Spotlight Member Firm: Liebler, Gonzalez & Portuondo
By Susan Koval, Nemeth Law, P.C., Detroit, Michigan
Tampa, FL · Miami, FL · Orlando, FL
Liebler, Gonzalez & Portuondo is a full-service banking, business, complex commercial litigation, and real estate law firm. The firm represents a wide range of corporate and institutional clients including financial institutions, real estate developers, corporations, governmental entities, contractors, and business owners.
1. When was the firm founded and who are the firm’s founders?
Liebler, Gonzalez & Portuondo was founded in 1997 by Juan A. Gonzalez, Randy Liebler & Bernardo Portuondo.
2. Who are the firm’s current leaders and how would you describe the firm’s culture and personality?
The firm’s current leaders are Juan A. Gonzalez, Randy Liebler & Bernardo Portuondo with a firm culture focused on diversity.
3. What makes the Liebler, Gonzalez & Portuondo team so special?
We combine aggressive legal strategies designed to further our clients’ interests with specialized knowledge accrued over long-term experience in our areas of practice. As a result, our law firm is dedicated to achieving our clients’ objectives through strong litigation tactics or proactive dispute resolution techniques. Our focus is on furthering our clients’ interests and taking their business operations in the desired direction. As a practical matter, however, we strive to attain our clients’ goals while keeping financial considerations at the forefront. Feel free to learn even more about us at www.lgplaw.com.
4. What are the firm’s significant areas of practice?
The attorneys of Liebler, Gonzalez & Portuondo have years of experience in representing large institutions in commercial litigation, labor and employment, intellectual property and corporate matters. Our practice areas include civil and commercial litigation at trials, creditors’ rights, real estate transactions, secured lending transactions, municipal bonds and securities, and all areas of corporate law.
Financial institution litigation is one of our primary practice areas. We represent the financial services in all manner of claims arising from their operations and have the deep experience in defending our clients against various claims.
Another highlighted area of our firm is our Labor & Employment Group. This Practice Group has attorneys with extensive experience in defending individual, class and collective actions, including wage and hour, discrimination and Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The L&E Group also offers Employment Litigation and Counseling. As the number of State and federal laws protecting employees in the workplace has resulted in an increased number of employment-related lawsuits in both state and federal courts, our group of experienced and successful labor and employment attorneys handle every type of employment litigation, including class and collective actions, in state and federal.
Another significant area of practice at Liebler, Gonzalez & Portuondo is our Real Estate Group which provides a broad spectrum of legal services across virtually all real estate sectors and serves its investor and institutional clients in the core real estate areas of land acquisitions and sales, project development and construction, capital market financing, portfolio lending, commercial leasing and property management.
LGP’s real estate practice encompasses the representation of local, national, and international banks and financial institutions, real estate developers, deal sponsors and syndicators, real estate investment trusts, private equity funds, foreign national investors, retailers, property managers and hospitality operating and management companies.
5. How did your firm become interested/involved in NAMWOLF? Why did you join?
Our Shareholder, Juan Gonzalez, the Managing Shareholder of LGP had been searching for diverse organizations for the firm to join and happened across articles speaking of the work that NAMWOLF was doing. The relationship with NAMWOLF started from there.
LGP has always wanted to create a firm full of bright lawyers who enjoy working on complex issues, but always wanted to keep focus on the fact that the law is diverse; therefore, so should the lawyers analyzing the cases.
We had to join NAMWOLF. It’s really that simple. LGP and NAMWOLF’s core values are aligned. Our singular focus is a mixture of excellent work product, excellent service whilst positively affecting the community. So, community mindedness starts right at the firm.
6. Why is diversity important to your firm?
As South Florida’s most diverse and inclusive minority-owned law firm, our multi-lingual attorneys serve an international client base. We consider diversity to be a key value and vital component to our identity as a law firm. We believe that our attorneys and professional staff members should reflect the community in which we live and work on a daily basis. As a result, we take great care and pride in selecting our members from a wide variety of cultures, races, and world views to enrich the quality of our firm. Our lawyers, paralegals, and support staff members comprise a rich mixture of both men and women of various races, ages, religions, sexual orientations, physical abilities, and ethnic backgrounds.
This commitment to diversity makes our law firm unique among comparable firms. In fact, the firm has been recognized for our commitment to diversity and was named the most diverse law firm in South Florida for 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014 and 2015. Our diversity statistics and commitment to the community are unparalleled in South Florida because we are also dedicated to our community.
7. The firm has made substantial contributions to NAMWOLF since joining the organization. Please share some highlights of your activities.
LGP had the honor of hosting the Miami NAMWOLF Business Meeting. It was definitely a lot of work, but it was great to see a meeting be so successful. Also, LGP was able to use its connections with the White House and convince the United States Attorney General, Eric Holder to address NAMWOLF at its annual convention in 2014. Chad Lang and Janeen Lofton have conducted CLEs and presented White Papers at NAMWOLF. Also, Janeen is currently serving as Co-Chairperson of the Emerging Leaders and founded the NAMWOLF Mentorship Program. Finally, LGP is most proud of the fact that it has been able to convince its clients to add the entire NAMWOLF outside counsel roster to its approved vendor lists. LGP believes in being part of a team that shares as this is the type of attitude that has aided in LGP’s success and will continue LGP’s success well into the future.