Stanton Cronin Law Group, P.L.

Focus and practice areas

The firm works across four connected areas from a single office in Tampa, Florida: business law and litigation, civil litigation, estate planning, and real estate and title. The mix leans toward commercial work and the disputes that grow out of it. That pairing matters because a business client often needs both the contract drafted and a courtroom option when a deal breaks down.

The business side covers entity formation, contract drafting, and small business counsel. When agreements turn into disagreements, the firm litigates them as well. Its civil litigation work has reached state and federal courts, and it has included class action matters. In my opinion, a practice that keeps both the transactional and the courtroom halves under one roof gives a client fewer handoffs when a dispute escalates.

Class action work falls at the heavier end of civil litigation. These cases group many claimants with a shared complaint into one action, and they turn on early questions of whether the court will certify the group. A firm that has handled matters at this level has taken on litigation with real procedural weight.

How the partnership formed

Michael Stanton and Sean Cronin founded the firm in 2011. They met in law school in 2000 and had worked together since 2005, so the firm opened on top of roughly a decade of shared practice. Both earned their law degrees from the University of Florida, Fredric G. Levin College of Law, in 2000.

That shared history shapes how the work divides. Stanton carries the managing attorney role along with the business and civil litigation load. Cronin, a co-founding attorney, works across a wider spread of subjects. The two backgrounds overlap enough to cover for each other and differ enough to widen what the firm can take on.

Michael Stanton's background

Stanton earned his J.D. from the University of Florida Levin College of Law in 2000 and his B.A. from the University of Florida in 1997, magna cum laude. He was admitted to The Florida Bar in 2000.

His litigation work centers on business and financial services disputes, workplace disputes, commercial litigation, and class action litigation. He has represented individuals and businesses of every size in state and federal courts throughout Florida. His arbitration experience includes matters before FINRA, NYSE, and AAA, three of the main forums where securities and brokerage disputes get heard. He has also worked on international litigation in The Hague and on commercial transactions such as lease negotiations.

A short note helps readers outside the securities world. FINRA and NYSE arbitration panels hear disputes among investors, brokers, and firms, and AAA runs a broad slate of commercial arbitration. A lawyer with experience across all three has argued inside the private forums where much financial-industry conflict gets resolved.

Sean Cronin's practice

Cronin earned his J.D. from the University of Florida, Fredric G. Levin College of Law, in 2000. His practice runs across arbitration, civil and commercial litigation, criminal matters, real estate, business law, and health law. That range is wider than his co-founder's, and it covers several of the areas the firm lists as its own.

Cronin's real estate and business law work matches the firm's named services, and his litigation and arbitration experience lines up with the disputes the firm handles. His criminal and health law experience adds subjects that widen the firm's reach for clients whose questions cross those lines. Health law alone can touch licensing, regulatory questions, and disputes that a purely commercial practice rarely sees.

What the day-to-day work covers

On the business side, the firm forms entities, drafts contracts, and counsels small businesses through the questions that come up as they grow. Entity formation usually starts with a choice of structure, an LLC or a corporation, and the operating or shareholder agreement that sets how owners share control and profit. Contract drafting then puts the terms of a deal into language meant to hold up if the deal is later tested. When a contract dispute lands, the same firm can litigate it. This group also includes commercial and financial services litigation, which fits Stanton's background.

The estate planning practice covers wills, trusts, and probate avoidance. Probate avoidance commonly works through revocable living trusts and beneficiary designations that move assets outside the court process, which can save an estate time and cost. The firm also represents clients when an estate turns contentious, in matters such as contested wills and claims of trustee misconduct. These disputes usually move through the probate division of the local circuit court, where a judge weighs the validity of a will or the conduct of a fiduciary. Having a litigator draft the plan can help when someone later challenges it.

Real estate services include closings and title insurance assistance. A closing brings together the purchase contract, the title search, and the lender's requirements, and title insurance protects a buyer against defects in the chain of ownership. For a buyer, a clean title search and the coverage behind it reduce the risk of a later claim on the property. Keeping this alongside the firm's business and estate work lets a client hold property, entity, and inheritance questions with one office.

How clients work with the firm

The firm describes a small practice where clients work directly with a senior attorney. For someone weighing a business dispute or an estate question, that structure means the lawyer who hears the first account is the one who carries the file. A direct line to a partner can matter most when a case is first framed, since the early choices about strategy and forum shape what follows. The firm offers free initial consultations at its Tampa office, which gives a prospective client a way to test the fit early.

As a reviewer, I read this firm as a two-partner firm with deep litigation roots and a service list built around Tampa Bay businesses and the people who run them. The details on the site are concrete: named attorneys, dated credentials, specific arbitration forums, and a defined set of practice areas. The firm has practiced under this partnership since 2011.