Lighthouse Point General Counsel

The goal of good outside counsel is a company that rarely needs a lawyer in a courtroom, because the contracts were sound, the ownership terms were written down, and the problems were caught while they were still small. The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team provides Lighthouse Point general counsel services to business owners, investors, and families with companies and real estate in Broward County and Palm Beach County, and we pair that day-to-day guidance with the litigation experience to step in when a disagreement does not stay small.

Most businesses do not need a full-time in-house lawyer. They need someone who knows the company, answers the phone, and can tell an owner whether a lease clause, a vendor contract, or a partner’s request is a problem before anything is signed. That is how we approach general counsel work for Lighthouse Point companies: as the ongoing legal backbone of the business, built by lawyers who spend most of their time in disputes and therefore know exactly where agreements fail.

That litigation background is the real difference between a general counsel relationship with us and one with a transactional-only firm. We have watched what happens when an operating agreement says nothing about a deadlock, when a handshake arrangement meets a five-year written-contract deadline, or when a co-owner of a building stops cooperating. The advice we give on the front end reflects those outcomes.

Why Choose the Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team as Your Company’s Outside Counsel

The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team represents business owners, investors, and families across Palm Beach County and Broward County, including Lighthouse Point, Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale, and West Palm Beach. We also represent clients in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut who hold business or real estate interests in South Florida. Our work centers on business divorce, partnership and member disputes, complex contract litigation, partition actions, real estate litigation, and the outside general counsel services that help keep companies out of those fights. Our general counsel program includes serving as a company’s registered agent.

Andrew M. Schwartz, our founder, was admitted to The Florida Bar in 1989 and has spent 37 years in litigation. He earned his undergraduate degree at Emory University in 1986 and his law degree at the University of Miami in 1989. 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. Federal experience matters for companies whose disputes involve parties in other states.

We practice as a true legal team, meaning everyone working on your matter knows the file and can answer when you call. We keep a strict 24 hour return call policy when we are in court, and we schedule conference calls around the needs of the people involved. We are experienced in mediation and arbitration as well as trial work, and we look for the resolution that fits the client’s goals and budget rather than stretching a dispute out.

Our trial record gives weight to the contract advice we give. After a five-day bench trial, the Broward County Circuit Court issued a 32-page final judgment awarding our client specific performance of a commercial real estate contract. A lawyer who has carried a contract through that process drafts and reviews agreements with the enforcement stage in mind.

What Outside General Counsel Covers for a Lighthouse Point Business

• Contract Drafting and Review: Vendor agreements, customer contracts, purchase agreements, and commercial leases reviewed before signature, with attention to the clauses that decide who wins when something goes wrong, such as payment terms, termination rights, and attorney fee provisions.
• Operating and Shareholder Agreements: Buyout formulas, valuation methods, transfer restrictions, and deadlock provisions written while the owners still get along. Florida’s LLC and corporation statutes give courts remedies for deadlocked or misused companies, but a clear agreement often decides the outcome before a court has to.
• Registered Agent and Compliance: Serving as the company’s registered agent so that service of process and official notices reach a lawyer who understands what they mean, along with help on the regulatory and operational questions that come up in running a company.
• Commercial Leases and Tenant Issues: Negotiating lease terms for companies that rent space, and advising property owners on landlord obligations. Florida’s landlord-tenant statute sets short, rigid notice periods, such as a three-day demand for unpaid rent that excludes weekends and court holidays, and errors in a notice can undo a termination.
• Real Estate Held Through Entities: Guidance on property owned by an LLC, a family partnership, or several investors, including what happens if co-owners cannot agree and one files for partition under Chapter 64 of the Florida Statutes.
• Family Business Planning: Structuring ownership among siblings, parents, children, or in-laws so that control, compensation, and succession are settled in writing rather than assumed.
• Dispute Triage: Evaluating a partner conflict, a missing-funds concern, or a breach by a customer early, so that a demand letter, a negotiated fix, or an injunction request is chosen deliberately.

How General Counsel Differs From a Lawyer You Call Only in a Crisis

Owners often confuse general counsel with litigation counsel, and the distinction affects how you should use us. Litigation counsel starts after a dispute exists, and the options are already narrowed by whatever was signed or left unsigned. General counsel works earlier, shaping the documents and decisions so those options are better.

