About the Firm
A commercial practice, organized around capital and real estate.
Robinson Franzman LLP is an Atlanta business law firm. We represent investors, developers, owners, operators, sponsors, funds, lenders, borrowers and business owners in the transactions that build value and the disputes that threaten it.
The Practice
The firm was built around a specific kind of work: commercial real estate and the capital structures that surround it. That means the acquisition and the loan that funds it. The joint venture and the offering that raised the equity. The operating agreement and the litigation that follows when the parties read it differently. These are not separate practices to our clients, and we do not treat them as separate practices either.
Our clients are typically principals — the person deciding whether to sign, fund, enforce or walk. They are sophisticated about their own business and are usually not looking for an education in ours. What they want is a clear assessment of risk, a recommendation, and documents that perform.
What We Bring
Six things clients are actually buying.
Sophistication without judgment is expensive. Judgment without sophistication is dangerous. The work requires both.
01
Legal sophistication
The technical work has to be right. Perfection and priority, exemption analysis, waterfall mechanics, remedy sequencing, enforceability — these determine outcomes, and they do not forgive approximation.
02
Business judgment
Every provision has a price. We tell clients which points are worth the negotiation, which are worth conceding, and which are worth walking away from — and we say so plainly.
03
Responsiveness
Transactions run on schedules. Distress runs faster. Clients hear back from us, and they hear back from the attorney doing the work rather than from a queue.
04
Deal experience
We have negotiated the documents we are reading. Knowing what a lender will actually accept, or what a capital partner has agreed to before, is what turns a markup into a closing.
05
An owner’s perspective
Our clients build businesses and portfolios. We approach their matters the way they do — against a return, a timeline and a set of alternatives, not against an abstract standard of thoroughness.
06
Fluency in capital
Senior debt, mezzanine, preferred equity, common equity, promote. Where a client sits in that structure changes what matters in the documents. We read the stack before we read the draft.
How We Work
Small enough to be direct. Deep enough to close.
A partner is involved in every matter, and the attorney who negotiates a document is the attorney who drafted it. Staffing is deliberate — we would rather have fewer people who understand the whole transaction than a larger team that understands parts of it.
We are candid at the outset about scope, cost and whether a matter fits the firm. When it does not, we say so and, where we can, point clients toward counsel who is better suited. That conversation costs less than the alternative.
We are equally direct in disputes. A commercial case is an investment decision, and we evaluate it that way — against the realistic range of outcomes, the cost to get there, and what the client actually needs from a resolution.
Coverage
One firm across the life of an asset or enterprise.
Most transactions do not fail at a single point; they fail where two disciplines meet.
Formation
Entity structuring, operating and partnership agreements, governance.
Capitalization
Private offerings, syndications, fund formation, sponsor structuring.
Acquisition
Purchase agreements, diligence, title and survey, closing.
Financing
Senior debt, construction, bridge, agency, CMBS, mezzanine, preferred equity.
Operation
Leasing, management agreements, joint venture administration, consents.
Disposition
Sales, refinancings, assumptions, 1031 exchanges, recapitalizations.
Special Situations
Workouts, foreclosure, receivership, restructuring and litigation.
Atlanta
Based in a market that transacts.
Atlanta is a genuine center for real estate capital — multifamily, industrial, hospitality, retail and mixed-use development, together with the lenders, agencies, servicers, sponsors and funds that finance them. It is a market where transactions close quickly and relationships carry across deals.
The firm works throughout Georgia and the Southeast, and alongside out-of-state counsel on matters that reach beyond it. Where a transaction requires local counsel in another jurisdiction, we coordinate that engagement rather than send the client to manage it.
Practices
Where the work sits.
Tell us about the transaction or the dispute.
We respond quickly and we are direct about whether we are the right firm for a matter.