Sanofi: Counsel to Sanofi Pasteur in $1.5 billion nationwide antirust class action. Conducted Daubert hearing, deposed experts, argued many motions, managed case, drafted briefs.
In re Credit Default Swaps Antitrust Litigation: Counsel to Markit in nationwide class action alleging concerted refusal to deal. Case manager and brief writer.
Utility Air Reg. Group v. EPA: Counsel of record to Nobel Prize-winning economists as amici curiae before U.S. Supreme Court.
Briggs & Stratton v. Kohler: Counsel to Briggs in monopolization case filed by competitor concerning "bundled rebates."
U.S. v. Infineon; Rambus v. Infineon: Counsel to Infineon Technologies in criminal and civil cases relating to alleged price-fixing conspiracy in DRAM market.
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- Shareholder / Washington, D.C.
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- Associate / West Palm Beach
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- Shareholder / Washington, D.C.
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- Shareholder / West Palm Beach
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- Shareholder / Washington, D.C.
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- Shareholder / Los Angeles
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- Shareholder
- Shareholder / Miami
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- Shareholder / Los Angeles
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- Director of Administration
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- Shareholder / Tallahassee
Grant Bostwick represents commercial real estate clients in transactional matters, including the acquisition, development, leasing, and disposition of commercial properties. Grant also conducts extensive research to help his clients respond to the legal and practical impact of current events on the real estate industry.
Earlier in his career, he was a commercial underwriter for a property and casualty insurance company.
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- of Counsel / Washington, D.C.
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- Shareholder / Washington, D.C.
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- Shareholder
- Shareholder / Atlanta
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- Lead Counsel to Washington Gas
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- of Counsel / Washington, D.C.
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- Shareholder / Los Angeles
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- Shareholder
- Shareholder / West Palm Beach
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- Attorney for Hartford Stadium Development Jumps to Carlton Fields