The HT Group - Chief Executive Officer

Attorney; Real Estate Manager and Developer; Adjunct Professor

Chief Executive Officer, HT Group of Companies, 1996-Present; Arbitrator, Mediator and Attorney, 1984-Present; Attorney, Morris, Manning & Martin, 1985-1988; Attorney, Trotter, Smith & Jacobs, 1984-1985; Summer Associate, Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker, 1983.

REAL ESTATE, CONSTRUCTION & FINANCE: Chief Executive Officer, in-house legal counsel, shareholder/member, principal officer and director of closely held real estate companies actively involved in development, construction, management, leasing, sales, and acquisition of commercial retail and multi-family residential properties. Retail properties located primarily in Georgia and Tennessee. Actively involved in the commercial real estate business from both the business and legal sides. Significant legal and business experience includes property acquisition, financing development and management including acquisition and sale agreements and transactions, land use and zoning, financial analysis, construction contracts, brokerage agreements, covenants and title insurance, mortgage loan documentation and transactions, leasing, local and anchor leases, property taxes, and insurance. Adjunct Professor at Emory University School of Law teaching real estate finance and transactions to J.D. and M.B.A. candidates, focusing on intensive finance as well as transactional skills for both future real estate lawyers and business professionals. Taught Real Estate finance in business school at Georgia State University. Oversaw construction of major art center, several large school buildings and renovation and operation of large ski resort hotel/condominium project. Represented construction and permanent lenders, syndicators and commercial developers of multi-family residential properties, shopping centers, office buildings, hotels and subdivisions. Vice Chair of City of Atlanta Building Department Technical Advisory Committee, tasked with oversight of the Atlanta Building Enterprise Fund and the Atlanta Building Department, which is responsible for all building permits issued in the City of Atlanta as well as involvement in the upcoming rewrite of the Atlanta Zoning ordinance. Also experience in tax law and business taxation. Practiced Criminal law and tried primarily major cases, including one Capital (death penalty) Murder case.

GENERAL BUSINESS, NON PROFIT and AVIATION: Business owner, attorney representing a variety of business clients, non profit board member specializing in entity creation, structure and governance. Experience includes entity creation, drafting corporate and LLC documents, non-profit structure and bylaws, shareholder agreements, financial analysis, and banking relationships. President of Taylor Family Office and member of the Atlanta Group, a group of Family Office executives who provide family office services to high net worth families, with experience in investment oversight and private equity investing. Significant experience with management and oversight of trusts and estates. Former board member of EasySoft, a start up software company. CEO of HT AVIATION SERVICES, LLC d/b/a WINSOME AIR, a former start up charter airline and Board member and Secretary AIR GRECO, INC. d/b/a WINGS AIR, also a former start up charter airline. Multi engine instrument rated private pilot.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT: Drafted public art legislation and chaired large public art program. Served many years on the largest public funder of the arts in Georgia. Board member of a variety of local arts organizations.

CIVIL RIGHTS: Former Chair of Anti Defamation League National Religious Freedom Task Force, former Civil Rights Southeast Area Chair, involved in oversight and review of Amicus briefs to US Supreme Court. Member of Georgia Advisory Committee to the United States Civil Rights Commission.

Mediation practice is focused on business disputes, primarily in the landlord tenant and contract areas. The largest number of cases mediated are in the landlord tenant area, where the continuing relationship between the parties makes a mediated dispute particularly helpful. Has mediated many of these cases over the years. Has also mediated business divorces, primarily in the real estate area, and disputes between parties to acquisition contracts during the pendency of the contract period as well as land use disputes relating to alleged covenant violations. Has mediated and arbitrated cases in the real estate area, involving real estate investment partnership disputes. Finally, has also mediated a couple of disputes in the entertainment field.

Taught negotiation for one semester at Emory Law School and now teach a real estate transaction and finance course in the Law School which cross references to the business school where currently teaching contract and lease negotiation.

The issues in landlord tenant cases tend to center around alleged defaults by either the landlord or the tenant, often with respect to the payment of money but almost always accompanied by a corresponding allegation of some non-monetary breach. The same is generally true involving contract disputes though often the real issue has nothing to do with the money. Business divorces can have as many issues as regular divorces, but they generally oil down to how to deconstruct a relationship which the parties never intended would have a problem (where the parties did contemplate it ahead of time, the issues are generally easier). In land use disputes, the issues tend to resolve around what the restrictions were intended to prevent and whether the parties are following that intention.

Parties hire me to mediate their disputes based on my subject matter expertise. My philosophy is to bring that experience to bear to help the parties solve their dispute. I like to let the parties come to solutions on their own if they can, but I am also willing, when necessary, to make suggestions which the parties may not immediately see. I guess that I look at the dispute from a little higher up and then try to help the parties drill down to the real issue and come up with a way to solve it. Even in the cases I have mediated which reached impasse, I hope that I have been able to help the parties narrow and focus their issues to make the subsequent litigation or arbitration more efficient.

Emory University (JD-1984); Brown University (AB, Economincs-1981).

Admitted to the Bar, Georgia, 1984. Georgia Certified Arbitration and Mediation Neutral

Atlanta Bar Association (Atlanta Dispute Resolution Lawyers Section); American Bar Association (Real Property Section; Dispute Resolution Section); Georgia Bar (Real Property Law Section; Dispute Resolution Section); Association for Conflict Resolution (Georgia Chapter); International Council of Shopping Centers.

Real Property Law Institute: Application of ADR Techniques to the Real Estate Practice
International Association of Attorneys and Executives in Corporate Real Estate 1998 Annual Conference: Financing/Capital Markets, I.C.L.E 1995.

"Commercial Real Estate Law Program: Real Estate Finance, what the numbers really mean," I.C.L.E, 2000.

"Real Property Law Institute: Current Issues in Retail Leasing-Letters of Intent," I.C.L.E, 2001.

Speaker, "The Current State of Civil Liberties," Georgia State Law School Jewish Students Association Law Day March, 2002.

Speaker's Bureau, Atlanta Bar Association Alternative Dispute Resolution Lawyers Section.

$250 Per Hour

English

United States of America

Atlanta, GA