Thomas “Tom” Anthony is a commercial real estate and business lawyer with over 30 years of experience covering a broad spectrum of legal and business matters. Drawing on his professional knowledge, Mr. Anthony founded Anthony Law Group in 2007 with a commitment to providing “big firm” expertise comparable to that of a blue-chip law firm while offering the personalized service, efficiency and competitive billing practices more typical of a small firm. Anthony Law Group remains true to this mission today.
Mr. Anthony has deep experience with all of the major commercial real estate asset classes. He routinely works with institutional and high-net worth buyers, sellers, property owners, investors, developers, lenders, and commercial landlords and tenants. His mastery spans a number of diverse practice areas which include: acquisition and disposition strategies and execution; joint venture formation and structuring; mortgage financing; commercial leasing – landlord and tenant; debt restructurings and workouts; litigation support for distressed properties; portfolio acquisitions and property assemblages; real estate tax controversy work; asset management; property management; condominium law; construction contracting; tax-deferred exchanges; build-to-suit leases; and negotiation of comprehensive development agreements and declarations of covenants, easements and restrictions.
Mr. Anthony’s commercial real estate practice is integrated with a general corporate and business practice. He has extensive transactional experience representing small to mid-size business and commercial clients whom he advises on a variety of issues. He also advises clients who wish to buy, sell or invest in a business entity or its assets. Consequently, he is well versed in negotiating and drafting purchase and sale agreements, partnership agreements, non-disclosure and confidentiality agreements, management contracts, operating agreements, vendor agreements, brokerage and commission agreements, employment agreements, and other kinds of material contracts required to document and/or close a transaction.
In addition, Mr. Anthony is often called upon by out of state firms to perform local counsel support and legal due diligence for transactions in the Southeast. To augment the firm’s service platform and better serve its clients, Mr. Anthony works with a select group of outside professionals in related disciplines with whom he has developed close associations over many years. Such disciplines include zoning and land use, environmental regulations, real estate tax, title insurance, bankruptcy, partnership tax, and commercial litigation.
As a seasoned business lawyer with a reservoir of real world business experience, Mr. Anthony also enjoys counseling his clients on business strategy and corporate governance matters. He offers them practical solutions to their problems using a combination of legal and business-oriented expertise and a principal’s approach to problem solving. This approach has allowed Anthony Law Group to form long-term, partnering relationships working in collaboration with its clients to meet their business goals and objectives.
For many years, Mr. Anthony represented a leading diversified real estate investment and finance company which acquired, developed, re-positioned, managed and sold commercial properties throughout the United States and the EU. Over the course of this representation, Mr. Anthony was involved in transactions ranging from land acquisition and development to high-rise office buildings, hotels and retail shopping centers; and from multifamily, condominium and mixed use developments to P3 Projects. In addition, Mr. Anthony served for five years as Executive Vice President & General Counsel for a closely-held wholesale distribution company with operations throughout the Southwestern United States, Latin America and the Caribbean.
Early in his legal career, Mr. Anthony was in private practice with top-tier firms Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld and Oppenheimer, Rosenberg, Kelleher & Wheatley, in Texas, where his practice was primarily concentrated in commercial real estate development and corporate law. During that period, Mr. Anthony was selected to be part of the legal team which represented a corporate owner in the development of a Sea World theme park in San Antonio, Texas. Beyond his law practice, Mr. Anthony is a principal in the ground-up development of an eighteen story mixed use condominium project in the SONO district in Midtown Atlanta. Additionally, Mr. Anthony has extensive expertise in representing restaurant owners and operators in a range of matters touching on all aspects of the restaurant business.
A graduate of the University of Texas in Austin in 1980 with a B.B.A. in Accounting & Economics, Mr. Anthony earned his J.D. from St. Mary’s University School of Law in 1983 where he was an Associate Editor of the St. Mary’s Law Journal and served as an officer on the Board of Advocates.
Mr. Anthony currently serves on the Board of Directors of Sea Island Development Company, a casual dining restaurant chain based in Texas, and its real estate affiliate, Sea Island Real Partners.