A practical example is the deadline structure in Florida contract law. A claim founded on a written instrument generally carries a five-year limitations period, while an oral or implied contract claim carries four years, and a fraud claim runs four years from discovery with an outer cap of twelve. An action for specific performance is subject to a one-year period. A company with an ongoing counsel relationship tracks those clocks. A company without one often learns about them after one has run.

The same logic applies to ownership. Florida allows a court to dissolve an LLC when managers or members are deadlocked and irreparable injury to the company is threatened, when assets are being misappropriated or wasted, or when it is no longer reasonably practicable to operate under the operating agreement. For corporations, shareholders have a separate statutory path, and the corporation or other shareholders can often avoid dissolution by electing to buy out the petitioning shareholder at fair value. Those are real safety valves, but they are slow, public, and expensive compared with a deadlock sale provision your counsel wrote into the agreement years earlier. Florida law specifically honors a properly initiated deadlock sale provision in the operating agreement, which is exactly the kind of tool general counsel puts in place.

What to Do When a Business Problem Surfaces Before It Becomes a Lawsuit

If something is going wrong in your company, the first move is to stop adding to the record. Do not send an angry email to a partner, move company funds to protect them, or sign a revised agreement under pressure. Gather the governing documents instead: the operating agreement or shareholder agreement, any amendments, the relevant contracts, bank and accounting records, and the correspondence that shows how the parties actually dealt with each other. In contract cases, the wording of the agreement and the history of the parties’ dealings frequently decide the result.

Next, identify which clock is running. A lease default, a missed payment, or a notice of termination may carry a deadline measured in days rather than years. Under Florida’s landlord-tenant statute, for example, a tenant who has not paid rent after a written demand has three days, excluding weekends and court-observed holidays, before the landlord may terminate, and a notice for a non-curable violation gives seven days to vacate. Whether you are on either side of a lease, a call to counsel before responding is worth far more than a call after.

If money is leaving the company in ways you cannot explain, tell your lawyer immediately. Courts can grant temporary injunctive relief to stop assets from being moved or spent while a case is pending, but that relief depends on acting quickly and documenting what you know. Disputes involving a business in Lighthouse Point are typically filed in the Circuit Court of the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit in and for Broward County, or in the Circuit Court of the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit in and for Palm Beach County when the defendant or the property sits there. Broward’s circuit court also operates a complex business division that handles matters such as the dissolution of certain business entities and large business litigation, and a case can be directed into it through the procedure the circuit’s administrative order sets out. Federal court in the Southern District of Florida, which sits in Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, comes into play when the parties or claims support it.

Amount in controversy decides the trial court level. Claims above the county court ceiling belong in circuit court, which is where most partner disputes, real estate title matters, and substantial contract cases land. Small claims have their own lower limit and are rarely the right forum for a business dispute with real stakes. The two common errors we see are waiting too long to involve counsel and filing in a forum that does not fit the claim.

Real Estate Questions That Land on a General Counsel’s Desk

Lighthouse Point owners frequently hold property with someone else, whether a business partner, a sibling, or an investor, and the questions that arise are rarely about a single deal. When co-owners disagree about selling, a Florida court sitting in equity can partition the property, dividing it physically or, when division would prejudice the owners, ordering a sale and splitting the proceeds in proportion to each owner’s share. The court appoints three commissioners to evaluate whether division is workable. Where inherited family property is involved, Florida’s Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act can change the process, giving relatives additional protections before a forced sale.

Title problems follow a different path. A quiet title action asks the court to remove a cloud on title or settle competing ownership claims, and Florida law requires the plaintiff to trace title back at least seven years unless the court orders otherwise. Adverse possession claims carry their own seven-year requirements and, for color-of-title claims, a recording requirement. We handle these matters for owners who want to clear title or separate from it, and our general counsel clients often bring them to us before a closing rather than after one fails.

Questions Lighthouse Point Business Owners Ask About General Counsel

What does outside general counsel actually do for a small or mid-sized company?

