Lieser Skaff, PLLC

Focus and practice areas

Based in Tampa, Florida, this boutique firm centers its work on business disputes and business deals. Lieser Skaff was founded in 2009 by Jeff Lieser and Ghada Skaff. The practice pairs litigation with transactional work, so a company can bring both a lawsuit and a contract drafting job to the same office.

The business litigation side handles contract disputes, shareholder derivative actions, breach of fiduciary duty claims, partnership disputes, and non-compete matters. The transactional side covers business formation, contract drafting, corporate governance, and company dissolution. In my opinion that pairing suits owners who want the same firm to set up a company and to defend it later.

The firm also lists real estate law, construction, mediation, employment, defamation, class actions, and probate and estate planning among its areas. That range gives a small office a broad menu for Florida businesses and the people who run them.

How the team is built

The published roster lists ten attorneys. Jeff Lieser and Ghada Skaff hold the co-managing partner titles, and the rest of the group includes partners, a senior associate, an associate, and several of-counsel lawyers.

Beyond the two founders, the firm names Stephanie M. Martin, Will Roberts, and Bo Sellitti as partners, and Michael F. Singer as a senior associate. Lauren Maier works as an associate. Joseph N. Alexander, Carla Markowitz, and Karen J. Prevatt hold of-counsel roles.

The founders

Jeff Lieser works as a litigator and as a certified Circuit Civil mediator. He is a veteran and a Reserve Judge Advocate in the U.S. Army J.A.G. Corps. Reserve service in the J.A.G. Corps means he holds a military legal role alongside his civilian practice. His practice covers real estate, business litigation, and construction law, and he represents clients in both state and federal courts.

Ghada Skaff is a Tampa native whose practice focuses on business transactions and corporate law. She was previously general counsel to a Tampa-based manufacturing company, which gives her a view of legal problems from inside a business. She is fluent in an Arabic dialect and proficient in Modern Standard Arabic, so clients who prefer Arabic have a lawyer who can work in it.

Real estate, construction, and mediation

Property work runs alongside the firm's business practice. The real estate group handles residential and commercial transactions, construction disputes, homeowner and condominium association matters, and landlord-tenant issues.

Construction law overlaps both the real estate and litigation work, and Jeff Lieser's practice includes it directly. Mediation gives clients a route to settle a matter before trial, and Lieser holds a Circuit Civil mediator certification. As a reviewer, I read that mediation option as a sign the firm can work toward a resolution as well as argue a case in court.

Association matters and landlord-tenant issues follow their own rules in Florida. Homeowner and condominium disputes often turn on the recorded declaration and the association's governing documents, and landlord-tenant questions run through the state's tenancy statutes. Construction disputes bring in the contract, any lien claims, and the record of the work performed. These points describe the usual mechanics of such matters in Florida.

How the business work runs

Business litigation of this kind tends to turn on documents. Contract disputes and non-compete matters usually rest on the signed agreement and the record of what each side did. Shareholder derivative actions and breach of fiduciary duty claims put the conduct of a company's officers and directors under review, and partnership disputes often come down to the partnership agreement and the money behind it. A firm that also drafts contracts sees where these disputes tend to start, which can shape how it litigates them.

On the transactional side, formation work sets up the legal shell a business runs inside: the choice of entity, and the operating agreement that governs how owners share control. Contract drafting and corporate governance then keep that structure working as the company grows, and governance work keeps board and owner decisions on record if a dispute later reaches a court. Company dissolution closes a business down in an orderly way when owners part or a venture ends.

The firm's other areas

Employment, defamation, class actions, and estate work fill out the rest of the list. Employment matters cover the relationship between a company and its staff, defamation claims deal with statements that harm a reputation, and class actions group many similar claims into one case. Probate and estate planning cover how property passes on and how an estate settles after a death. A client with a business often has one or two of these needs alongside the main matter.

Reach and clients

The firm states that it represents clients throughout the United States, and it describes a client base that includes both S&P 500 companies and individuals. For a boutique office, that is a wide span of client size.

The roster's mix of partners, of-counsel lawyers, and associates lets the firm staff a matter at different levels of seniority and cost. That structure is common among small firms that take both individual and corporate clients. Lieser and Skaff have led the firm since they opened it in Tampa in 2009.