Agribusiness

Agribusiness Practice
Our Services
Notable Work
Our Team
Electronic Alerts
Agribusiness Articles
Seminar Materials

Agribusiness Practice

Dean Mead's Agribusiness Team has a long history of representing businesses and individuals engaged in agribusiness operations throughout the State of Florida. Our Team includes attorneys from every department and office throughout the firm so we are able to provide our clients with comprehensive legal counsel that addresses every aspect of their operations.

We actively represent clients involved in citrus, cattle, timber, vegetables and aquaculturess.
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Our Services

Our Team regularly assists clients in selecting the most appropriate type of entity to use for any given business venture and we help clients with legal issues related to the administration of the business once it has been formed.

Our Team represents both landlords and tenants in commercial leasing transactions. We assist our clients with preparation of lease forms, drafting and negotiation of leases and resolution of lease disputes. We also assist clients in reviewing, drafting and negotiating all types of contracts.

Our Team assists agribusiness clients in all aspects of tax planning related to the operation of their businesses. In addition, we provide a broad array of tax services in connection with real estate transactions, including the structuring of tax-free exchanges, planning to preserve long-term capital gains in connection with dispositions of real estate and the structuring of joint venture arrangements for the acquisition and/or development of real properties. Dean Mead attorney Charlie Egerton is recognized as a national expert in the areas of like-kind exchanges and taxation of real estate development.

Our Team regularly assists agribusiness clients with legal issues related to development of former agricultural lands. We have extensive experience in dealing with the broad range of issues that arise in the development process, including impact fees, concurrency, endangered species, wetlands, infrastructure construction and development permitting. In addition, we assist clients with the purchase and sale of real property, including all related contracts and financing issues.

Our Team has extensive experience in commercial finance and regularly represents borrowers throughout the state. We structure a variety of commercial lending transactions including agribusiness loans, real estate development loans and asset-based loans and we handle all related negotiation and documentation.

Our Team addresses complex environmental problems confronting our clients in areas such as hazardous waste disposal, water pollution and hazardous material transportation.

Our Team is conducting extensive research on carbon credit trading in an effort to better represent our clients in this new and evolving field. The appeal of carbon credit trading is that it can provide landowners with a revenue source for doing something they would like to promote anyway. While Florida does not have an established market at this time, that is expected to change in 2010 with the introduction of a cap and trade program and our Team will be in a position to counsel clients on how to utilize the program to achieve their objectives.

Our Team works directly with water management district staffs throughout the State of Florida in an effort to achieve our clients' objectives. Team member Michael Minton is the past vice chairman of the Governing Board for the South Florida Water Management District (1997-2001). His previous service on the Governing Board gives him special insight into the District's operations.

Our Team has significant experience in both routine as well as high-profile, leading-edge land use matters. We regularly handle obtaining local government approvals, such as comprehensive plan changes, developments of regional impact, rezoning, variances, special exceptions, conditional uses and planned developments in a variety of situations and jurisdictions.

Our Team assists land owners in negotiations with local water management districts and other state and federal authorities to obtain permits to create and operate a mitigation bank. Our Team also assists mitigation banks in determining the tax treatment of creating and operating such banks, including qualifying for like-kind exchange treatment.

Our Team represents property owners in matters involving governmental and quasi-governmental acquisition of private property interests and rights. We work with clients who have lost the function or use of property as a result of governmental regulations. This representation includes negotiated resolutions, administrative hearings and litigation. We also litigate many other real property disputes where the government is a potential party. In addition, we routinely handle due diligence and valuation and represent clients in real property valuation disputes.

Our Team has experience assisting clients with disputes and liability related to pesticide usage.

Our Team assists clients in complying with the applicable Occupational Safety or Mine Safety and Health Act regulations. We also assist in contesting citations issued by the regulatory agencies and in defending citation enforcement litigation and employee retaliation claims.

Our Team assists clients in evaluating insurance coverage to determine the coverage to which they are entitled and we assist clients in resolving any relevant disputes.

Our Team includes attorneys who specialize in estate and trust administration matters, including the development of estate plans that help our clients achieve maximum savings in income, estate, gift and generation-skipping transfer taxes. We handle the traditional aspects of personal estate planning, such as the preparation of revocable trusts, wills and irrevocable trusts. We also analyze and implement the latest techniques to reduce estate and gift taxes and preserve our clients' wealth. In addition, we assist our clients with the preparation of estate and gift tax returns, audits of those returns and appeals to the IRS and courts to contest proposed tax deficiencies.

Our Team works closely with clients to plan for the succession of family businesses and transfer of wealth among generations in the most tax efficient manner possible. We have significant experience assisting land owners in multigenerational business succession planning while preserving land holdings.
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Notable Work

As a proactive response to the impact of citrus canker upon the Florida citrus industry, Dean Mead established the Citrus Canker Task Force (the "Task Force"). The Task Force devoted research and guidance to Florida citrus growers and their advisors (such as attorneys and accountants) on a variety of legal issues, including tax consequences and planning opportunities related to receipt of compensation payment under the Citrus Canker Eradication Program (CCEP); protecting property rights and preserving claims for compensation; and a variety of contract issues related to insurance claims, loan covenants, and marketing and fruit purchase agreements.

