by Natasha Khairullah
Staff Writer
The First Coast Lawyers Forum, “Is Your Business Bulletproof?” Thursday at the Hyatt brought out quite a diverse crowd of local business owners, according to presenters at the seminar.
Roughly 35 business professionals in industries ranging from federal credit unions to trucking companies to air conditioner servicing companies attended the half-day seminar which included a comprehensive business law presentation on issues in different business and industries the FCLF considers to be the most pressing to owners. Among the attendees were Don Hammonds, CEO of Benton Express trucking company, and Mike Langley, president and owner of Kitchen Works.
Ann Bittinger, a board certified health care attorney with the Bittinger Law Firm, made a presentation on contract negotiations. She said that many of the business professionals who attended expressed employee citizenship concerns.
“The Q& A section at the end of the seminar was very interesting,” said Bittinger, “and a majority of the questions were about immigration or collections.”
The 11 different areas explored were: workers’ compensation, health care, trademark and copyright, immigration, mergers and acquisitions, environment, labor relations, commercial litigation, bankruptcy, collections and patent law.
John Polidan, CEO of Enduris Extrusions Inc., said the event was very beneficial to him and his company.
“I thought all the lawyers did a very good jobs and they were open to answering questions,” he said. “They also stimulated a lot of discussion and I hope that this type of event can happen again next year.”
According to the FCLF co-founder, attorney Gregg Gerlach, the seminar went so well the group is considering making it an annual event.
“It far exceeded my expectations,” he said. “As long as we’re all alive and kicking, we’re gonna try to do this again.”