I am a partner in Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick, LLP (Sarasota office). I represent businesses and their owners, particularly entrepreneurs, developers and investors involved in start-ups, acquisitions, sales and reorganizations of LLCs. I have organized thousands of LLCs, partnerships and other entities. I focus on partnership tax rules and organizational statutes governing LLCs, and was involved in drafting of Florida's LLC and partnership statutes. I also have extensive experience with the tax rules applicable to real estate development and investment and other transactions involving pass-through entities.I received my J.D., with honors, from the University of Detroit Law School (1979), and served as the Managing Editor of the Corporate Finance and Business Law Journal there. I received my B.A., with honors, from Michigan State University (1976). I am AV® Peer Review Rated by Martindale-Hubbell, and currently recognized in Best Lawyers in America and as a Super Lawyer® by Super Lawyers® magazine. In 2016 and 2018, I was named “Lawyer of the Year” by Best Lawyers in America (Tax Law in Sarasota). I have twice received a Florida Bar Tax Section Special Merit Award: in 2005 as Chair and Reporter, Revised Florida Limited Partnership Act Drafting Committee, and in 2012 for my work as the Reporter of Revised Florida Limited Liability Company Act Drafting Committee. I have served on the Florida Bar Drafting Committee for the Revised Florida LLC Act as its Reporter from 2008 through 2014, and as Chair of the Florida Bar Tax Section's LLC Sub-Committee from 2006 to the present. I was a member of the ABA Prototype LLC Act Drafting Committee and ABA Business Section’s LLC, Partnership and Unincorporated Entity Task Force reviewing the 2006 Revised Uniform Limited Liability Company Act. I joined the Shumaker firm in 2012. Prior to that I was a shareholder at Greenberg Traurig and before that a partner at Dykema and Akerman.