Weston General Counsel Attorney for Broward County Businesses

A Weston company owner who signs a contract at a kitchen table, hires a manager on a handshake, or splits ownership with a friend on a promise usually finds out what was missing only when something goes wrong. The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team handles business and real estate litigation and transactions for companies across Weston and Broward County, and its outside Weston general counsel program is built to catch those gaps before they become lawsuits.

Outside general counsel means a litigator sits on call for your company the way an in-house lawyer would, without the salary, benefits, and office space. For a Weston business, that tends to mean someone reads the lease before you sign it, reviews the operating agreement before a new member comes in, and answers the phone when a vendor threatens suit. The firm also serves as the company’s registered agent, so legal notices reach a law office that knows your file rather than a mailbox nobody checks.

The difference between a lawyer who drafts and a lawyer who litigates shows up in the drafting. A contract written by someone who has spent decades arguing over what contracts mean reads differently from a template. Ambiguous payment terms, missing deadlock provisions, and vague definitions of “cause” are the clauses that end up in front of a judge, and a litigator knows which ones.

What an Outside General Counsel Relationship Looks Like in Practice

Most general counsel relationships begin quietly. A business owner has a handful of recurring questions: whether a vendor agreement is safe to sign, how to handle an employee who is leaving to compete, what to say to a landlord who is demanding more than the lease allows. Over a few months, the lawyer learns the company’s contracts, its owners, and its habits, and that accumulated knowledge is what makes the arrangement valuable.

Early on, expect a review of the documents that govern the company: formation papers, the operating or shareholder agreement, key customer and vendor contracts, and any commercial lease. The goal is to find the clauses that could hurt you and the gaps that leave you exposed. Some problems get fixed with an amendment. Others simply get flagged so you know where the risk sits.

After that, the work becomes routine and reactive in the best sense. You send a contract, you get comments back. A customer disputes an invoice, and you get a demand letter drafted or a response reviewed. Two owners start disagreeing about distributions, and counsel who already knows the operating agreement can intervene before positions harden. Because the lawyer is a litigator, each of these small matters is handled with an eye toward how it would look if it ever reached a courtroom.

When a dispute does move toward litigation, the same team already knows the file. That continuity matters. Nobody spends the first weeks of a lawsuit learning who your partners are or what the agreement says.

Why Choose the Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team as Your Weston Business Counsel

The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team is a business and real estate litigation firm serving Weston, the rest of Broward County, Palm Beach County, and South Florida generally. The firm represents business owners, investors, and families, and it also takes clients from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut who hold business or property interests here. Andrew M. Schwartz, the firm’s founder, has spent 37 years in litigation and was admitted to The Florida Bar in 1989. He earned his undergraduate degree from Emory University in 1986 and his law degree from the University of Miami in 1989. His practice has centered on complex contract disputes, business divorces, and conflicts among partners, LLC members, and shareholders.

Sundeep Nath, Senior Counsel, is a Northwestern-trained litigator with years of experience in business and real estate cases in both state and federal courts. Together they practice as a true legal team: everyone working on a matter knows the file, so a client who calls does not have to re-explain the situation to whoever picks up. The firm keeps a strict 24 hour return call policy for times when the lawyers are in court, and it schedules conference calls at times that suit everyone involved.

The firm has also tried cases to judgment. After a five-day bench trial in Broward County Circuit Court, the judge issued a 32-page final judgment awarding the firm’s client specific performance of a commercial real estate contract. That result reflects the kind of detailed, document-driven work the firm brings to contract disputes, and it is the same attention to wording and course of dealing that goes into drafting for general counsel clients.

Clients often assume they want the most aggressive lawyer available. The firm’s experience is that most want someone who acts as the situation requires, uses finesse when finesse will do, and keeps legal fees proportionate to what is at stake. The attorneys are experienced in mediation and arbitration as well as courtroom litigation, and they look for the resolution that fits a client’s goals and budget. A significant share of the firm’s work also comes from referrals by other attorneys, including out of state lawyers whose clients have Florida disputes.

