Real Estate Attorneys Join Adams & Reese, St Petersburg

Real Estate Attorneys Join Adams & Reese, St Petersburg

 

(ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.) – Adams and Reese is pleased to announce the addition of real estate attorneys Derek Houston and Amanda Taylor (pictured) as Special Counsel in the Firm’s St. Petersburg office. Houston and Taylor are both recent former shareholders from the Trenam Kemker St. Petersburg office, and they also formerly worked for Holland and Knight.

“We are very excited to add both Derek and Amanda to our real estate practice,” said David Bernstein, Adams and Reese Real Estate Practice Group Leader and a Partner in the St. Petersburg office. “Their transactions and litigation work in the real estate field is extensive and impressive in retail, lending, land use, zoning and several other important industry matters, and their practices will benefit clients not only throughout Florida, but across our Firm’s regional footprint.”

Rick Flowers, Partner in Charge of the Adams and Reese St. Petersburg Office and also a Partner in real estate law, added: “Derek and Amanda are heavily involved and well-vested in leadership positions for various organizations in the St. Petersburg community, and they will be tremendous assets to our office and to our Firm.”

Derek Houston has practiced since 2004 and focuses his legal practice on lending, commercial real estate and real estate development transactions and construction contracting. Houston is a former co-chair of the Real Property Section of the St. Petersburg Bar Association, and a current active member of the Legal Opinions Committee of Florida Bar’s RPPTL Section, Real Estate Investment Council of Tampa Bay, International Council of Shopping Centers, NAIOP Commercial Real Estate Development Association, UF Bergstrom Center Real Estate Council, the National Association of Development Companies, the National Association of Government Guaranteed Lenders and Florida Association of Government Guaranteed Lenders. He is a graduate of both Leadership St. Petersburg and Leadership Tampa Bay.

 

In the community, he is the President-Elect and a member of the Executive Committee of the Suncoasters of St. Petersburg, Inc.; he is a member of the Board of Directors for the St. Petersburg Downtown Partnership, and he is on the Public Private Partnership Working Group and membership committee of the St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce. He is also a member of the advisory board of Tampa Bay Watch, ESPN’s /BitCoin St. Petersburg Bowl and First Night St. Petersburg.

 

Houston received his J.D. in 2004 from Loyola University School of Law, and he earned his B.S. in 1998 from Auburn University.

 

Amanda Taylor has practiced law since 2005 and focuses on land use, zoning, real estate development, agricultural and environmental law along with commercial litigation focused on real estate and banking. She has been named among the Florida Super Lawyers’ Rising Stars in Business Litigation and Real Estate Law.

 

A native of Florida, Taylor earned her J.D., magna cum laude, in 2005, from the University of Florida Levin College of Law. She earned her B.S. in animal science, in 2002, from the University of Florida.

 

Taylor is an active member of The Real Estate Investment Council, National Association of Industrial and Office Properties, International Council of Shopping Centers and UF Bergstrom Center Real Estate Council. She is a graduate of the Wedgworth Leadership Institute for Agriculture and Natural Resources and currently serves on The Wedgworth Alumni Association Board of Directors. She is also a graduate of Leadership St. Petersburg.

 

In the community, she is a member of All Children’s Hospital Foundation Development Council, and the Police Athletic League of St. Petersburg. For the St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce, Amanda serves as co-chair of the Downtown Waterfront Master Plan Task Force, co-chair of the Public Private Partnership Working Group, and serves on the public policy and membership committees.

 

About Adams and Reese LLP: Adams and Reese is a multidisciplinary law firm with more than 300 attorneys and advisors strategically located in 16 offices in 15 markets throughout the southern United States and Washington, D.C. American Lawyer includes Adams and Reese on its distinguished list of the nation’s top law firms – “The Am Law 200”. The National Law Journal also includes the firm on the “NLJ 350” list of the nation’s largest law firms.

 

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