The Jacksonville-based law firm opened in 1982 and has been involved in many of Northeast Florida’s largest development projects, including Nocatee and the World Golf Village. Daily Record staff writer Michele Newbern Gillis met recently with managing partners Lynn Pappas and John Metcalf to discuss the firm.
WHAT DOES THE FIRM DO?
The firm is a general civil practice with an emphasis on all aspects of commercial real estate transactions and development. “We do all facets of real estate law,” said Pappas. “This includes transactional, financing, environmental, commercial and land use.”
WHAT ARE
YOU KNOWN FOR?
“We are known for commercial real estate development, which some people call land use law,” said Metcalf.
WHAT DO YOU DO FOR YOUR CLIENTS?
“Most of our clients are large community developers,” said Metcalf. “What they do is take large tracts of undeveloped land and turn it into developments, including water and sewer, building roads, getting the zoning approvals, environmental permits, buying the land, financing the land and selling the land. We help them with all that.”
LARGE PROJECTS YOUR FIRM HAS HANDLED?
Nocatee, World Golf Village, Palencia, Aberdeen and Durbin Crossing, Sawgrass and Sawmill Lakes.
WHO ARE YOUR CLIENTS?
Vestcor Companies, St. Joe Company, Flagler Development, LandMar Group LLC, Arvida and Fletcher Land Company.
OPPOSITION
“Inevitably, you wind up with projects that you are seeking approval for that have environmental or even community group opposition,” said Pappas. “That is just part of the mission.”
WHAT COMES AROUND GOES AROUND
“What is interesting is that we have been at it long enough where most of the large projects we took through the process had significant opposition,” said Metcalf. “But now, the opposition that is coming against the new projects is coming from the people who live in the projects we got approved before who are very proud of their existing community.”
ISSUES FACING COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE ATTORNEYS?
“It is an increasingly combative climate,” said Pappas. “In North Florida, we’ve had the luxury for many years of being a fairly development-friendly environment. But, over time as the population grows and the community becomes more dense, it’s just a natural evolution that you get more opposition and resistance. It means that you have to be mindful of that going into the process. You have to start being more collaborative and anticipating where the problems are going to lie and where the opposition might be. In a vast majority of cases, the opposition is based on a misunderstanding of what you are attempting to accomplish. If you bring people along and educate them about what is really happening as opposed to what the rumor mill is telling them, you can diffuse a tremendous amount of opposition and hostility.”
WHAT MAKES DEVELOPMENT DIFFICULT?
“I think there have been changes in the law that make it somewhat easier for opponents of development to hold projects up in the legal process,” said Metcalf. “So, if you are able to compromise with — or convince — 98 percent of the people that your project is OK, the two percent can still have an enormous impact. That wasn’t quite as true 15 years ago. I think we are seeing a lot more litigation now. It was always a process that has a lot of conflict, but at the end of it the local government made its decision and that was pretty much it. And now, there is quite often litigation at the end of it.”
PROUD OF CLIENTS?
“We are really proud of our clients and the projects they have developed because they are some of the best examples of good developments in Florida,” said Metcalf.
PARTNERS
Pappas, Metcalf, Tom Jenks, Frank Miller, Robert Leapley and Marcia Tjoflat.
ASSOCIATES
G. Todd Cottrill, Gary Davenport, Victoria Donato, Steven Greenhut, Thomas Ingram, W. William Li and Kathryn Whittington.
WHAT DO PAPPAS
AND METCALF DO?
“It’s a small firm, so the scope of management is fairly limited,” said Pappas. “We generally review most of the policy-related and business decisions on a daily basis. We meet every other week and what we take back to the partners is a recommendation of whatever John and I have digested and come to grips with that week. These decisions would include reviewing a budget for the firm, buying major equipment or hiring new associates.”
WHERE DOES
THE FIRM PRACTICE?
Primarily in Northeast Florida, but they handle transactions throughout Florida.
WHO STARTED THE FIRM?
Pappas, Metcalf and another attorney who is no longer with the firm. They started with three attorneys and grew the firm from there.
WITH PAPPAS SERVING AS CHAIRMAN OF THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, DOES THE FIRM ENCOURAGE CIVIC INVOLVEMENT?
“Yes, and we have varying degrees of participation,” said Pappas. “Some are very active and others moderately active. But we definitely encourage it and try to direct associates towards activities that are civic based and community service oriented.”
PROFESSIONAL INVOLVEMENT?
Members of the firm are involved in the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties, Florida Planning and Zoning Association, the American Planning Association and the Jacksonville Bar Association. “There are sections of the Bar that are related to what we do, so from a continuing education standpoint we are all members of different sections of the Bar,” said Pappas. “We all stay pretty well involved in our professional relationships.”
HOW IS YOUR
OFFICE UNIQUE?
“We have a tremendous focus on the quality of the service we provide,” said Pappas. “That’s everything from the value, the pricing as well as the responsiveness, to the quality of the product. Because we started small, we have always been small and we’ve had to compete; we’ve had to do a better job to attract the business. I don’t think we’ve ever lowered our standards.”
OTHER WAYS
YOU ARE UNIQUE?
“Even though we are a very small firm, we have a large number of attorneys that are knowledgeable about real estate development,” said Metcalf. “While we are somewhat specialized to real estate development, the individual attorneys have a pretty broad background in all aspects of real estate including commercial business, lending and land use and zoning regulations. Almost everyone in our firm has at least some of knowledge of environmental permitting.”
GROWING THE FIRM?
“We have been considering hiring an additional associate, but for us it is driven more by the credentials of the individual,” said Pappas. “If we don’t find the right person, we won’t hire another associate.”