Situations a Weston General Counsel Program Typically Covers

• Operating and Shareholder Agreement Review: Co-owner disputes almost always trace back to what the governing document says or fails to say about buyouts, deadlock, capital calls, and expulsion. Counsel reviews these agreements before disagreements surface.
• Commercial Lease Negotiation and Disputes: Weston retail, office, and professional tenants sign leases with personal guaranties, exclusive-use clauses, and default provisions that deserve a lawyer’s eye before signature and again when a landlord claims a breach.
• Vendor, Customer, and Purchase Agreements: Payment terms, delivery obligations, indemnity, and termination rights are the clauses most often litigated. Counsel drafts and reviews them with a litigator’s sense of what will be contested.
• Registered Agent Service: The firm acts as the company’s registered agent, so service of process and official notices go to lawyers who will recognize a deadline and act on it.
• Demand Letters and Early Dispute Response: A well-written response to a threatened claim, or a firm demand for payment, resolves many disputes before anyone files. Counsel handles both sides of that correspondence.
• Partner and Member Friction: When owners disagree about compensation, direction, or who is contributing what, counsel who already knows the company can advise early, when a negotiated fix is still realistic.
• Real Estate Held by the Business: Companies that own or lease property face title questions, co-ownership issues, and purchase contract problems that overlap with the firm’s real estate litigation practice.
• Escalation to Litigation or Injunctive Relief: If a dispute cannot be resolved, the same team can seek emergency or injunctive relief to stop assets from being moved or spent while the case proceeds.

Deadlines and Next Steps When a Contract Problem Surfaces

If you are already in a dispute, start by gathering the paper: the signed agreement, any amendments, emails and texts that show what the parties actually did, invoices, and bank records. Cases often turn on the wording of the agreement and the history of dealings, so the file you assemble now becomes the backbone of whatever follows. Do not delete anything, and avoid firing off angry messages that will be read aloud later.

Then pay attention to the clock. Florida gives five years to sue on a contract founded on a written instrument, and four years for oral or implied contracts. Rescission claims carry four years. Fraud claims run four years from discovery, with an outer cap of twelve years. Claims for specific performance, which ask a court to compel a party to carry out a contract such as a real estate sale, are subject to a one-year period, which is far shorter than most people expect. Negligence claims, including many professional malpractice claims, run two years after recent changes to Florida law. Whether any of these periods fits your situation depends on when the claim arose and what it is founded on, so confirm the deadline early rather than assuming you have years.

On the question of where a case would be heard, Broward County disputes are filed in the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, whose circuit court sits for Broward County. Disputes above the county court ceiling go to circuit court, while smaller claims are heard in county court, and small claims remain a separate track for the lowest amounts. The Seventeenth Circuit also maintains complex business divisions that handle matters such as dissolution of certain business entities and large business and construction litigation, and certain cases can be directed there at filing. Disputes with a federal dimension may belong in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, which covers Broward and Palm Beach Counties and holds court in Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach. If your business also has Palm Beach County dealings, those cases fall within the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit.

A common mistake is waiting until the other side has lawyered up. Another is accepting a partial payment or making a side promise without understanding what it does to your position. Calling counsel before you respond, sign, or pay anything is usually the cheaper path.

When Co-Owner Disputes Reach the Courtroom

General counsel work is meant to keep disputes small, but some escalate, and it helps to know what the endpoint looks like. Florida’s LLC statute allows a member or manager to ask a circuit court to dissolve the company on specific grounds: activities being conducted unlawfully, it no longer being reasonably practicable to operate under the operating agreement, controlling members acting or expected to act illegally or fraudulently, assets being misappropriated or wasted to the company’s injury, or a deadlock between managers or members that cannot be broken and threatens irreparable injury. In such a proceeding the court can appoint a receiver or custodian after a hearing, or order a purchase of the petitioning member’s interest rather than dissolving outright.

Corporations have a parallel framework. A shareholder petitioning for dissolution may trigger a right for the corporation, or other shareholders, to elect to buy the petitioner’s shares at fair value. If the parties agree on value and terms within 60 days of the first election, the court enters an order on those terms, and the election is irrevocable unless the court finds it equitable to modify it. The corporation must also notify the other shareholders within 30 days that they can avoid dissolution by electing to buy. During the proceeding a court can issue injunctions and take steps to preserve company assets. And if the governing agreement already contains a valid deadlock sale provision, that mechanism can take priority, which is another reason the drafting done up front matters so much.

