Panakos Law, APC

Focus and practice areas

Panakos Law is a business-focused firm in San Diego that works with companies across California. It helps owners start and fund a company, then operate it, grow it, and sell it when the time comes. The core work covers entity formation, including LLCs, S-corporations, and C-corporations, along with contract drafting, review, and enforcement.

Entity choice shapes how a company is taxed and who carries liability, so the pick between an LLC and a corporation matters at the very start. The firm handles that formation step and the contracts a young company signs as it begins to operate. Real estate transactions and employment and labor questions round out the everyday work. In my opinion, the range here is broad for an office of this size, and it points to attorneys who each own a defined area.

Deal work and intellectual property

Mergers and acquisitions run through due diligence, valuation, and the negotiation of purchase terms before a deal closes. Panakos Law advises on these transactions and on the private securities offerings a company uses to raise money from investors. Securities work carries its own compliance steps, since offerings answer to both federal and California rules.

The firm also files and protects trademarks and other intellectual property. A trademark gives a business a legal claim to its name and brand, and registration strengthens that claim if a competitor copies it. For a company that has spent years building a name, that protection guards real value.

Handling disputes and litigation

Business relationships break down, and Panakos Law represents clients when they do. The firm takes on business disputes, commercial litigation, and conflicts among partners, founders, and shareholders. Partnership and shareholder fights often turn on the operating agreement or bylaws the parties signed at the start, so a firm that also drafts those documents knows the ground it argues on.

Ownership disputes usually move through negotiation, then mediation or arbitration, and reach trial only when those steps fail. Panakos Law names attorneys who work at each of these stages. A client gets the same team whether a matter settles early or goes before a judge.

Mediation and arbitration keep many business disputes out of open court, and both need a lawyer who can argue a position without a jury present. The firm's trial attorney and its founder both work in those settings as well as at trial.

How the team is built

The firm lists five attorneys, supported by paralegals and administrative staff. Each one heads or supports a named area, which makes the roles easy to follow.

The managing attorneys

Aaron D. Sadock is the founder and managing attorney, admitted to the California Bar in February 2012. He leads the complex commercial and civil disputes division and usually appears as the attorney of record in the firm's litigation. He also works as a mediator for individual and corporate clients, which is useful grounding for a lawyer who spends his days in disputes.

Mark P. Devincentis, a managing attorney admitted in January 2012, leads the securities and transactions division. He drafts commercial contracts and handles the enforcement of client agreements through dispute resolution, mediation, and litigation. Between the two managing attorneys, the senior work splits along a clear line: Sadock runs disputes, Devincentis runs deals and securities.

Senior counsel and trial work

Daniel A. Kaplan joins as senior counsel and brings the longest record on the roster. He has practiced in San Diego since 1996, was admitted to the California Bar in December 1995, and holds an AV+ rating from Martindale Hubbell. He founded the Law Offices of Daniel A. Kaplan in 2011 and now works with the Panakos Law team on complex disputes, corporate litigation, and civil litigation.

Veronica "Bonnie" McKnight is the senior trial attorney, admitted in December 2015, and she leads the civil litigation division. She has in-court experience and represents clients in mediation, arbitration, and at trial. She works alongside Sadock and Devincentis on the firm's business and commercial matters.

Associate and real estate work

Cameron Bell is the associate attorney, working across the transactional and litigation practice groups. He advises small business clients on transactions, ownership transitions, and disputes, and he leads the firm's real estate matters. His background covers commercial real estate, including mixed-use property portfolios and lease administration.

How the firm engages clients

Panakos Law offers several billing arrangements: flat-fee, hourly, contingency, and hybrid engagements. That range gives a client room to match the structure to the matter, since a fixed contract review and a multi-year lawsuit carry very different risk. For a business, the billing model often matters as much as the hourly figure, because it decides how risk is shared between client and firm. The firm describes itself as small and boutique, with a focus on commercial law.

What the record shows

As a reviewer, I read a firm partly by what it publishes about its own people, and Panakos Law publishes bar admission dates for four of its five attorneys. Those dates put all four in practice for more than a decade, with Kaplan's admission going back to 1995. A named division and a precise admission date for each senior lawyer give a prospective client something concrete to check.

The site does not list a founding year, so the firm's exact age is unclear. What it does publish is specific: admission dates, division assignments, and, for Kaplan, an AV+ rating and a San Diego start in 1996. Those are the details a business owner can confirm before making the first call.