Dean Mead's Agribusiness Team enlisted the assistance of the Florida delegation in Washington, D.C. to aid Florida growers facing repayment of disaster funds they received after the 2004 hurricanes. More than 3,300 letters were sent out to growers across Florida, requiring recipients of the disaster aid to prove they had crop insurance for the next year or face the repayment of all disaster assistance plus interest. There was considerable confusion about whether or not crop insurance was required to be eligible to receive assistance, resulting in almost two-thirds of the recipients failing to meet Farm Service Agency ("FSA") requirements.

Dean Mead's Agribusiness Team, with the aid of counsel in Washington, D.C. with whom we have a long-standing and successful working relationship, contacted the Florida delegation and secured a joint letter addressed to the U.S. Department of Agriculture ("USDA") on this subject. Subsequently, the USDA issued Notice DAP-262 informing Florida FSA offices to grant additional relief to the growers from the effects of the regulation.
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Our Team

Michael D. Minton is chair of Dean Mead’s Agribusiness Team and currently serves as president of the law firm. He practices in the area of tax law and family business succession planning. He has developed significant experience in agricultural and resource management law and frequently lectures on tax issues related to agribusiness, including the emerging carbon credit market. Mr. Minton is the past vice chairman of the Governing Board for the South Florida Water Management District.

Stephen J. Bozarth is Board Certified in Real Estate Law by The Florida Bar Board of Legal Specialization. He has earned a peer rating of "AV" in the Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory, is listed in Chambers USA - America's Leading Business Lawyers and has been listed for over ten years in Best Lawyers in America® in the area of Real Estate Law. He is also listed in Florida Trend magazine's Legal Elite and in Florida Super Lawyers. He represents clients in the areas of commercial real estate development, sales and purchases, leasing (landlord and tenant), secured and unsecured lending, zoning, land use law, commercial loan transactions, title insurance and like-kind exchange transactions.

Marc D. Chapman focuses his practice in the area of commercial litigation. He has represented local and national agricultural companies in all types of litigation including agri-machinery, crop, product, contract, employment, real estate and lease disputes.

Dennis G. Corrick - practices in the area of zoning, land use and commercial real estate transactions, and the drafting of business contracts for transactions and business relationships. He has worked on projects including the state's first statutory Rural Lands Stewardship program, Florida Power & Light's application to construct wind turbine generators in St. Lucie County, and the sale of lands to the South Florida Water Management District for the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Program. Current projects include a large prototype biofuel plant.

Christopher R. D’Amico represents businesses and business owners in all types of business and tax matters, including choice of entity, mergers and acquisitions, reorganizations, and other general business matters.

David A. Gunter is a senior trial lawyer with extensive experience in both commercial and environmental litigation, as well as administrative law. Mr. Gunter has substantial experience representing agricultural interests in areas as diverse as pesticide litigation, boundary disputes, drainage disputes, and regulatory matters. He has also co-authored several publications for the Purdue University Cooperative Extension Service.

Mark R. Leavitt has litigated on behalf of clients with real property and development issues for 20 years. A partial list of these types of cases includes property rights, contractual disputes, zoning and land use, valuation issues, eminent domain, inverse condemnation, professional malpractice, property tax disputes, code violations and business dissolutions. This representation includes negotiated resolutions, administrative hearings, political negotiations, arbitration and trials. His clients include agricultural entities, national and international corporations, small businesses, professionals, builders, homeowners, investors, developers, banks, utilities and more. Mr. Leavitt has litigated matters in over a dozen different states.

Stephen R. Looney is Board Certified as an expert in Tax Law by The Florida Bar Board of Legal Specialization. He represents clients in a variety of business and tax matters, including entity formation (S and C corporations, partnerships, and LLCs), acquisitions, dispositions, redemptions, liquidations, reorganizations, tax planning for the acquisition and disposition of real estate, tax-free exchanges of real estate, involuntary conversions of real estate and tax controversies.

Christine L. Weingart provides tax and business counsel to business owners, including corporations, LLCs, and partnerships, on all types of business matters, including formation, termination and reorganizations of businesses. In addition, she represents clients in the agribusiness field and has developed special knowledge of carbon credit trading and renewable energy tax incentives and closely monitors developments in these emerging areas.

Laura M. Young focuses her practice on commercial real estate development and represents clients primarily in connection with contract negotiations, sale and purchase transactions, easement issues, land use and zoning matters, wetland mitigation issues, and secured and unsecured lending transactions.
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Electronic Alerts

Agribusiness Articles

Seminar Materials