Property disputes between owners follow a different path. A partition action in Florida is brought in the circuit court’s chancery jurisdiction, the complaint must describe the land and name the owners and the share each holds, and the court may appoint commissioners to determine whether the land can be divided fairly. If it cannot, the court can order a sale and divide the proceeds by ownership interest. Quiet title actions, used to clear a cloud on title or resolve competing claims, can be filed in any county where part of the land lies, and the plaintiff must generally trace title back at least seven years unless the court orders otherwise.

Questions Weston Business Owners Ask About Outside General Counsel

What does outside general counsel actually do for a small company?

Outside general counsel acts as your company’s ongoing lawyer. That includes reviewing and drafting contracts, answering compliance and operational questions, handling early dispute correspondence, and serving as registered agent. You get consistent access to someone who knows your documents and owners without carrying a full-time attorney on payroll.

Is a general counsel arrangement only for large businesses?

No. It is often most useful for owner-operated companies that cannot justify an in-house lawyer but regularly face contract, lease, and partner questions. The value comes from having someone familiar with your file before a dispute begins.

Why use a litigator as general counsel instead of a transactional lawyer?

Because the clauses that cause trouble are the ones litigators see fail. A lawyer who has argued over operating agreements and commercial contracts for decades tends to draft with the eventual dispute in mind, closing the ambiguities that become lawsuits.

Can you serve as my company’s registered agent?

Yes. Through the firm’s general counsel program, the firm acts as the company’s registered agent, so legal notices and service of process reach a law office that can respond promptly.

How long do I have to sue over a breached contract in Florida?

For a contract founded on a written instrument, the period is five years. Oral and implied contract claims have four years, and rescission also has four. A claim for specific performance has a one-year period, so those cases cannot wait.

What if my business partner is taking company money?

You may have claims for breach of fiduciary duty, an accounting, and recovery of the funds. In urgent situations a court can order injunctive relief to stop assets from being moved or spent while the dispute is pending. Preserve bank records and accounting data right away.

Can a general counsel relationship help me avoid a business divorce?

Often, yes. Reviewing the operating agreement for buyout, deadlock, and expulsion provisions, and addressing friction between owners early, can keep a disagreement from becoming a dissolution case. When separation is unavoidable, counsel who knows the company can negotiate a buyout or wind-down from an informed position.

Do you handle disputes after the contract has already gone wrong?

Yes. The firm litigates contract, partnership, member, and real estate disputes, and a general counsel client who ends up in a dispute benefits from a team that already understands the business and documents.

Will my Broward County case be heard in state or federal court?

Most business contract disputes are heard in the Broward County circuit or county courts, depending on the amount in controversy. Federal court in the Southern District of Florida comes into play when a federal question or qualifying diversity between parties is present. Counsel can tell you which forum applies once the facts are clear.

I own a Weston business but live in another state. Can you still help?

Yes. The firm regularly represents clients from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut with business or real estate interests in South Florida. The firm handles local court appearances and keeps you informed so you do not have to travel for every hearing.

Does every dispute have to end in a lawsuit?

No. Many are resolved through negotiation, mediation, or arbitration. The attorneys are experienced in each and pursue the path most likely to reach your goals efficiently and at a cost that makes sense.

Serving Weston and Broward County Business Clients Across South Florida

The firm’s work for Weston companies extends throughout Broward County. From Weston itself through Davie, Cooper City, Southwest Ranches, and Pembroke Pines, we represent business owners and investors whose companies operate in the western communities. Moving east and north, we serve clients in Fort Lauderdale, Plantation, Sunrise, Coral Springs, Parkland, Coconut Creek, Margate, and Deerfield Beach, along with those in Hollywood, Miramar, and Pompano Beach.

The same coverage reaches into Palm Beach County, including Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Boynton Beach, West Palm Beach, Wellington, and Palm Beach Gardens. Across all of these communities, the firm advises on outside general counsel matters, contract disputes, partnership and member conflicts, partition and title cases, and injunction practice. Clients from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut who hold business or property interests here are also served, with the firm handling the Florida proceedings on their behalf.

Speak With a Weston General Counsel Attorney Before a Problem Starts

If your company needs ongoing legal support, or you are already seeing the signs of a partner or contract dispute, a conversation with a Weston general counsel attorney at the Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team is a practical place to start. The firm will review where your company stands, explain what outside counsel would handle, and tell you candidly whether a dispute can be resolved without a lawsuit. Call to schedule a consultation.