Assouline & Berlowe, P.A.

Focus and practice areas

The firm handles business litigation and transactional work for companies across South Florida, and it takes on local, national, and international clients. Its cases split into two broad tracks: disputes and deals. In my opinion the pairing of courtroom work and deal work is the clearest way to read this firm.

The disputes track starts with business litigation and dispute resolution. The firm's creditors' rights and bankruptcy practice represents both debtors and creditors in state, federal, and bankruptcy courts. That work includes commercial collections, secured transactions, and Chapter 11 workouts. Handling both sides of a bankruptcy matter is a practical advantage, because the same lawyers know how each position argues its case.

The firm describes its clients as local, national, and international, and it keeps that range across its practice groups. A South Florida company and an overseas counterparty can end up on the same matter. Business litigation gives the firm a steady base, and the transactional groups give clients somewhere to go once a dispute is behind them.

The transactional and IP work

On the transactional side, the corporate and finance practice covers business formation, corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions, and finance. A typical acquisition moves through due diligence, drafting, and closing, with the lawyers papering the deal and clearing conditions before money changes hands. The firm pairs this deal work with the litigation practice, so a dispute over a contract can go to the same building where the contract was written.

Intellectual property

The firm files and prosecutes patents, trademarks, and copyrights, which means moving applications through the United States Patent and Trademark Office and the Copyright Office. It also works on trade secret law and litigates IP disputes when they arise. Trade secret matters often overlap with the firm's non-compete work, since both turn on protecting information an employer wants to keep. For a business litigation firm, that is a fairly wide IP footprint.

Real estate

The real estate practice handles acquisition, development, and finance. Those matters often run alongside the corporate and lending work, since a purchase, a construction project, and a loan tend to travel together. Development work in particular can involve permitting and construction contracts, so a real estate matter often touches several of the firm's groups at once. The firm also lists succession planning among its areas, which points to work on how ownership passes over time.

Where the firm came from

Eric Assouline and Peter Berlowe started the firm in 2003. Before that, both worked as litigators at the Miami office of Weil, Gotshal & Manges, LLP. Both also served as editors of the University of Miami Law Review. As a reviewer, I read that shared background as the reason the firm leans so heavily toward business litigation.

The two founders remain at the center of the work. Peter Berlowe is a co-founder and partner. Eric Assouline is a co-founder and partner as well, and he heads two of the firm's practices. That continuity means the names on the door are still the names running the litigation and bankruptcy work.

How the team is built

The site's attorney roster lists fifteen lawyers across the three offices. The roster mixes partners, of counsel attorneys, and associates. Partners named on the site include Sheri M. Alter, Kevin Klagge, Peter A. Koziol, Alan E. Krinzman, Ellen M. Leibovitch, and Carl H. Perdue. Jay R. Beskin and David R. O'Steen are listed as of counsel. Francisco Barreto and Andres J. Caldera are associates. A roster weighted toward partners and of counsel points to a group with a fair amount of seniority.

Eric Assouline heads the bankruptcy and creditor rights practice and the business litigation and dispute resolution practice, and he works from the Miami and Fort Lauderdale offices. His record includes defending court-appointed receivers of financial and insurance companies in state and federal cases. He has also prosecuted a fraudulent transfer action for a federal court-appointed receiver.

How the creditor and employment work proceeds

Creditors' rights work runs through the bankruptcy courts. A Chapter 11 workout, for example, has a debtor proposing a plan while creditors press their claims for payment. Commercial collections and secured transactions turn on documents: promissory notes, security agreements, and the filings that fix who gets paid first. A firm that handles both the debtor and creditor sides, as this one does, has to read all of those positions.

The labor and employment practice counsels employers. It handles discrimination and harassment claims, wage and FLSA claims, and non-compete litigation. Non-compete disputes in Florida often move quickly, with early motions over injunctions and access to former customers. In my opinion that mix fits a firm whose founders came up as litigators.

Reach and offices

The firm runs three offices in South Florida: Miami, Fort Lauderdale (in the Dania area), and Boca Raton. That spread lets it cover Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties from local addresses.

Its work also crosses borders. The firm says its attorneys have handled cross-border transactions in Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East. Its international law and arbitration practice supports that work.