Davidson Fink LLP

Where the firm concentrates its work

The firm has worked from Rochester, New York, since 1968, and it describes its focus as commercial. Nearly six decades in one city gives a legal team time to build relationships with local banks, businesses, and property owners. In my opinion, that long single-market history matters more for a commercial firm than for many others, because lending and real estate work leans on knowing the people and the local rules.

Six practice areas anchor the work: banking, business, agribusiness, litigation, and real estate, plus landlord representation. The common thread is lending and property. Agribusiness sits among those areas, which links farm-related businesses to the banking and land work the firm already handles.

The clients it takes on

The firm's clients include large financial institutions, private individuals, and family-owned businesses. That spread shapes the work. A bank brings loan documents, default files, and collection matters. A family business brings leases, purchases, and the occasional dispute. Both sit inside the same set of practice areas, so the firm can handle a routine transaction and, if it comes to it, the contested matter that follows, all for the same client.

The business practice supports the entity side of that client base. It covers the work a company needs across its life: forming the business, drafting and reviewing agreements, and handling the corporate questions that come with growth or a sale. Robert Galbraith's corporate work and the firm's banking practice often meet here, since a business that borrows also has to keep its corporate house in order.

Serving clients locally, regionally, and nationally is a claim the firm makes on its home page. For a Rochester firm, national reach usually comes through lender and default work, where a servicer or financial institution hands one legal team its files, which originate in many states. The banking and creditors' rights focus fits that pattern.

Banking, collections, and the litigation group

The banking practice covers commercial lending, default servicing, and creditors' rights litigation. Commercial lending work supports the paperwork and terms behind a loan. Default servicing picks up when a borrower stops paying, and it moves a file through the steps a lender follows before and during a court case. Creditors' rights litigation is the courtroom end of that same process.

The litigation group carries matters that sit close to the banking side. It handles commercial litigation, construction law, commercial collections, creditor's rights litigation, and lender and class action defense. Because collections and creditor's rights live in the same group as the banking practice, a lender facing a default can pursue the claim through one firm.

Construction law and class action defense broaden the group. Construction disputes usually turn on contracts and payment among the owner, the contractor, and the subcontractors on a job. Class action defense puts the firm on the side of a company or lender that answers claims brought by a group of plaintiffs, a kind of case that runs long and turns on early procedural rulings.

Real estate work

Real estate is one of the firm's larger areas. It reaches commercial and residential property, development, and commercial leasing, and it extends to zoning and land use and to tax assessment. Commercial real estate work handles the purchase, sale, and financing of income property. Residential real estate work handles homes, which for a commercial firm often means closings tied to its banking clients.

Landlord representation gets its own listing, which points to steady work for property owners who rent space. Commercial leasing work drafts and negotiates the terms between a landlord and a business tenant, including rent, length, and repair duties. Zoning and land use questions usually go before a municipal board, where an owner or developer has to show a plan meets local code before a project moves ahead. Development work sits next to that and follows a project through approvals and construction. Tax assessment work means challenging a property's assessed value, the route an owner takes to lower a tax bill through the local assessor or a formal proceeding.

The attorneys and their training

The attorneys page lists the team by rank: partners, associates, senior counsel, and retired members. Scott Sydelnik is the managing partner. The listing also keeps a retired category, which a firm with this many years behind it would naturally carry. A stated bench of partners and associates suggests the firm spreads work across several hands, which fits a firm that runs banking, litigation, and real estate at the same time.

Partners with published backgrounds

Anthony Adiutori is a partner in the real estate practice group. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Dartmouth College and a Juris Doctor from Brooklyn Law School, and his work centers on commercial real estate and development, with banking and debt collection alongside it.

Robert Galbraith, Jr. is a partner whose practice covers real estate, commercial real estate, banking, and corporate law. He earned a Bachelor of Arts from Hamilton College and a Juris Doctor from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Glenn Fjermedal, another partner, works on debt and lending agreements, litigation, bankruptcy, commercial real estate, and business litigation. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Colgate University and a Juris Doctor from Albany Law School.

Miranda Jakubec is a partner in bankruptcy and creditor debtor rights, an area that ties back to the firm's banking and collections work. Sean Williams is a senior associate who attended Syracuse University College of Law. The roster also names Kathryn Assini, Duncan Eigg, and Elizabeth Ogden as associates, Jacqueline Carosa as senior counsel, and Molly Chapman and Laura Burgess among the partners. The published credentials point to a mix of regional and out-of-state law schools.

Bar work and community involvement

The firm says its attorneys hold leadership positions in local and state bar associations and in industry trade organizations. They also lecture, run seminars, and publish articles. As a reviewer, I read that as a team that stays current on how banking and real estate law changes and keeps its lawyers in front of peers who send referrals.

The firm and its staff also take part in charitable efforts. An annual United Way campaign anchors that giving, and the firm lists support for Habitat for Humanity, Sample Soap, and the Willow Domestic Violence Center.