By: Max – Crampton Thomas
2 min read March 2020 — As the epicenter of the tourism and hospitality industries, Orlando affords many opportunities for businesses within those sectors and also to the service businesses outside those sectors. During her discussion with Invest:, Kate Saft, a partner with Greenspoon Marder, spoke on the opportunities the Orlando area affords her firm, the benefits of technology and how the COVID-19 crisis is affecting business as usual.
How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected your firm?
We have seen consistent delays and pauses in our financing and real estate deals as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Some clients are anxious to complete as many pending transactions as possible given the uncertainty of what is ahead. Others are seeing deals in which they can be competitive in light of the interest rate drop. We do anticipate some logistical issues, particularly in-person closings, which is why online notarizations are helpful.
How does the Orlando region provide opportunity for the firm?
Orlando is the epicenter for the tourism and hospitality industries, including, specifically, the timeshare industry. Our Orlando office focuses heavily on representing timeshare clients, hotel operators and real estate developers, and that representation has led to many legal opportunities for Greenspoon Marder.
Within the hospitality industry there are a plethora of legal issues that arise, including real estate transactional matters, marketing matters, lending and securitization transactions, consumer litigation, employment litigation, commercial litigation, and regulatory matters under various state and federal acts, including but not limited to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
Our firm was founded with a focus on the core practice areas of real estate litigation. We have seen demand for those practices increase, not only throughout Central Florida but across the United States. We are pleased to be able to meet the needs and demands of our clients in these areas. We are consistently looking to expand our real estate, timeshare, corporate and litigation practice areas, not only in Orlando but on a national level, as well.
Is there any particular legislation that you are keeping a close eye on in 2020?
We are closely monitoring two Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) petitions pending in the Supreme Court that challenge the constitutionality of the TCPA. In particular, there is a petition pending that questions whether a single call necessarily results in injury that is concrete for the purposes of Article 3 standing and a petition that questions whether the restrictions on using an automated telephone dialing system or an artificial, pre-recorded voice violate the First Amendment. We are very interested in the results of these petitions and how they will affect our hospitality clients.
How does new technology benefit your practice and the legal sector overall?
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