Downtown Tampa and Brandon, Florida

I bring unique experience to this area of representation because of my work with local governments and my experience in competitive negotiation, and because I served on the Consultants' Competitive Negotiation Act selection committee for Hillsborough County.  

I currently serve on the Bar's Steering Committee for the revision of Florida's Construction Law and Practice. As an adjunct professor, I taught Construction Law at Stetson College of Law. I was an instructor in Environmental Law at Golden Gate University's MacDill AFB facility. I have lectured extensively on construction contract claims and avoiding litigation, and I am a guest lecturer in Construction Law at the University of Florida's School of Building Construction in Gainesville.

The Florida Bar's Florida Construction Law and Practice includes a chapter that I wrote titled Bids, Bid Disputes, and Competitive Negotiations Involving Public Entities. I also revised the chapter Construction Liens in the Florida CLE (Continuing Legal Education) publication Legal Forms & Worksheets Manual, and I revised and updated the chapter on The Public Works Contract in the same publication.  I am co-author of Rights and Remedies Against Other Parties To Process in Wiley & Sons' Contractor's Handbook; and the chapter on Contracts To Construct Sewerage and Water Treatment Plants in Wiley & Sons' Construction Project Form Book.

I worked with Dean Frank E. Maloney of the University of Florida in writing the rules for the South Florida Water Management District, The Water Resources Act of 1972.

I have extensive experience in drafting contracts for local governments. As a result of my representation of local governments, I know the applicable issues when a governmental entity wants to enter into contracts for telephones, computers, software, personnel studies, insurance, management consultants, executive search firms, and banking services; issue invitations to bid for commodities or construction; or engage in design-build construction projects. I have dealt with budgeting, purchasing issues, and bid disputes.

Potential legal issues arise during initial procurement as well as during contract performance. Public contract drafting entails skill in four areas:

1. The law applicable to public bidding and the proposal process.
   

2. The laws and rules particularly applicable to the agency doing the contracting.
   

3. The general principles of contract law known by any qualified attorney.
   

4. The policy issues involved in protecting the public's interest.

I understand the law applicable to each area. I have prepared integrated bidding forms for use in a step-by-step approach to purchasing.

In a contracting system, I understand the goals of promoting uniformity, responsiveness, guidance, monitoring, and rapid legal review. Taking just the element of monitoring, for example, I assist Boards in developing procedures to fit the contracting process into an on-going process of management review: Did the service or study meet the contract requirements? Did it fulfill the needs and produce the expected benefits? How will costs and benefits be tracked? I assist Boards in creating periodic reviews that streamline the contracting process to enhance effectiveness.

I have the experience and capacity to draft leases, assist in the negotiation of leases, prepare contracts to buy or sell public property, prepare contracts for the joint use of public property, prepare deeds, assist in the preparation of requests for information on the availability of property for lease, review questions of title, prepare easements, and counsel on the issues of hazardous waste liability and the performance of environmental audits in connection with the transfer or use of property. In certain sales and leases of property to a local governmental body, the name and address of every person having a beneficial interest in the land sold or leased must be disclosed under Section 286.23, Florida Statutes.

For local governments I have drafted special acts, settlement agreements, procedures for the implementation of new laws, banking agreements, security agreements to ensure the proper construction of public improvements, and responses to preliminary audit comments.