Settlement Agreement Drafting:
Key Components, Tips, Legal Help

Josh Bernstein has been serving real estate and corporate transactional clients since 2002. His experience is varied, and he enjoys working on and puzzling out novel and complex corporate and real estate matters. Josh’s experience includes, among other things, the following: representation of public companies in connection with SEC reporting and compliance work (proxies, 10-K’s; 10-Q’s; 8-K’s, etc.); representation of public and private company securities issuances (including private placements, and other similar offerings); assistance in structuring and drafting joint ventures, both for investors and operating partners, and including both real estate and corporate ventures; handling public and private company mergers and acquisitions; and asset sales and dispositions; assisting clients, big and small, with real estate acquisitions, sales and financings; managing large-scale and multi-state real estate portfolio acquisitions, dispositions and financings; complex condominium creation, structuring and governance work, including: commercial condominiums, use of condominiums as a land planning tool, wholesale condominium property acquisitions and dispositions, and rehabilitating failed or faulty condominium legal structures to make ready for sale; development of restrictive covenants and owners’ association documents for master-planned communities; compliance with federal statutes governing real estate sale and development (including, without limitation, the Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act, the Housing for Older Persons Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act); representation of real estate lenders, for both improved and unimproved property, and including numerous construction financings secured by real estate; assistance with commercial leasing; from both the landlord and tenant side, and including condominium leasing; training residential home and condominium sales staff for compliance with applicable local and federal law; and workouts of all kinds. When he’s not busy lawyering, Josh may be found watching 80’s commercials, flying a single-engine plane, playing poker, or trying to be a good dad.

Bryan J. Reddix is an experienced attorney and contracts management professional with over a decade of expertise navigating complex commercial and government contracting. Serving as both internal General Counsel and a senior Contracts Director, Bryan specializes in drafting, negotiating, and risk-mitigating a wide spectrum of agreements across the technology, federal procurement, and small business sectors. His deep familiarity with the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR/DFARS), corporate compliance, and intellectual property allows him to provide holistic, strategic legal guidance that protects business interests while driving profitability.

With 20 years of transactional law experience, I have represented corporate giants like AT&T and T-Mobile, as well as mid-size and small businesses across a wide spectrum of legal needs, including business purchase agreements, entity formation, employment matters, commercial and residential real estate transactions, partnership agreements, online business terms and policy drafting, and business and corporate compliance. Recognizing the complexities of the legal landscape, I am dedicated to providing accessible and transparent legal services by offering a flat fee structure, making high-quality legal representation available to all. My extensive knowledge and commitment to client success establishes me as a trusted advisor for businesses of all sizes.

Erdal Turnacioglu of Erdal Employment Law focuses on providing employment solutions to both employees and businesses, whether through litigation, review of employee handbooks, workplace investigations, or training seminars.

Ben is the founder of the Middleton Law Firm (2022). He has experience in the European Union and the United States. He interned with the University Rijeka, Croatia assisting businesses with trademark, Uniform Domain-Name Registry Dispute Registry, European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) privacy law compliance, and International Comparative Copyright issues as the country itself prepared itself for European Union statehood. He worked with Michigan State University's Anti-Counterfeit and Product Protection (A-CAPP) Center to protect and enforce its intellectual property in foreign territories and moderated panel discussions with brand owners and U.S. Customs to curb counterfeit products. Ben assisted indigent artists with legal issues and in some cases brought their works to life with Georgia Lawyers for the Arts. Ben is admitted to the federal courts of Georgia. Before practicing law, Ben worked for Core Security and Meridian Link as a software QA engineer in the information technology (IT) space. Ben produced countless commercial music recordings, engineered hundreds of songs, and served as executive producer seven studio albums as a founding member of member of Million Dollar Minds Entertainment (Est. 2006). He is an alumnus of The South Carolina State University (Bulldogs) and Michigan State University (Spartans).

Ms. Leavens is a corporate attorney with 10 years of experience as the General Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer and Corporate Secretary of a Congressionally chartered, non-profit corporation, and more than 20 years of experience as an advisor to executive officers and boards of directors in for-profit and non-profit organizations. She has substantial experience within in-house legal departments managing cross-functional teams comprised of multiple business units and attorneys on large-scale mission critical projects, and within a global law firm as a manager of public and private, domestic and international, multi-party business transactions. She has unique experience implementing government-sponsored business initiatives. Ms. Leavens was honored in 2015 as one of Washington, D.C.’s Top Corporate Counsel by Bisnow and the Association of Corporate Counsel; nominated in 2014 for the Association of Corporate Counsel (WMACCA) Outstanding Chief Legal Officer Award; and the recipient in 2014 of WMACCA’s Community Service Award.

Most of my career has been as in-house counsel for technology companies. My responsibilities included managing all vendor/procurement contracts and compliance, customer/partner/reseller contracts and compliance, data security/privacy compliance and incident responses, HR/employment issues, and legal operations. I am very comfortable negotiating Commercial Contracts, Vendor Agreements, and Procurement Contracts for goods, services, and licensing, as well as addressing Employment & Labor, Intellectual Property, and Data Privacy issues and compliance. I specialized and have a certificate in IP in law school and continued to develop in that area as in-house counsel for Interactive Intelligence, Genesys, which are unified communication companies, and KAR Global in the automobile digital services lines of business.