We act as the company’s standing lawyer: reviewing contracts, advising on operational and compliance questions, helping structure ownership agreements, and serving as registered agent. The goal is to catch problems early and give owners someone to call before they sign or send anything significant.

Is outside general counsel cheaper than hiring an in-house lawyer?

For most businesses, yes. A company that needs periodic legal input rather than daily attention gets access to a litigator and a team without carrying a full-time salary. We also look for solutions that fit your budget rather than building work that does not serve your goals.

Can you act as my company’s registered agent?

Yes. Our general counsel program includes serving as the registered agent, so service of process and official notices go to a law firm that can recognize urgency and respond rather than sitting in a drawer.

Why does a litigator make a better general counsel for contract work?

Litigators see how agreements are read when relationships break down. Many contract disputes turn on precise wording and the parties’ history of dealing, so drafting with that in mind closes gaps that a purely transactional lawyer may never have seen exploited.

How long do I have to sue for breach of a business contract in Florida?

For a contract founded on a written instrument, the limitations period is five years. An oral or implied contract claim is four years, and a suit to rescind a contract is also four. Specific performance carries a one-year period. These deadlines are why we ask for documents early and track dates for general counsel clients.

Did the 2023 change to Florida’s negligence deadline affect contract claims?

No. That legislation shortened the negligence deadline from four years to two for claims arising after its effective date, but it did not change the five-year period for written contracts or the four-year period for intentional torts. Professional malpractice claims have their own two-year period that runs from discovery.

What happens if my partner and I deadlock and the operating agreement is silent?

A court can dissolve an LLC when managers or members are deadlocked, cannot break the deadlock, and irreparable injury to the company is threatened or occurring. The court can also appoint a receiver or custodian after a hearing, or order a buyout of the petitioning member’s interest. Those outcomes are less predictable and more costly than a deadlock provision negotiated in advance, which Florida law will generally respect if it is properly initiated.

Can a shareholder force a buyout rather than dissolution?

In a corporate dissolution proceeding brought by a shareholder on certain grounds, the corporation or the remaining shareholders may elect to purchase 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 directing the purchase. An election to buy is generally irrevocable unless the court finds it equitable to set it aside.

I live in New York or New Jersey and my partner is in South Florida. Can you handle it?

Yes. We regularly represent clients from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut with business or real estate interests here. We handle the local court appearances and keep you informed at each stage so you are not traveling for every hearing.

Will you work with my existing attorney?

Yes. A significant part of our practice comes from referrals by other lawyers, including out of state attorneys whose clients have Florida disputes. We communicate with referring counsel throughout and respect the existing client relationship.

Does a business dispute have to end up in court?

No. Many are resolved through negotiation, mediation, or arbitration, and our attorneys are experienced in each. When a quick court order is needed to freeze assets or protect property, we pursue temporary or permanent injunctive relief, but we choose the path that best matches your goals.

Serving Business Clients From Lighthouse Point Throughout Broward and Palm Beach Counties

Our general counsel and litigation work for Lighthouse Point companies begins in Broward County and extends along the coast in both directions. We represent business owners and property investors in Lighthouse Point, Pompano Beach, Deerfield Beach, Hillsboro Beach, Oakland Park, Fort Lauderdale, Wilton Manors, Coral Springs, Parkland, Coconut Creek, Margate, Sunrise, Plantation, Davie, and Hollywood, along with the rest of Broward County.

To the north, we serve clients in Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Boynton Beach, Lake Worth Beach, West Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, Jupiter, Wellington, Royal Palm Beach, and Greenacres throughout Palm Beach County. Companies in these communities range from family-owned operations to investment partnerships holding commercial and residential property, and many have owners who live in New York, New Jersey, or Connecticut and rely on us for local representation. Wherever your business or property sits in South Florida, we can serve as its outside counsel.

Speak With a Lighthouse Point General Counsel Attorney Before the Next Contract or Dispute

If your company needs a lawyer who knows how agreements hold up under pressure, or you are weighing whether to bring on outside counsel before a partner disagreement or contract problem escalates, the Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team can help. Our Lighthouse Point general counsel attorneys review your agreements, advise on the decisions in front of you, and step into the fight if one cannot be avoided. Call us to schedule a consultation and talk through what your business needs.