COVID: A Look Back on the Legal and Practical Impact on Real Estate, Leases and Commercial Contracts

Jennifer Rote is Senior Vice President, General Counsel of TGI Friday’s Inc. Since joining Friday’s in 2004 as real estate counsel, she has held positions of increasing responsibility, taking over the General Counsel role in 2017. As General Counsel, Jennifer leads the Legal and Human Resources teams at Friday’s. She oversees all legal issues affecting Friday’s, both as an operating company and as a franchisor, including corporate real estate, domestic franchising, litigation, acquisitions, and employment law.

Howard K. Jeruchimowitz is a commercial litigator with an emphasis in the Real Estate, Construction, and Financial Services Litigation practices. He represents owners, developers, landlords and tenants in landlord-tenant and shopping center disputes, mechanics liens, foreclosures, and construction disputes, as well as banks and lenders in bank and mortgage litigation, such as mortgage fraud, commercial and residential foreclosures, mechanics lien and FDCPA issues. Howard also represents business owners in LLC and shareholder disputes, including direct and derivative claims. Howard has deep experience with post-judgment proceedings and asset-recovery litigation, including fraudulent transfer, alter ego and veil piercing litigation. He has a wide range of experience in trials in both state and federal courts, as well as arbitrations and mediation. Howard serves as the pro bono coordinator for the firm’s Chicago office.

Matt is a partner in the Corporate and Intellectual Property practices, and co-leader of the Entertainment & Sports industry team. He advises his clients on legal matters related to entertainment, technology, new media and advertising. He is a trusted ally and strategic counselor on business and personal matters as they relate to the very visible career paths of his clients.

A self-described “music nerd,” Matt is a recovering musician, hopeless fan and dedicated professional. He has over 15 years of experience negotiating and drafting agreements for recording artists, songwriters, publishers, producers, business teams, labels, distributors, and concert promoters. He advises on copyright, licensing and other intellectual property matters and counsels his artist-clients in connection with their career decisions. Additionally, he has extensive experience with all aspects of the festival and live event industry and has assisted clients with the production of large-scale “happenings” on the domestic and international stage.

Matt’s film and television experience includes the representation of creative and business focused clients within the motion picture, television and media industries. He counsels major and independent film production companies in connection with business and legal matters related to film projects from start to finish, including financing arrangements, talent negotiations and contractual engagements, production requirements, IP protection and licensing, content clearance, advertising and promotions, and various ancillary activities. In addition, Matt has particular expertise with respect to Georgia’s dynamic film tax credit universe.

Matt also counsels participants in the visual art world, including museums, galleries, fine artists, muralists, photographers, and celebrity tattoo artists. His experience in the visual arts arena involves advising clients on matters ranging from contracts, licenses and intellectual property protection, to merchandising and commissioning arrangements, to complex sales, sponsorship, and licensing transactions. Within the publishing and new media space, he represents literary publishers, brand influencers, taste-makers and content creators on matters such as trademark and intellectual property fair use, licensing, advertising, sponsorship, advertising and promotional campaigns, sweepstakes, skill contests and other games.

Outside of the entertainment universe, Matt’s practice includes the representation of clients in connection with technology, e-commerce and life sciences matters. He handles general corporate and commercial projects, web-based commerce and intellectual property matters, content clearance and licensing, electronic advertising, website development, hosting and service agreements, electronic terms-of-use, privacy policies, and data use and protection policies, and legal and regulatory compliance concerning such matters, including trade and industry self-regulation guidelines.

David is a partner in the Litigation and Real Estate practices and co-chair of AGG’s Retail Industry team. David has concentrated his practice on complex civil litigation since becoming a lawyer in 1995.

As a nationally recognized leading real estate litigator, David represents some of the country’s largest companies in land disputes. David’s cases have garnered national and local media attention, and he is often sought after for his legal expertise and industry opinion by the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, and CNBC. David’s authoritative literature on legal trends in the retail industry is frequently published by the American Bar Association, and he is an ongoing facilitator and teacher of continuing education seminars for the International Shopping Center Institute, and other trade associations. David and his team frequently teach custom-designed lunch ‘n learns to real estate development, construction, and other companies on the best ways to avoid, prepare for, negotiate, and win legal disputes.

While David handles a variety of high stakes disputes, he has developed a specialty in litigation related to commercial real estate and the retail industry. This focus gives him a unique understanding of how to solve problems that arise among owners, developers, managers, landlords, tenants, builders, and contractors. Clients hire him to resolve construction and leasing contract disputes, environmental nuisance and toxic tort matters, construction payment and defect claims, easement and right-of-way disputes, and various other disagreements over land use and ownership. When appropriate, David leverages his experience toward negotiating early and alternative resolutions to disputes.

David is at the forefront of one of the fastest emerging areas of land use and environmental law – litigation over the use and disposal of “PFAS,” man-made chemicals used to make carpet, food packaging, personal care products, firefighting foam, and for many other industrial applications. David currently serves as defense counsel to three carpet manufacturing industry clients in PFAS litigation in federal and state court.

David also has extensive experience handling banking and related lending matters. He has particular expertise litigating fraudulent conveyance claims, having chased evasive debtors for banks when real estate development crashed in the late 2000’s.

David’s practice is deeply rooted and personally inspired. Not long after leaving his first job as a civil litigator at the Georgia Attorney General’s office, David represented a family of nine brothers and sisters that had been fighting the State of Georgia for access to their family farm for 36 years. In that matter, David successfully won a jury verdict condemning an interest in land from the State for a private families’ use for the first time in history. Following that victory, David began focusing more on real estate litigation and has amassed a string of significant victories at trials, on appeals, and in arbitrations. In 2012, David moved his practice to AGG in large part due to this firm’s strong, national, commercial real estate practice. The combination has proven successful as David has continued to win real estate disputes, only now throughout the country instead of just in Georgia.

David is a dedicated community servant, both through AGG and other avenues. David chairs the firm’s Community Engagement Committee, directing AGG’s participation in volunteer and charitable activities. David also serves on the firm’s Diversity Committee. Outside of AGG, David is a Board Member of the Georgia Interfaith Public Policy Council. David also serves on The Temple’s Rothschild Social Justice Institute Council and chairs its Anti- Sex Trafficking group. David graduated from the Anti-Defamation League’s Glass Leadership Institute in 2010, has served on the ADL Southeastern Board of Directors, and currently sits on the ADL Civil Rights Committee.

As the beneficiary of valuable mentorship himself, David devotes significant time to helping young litigators learn from his experience. Many AGG attorneys have taken their first deposition, argued their first motion, and/or had their first jury trial on David’s cases. David started and runs AGG’s Trial Day litigation training exercise.

David is also a twice-published author. He is the Editor of the legal treatise, Georgia Nuisance Law, and wrote the narrative non-fiction book, Appalachian State Silences the Big House: Behind the Greatest Upset in College Football History, published by McFarland & Co. in 2017.