Business Litigation
Our Business Litigation practice group offers the experience of seasoned lawyers who recognize the value of solving problems to promote your business success.
Complex Tort Defense
Since its founding in 1988, a staple of Conn Kavanaugh’s practice has been the defense of business entities in serious and complex personal injury or property damage actions.Construction
Whether you are the owner, design professional, general contractor, project administrator, subcontractor, or supplier on a construction project, our Construction practice will assist you in achieving a successful project outcome.Corporate / Transactional
Our Corporate/Transactional practice has a broad range of skills. This versatility allows them to remain a principal point of contact with our business clients and to move freely across multiple disciplines to ensure continuity of representation.
Criminal / White Collar / Regulatory
We have extensive experience advising businesses and individuals who are the subject of criminal or regulatory investigations or proceedings.
Employment Litigation / Counseling
Employers and employees alike look to Conn Kavanaugh’s employment lawyers for advice in navigating the increasingly complex web of state and federal statutes,Estate Planning / Administration
Our Estate Planning attorneys help individuals and their families plan for the future and protect their assets. We handle all aspects of estate planning.
Family Law / Probate Litigation
Our experienced Family Law/Probate Litigation attorneys work zealously to ensure rightful asset distributions in these emotionally charged proceedings. Our group handles a wide range of areas including prenuptial agreements, custody disputes, and post-divorce support or estate modifications.
Insurance Litigation
Land Use / Real Estate Litigation
Our Land Use/Real Estate Litigation practice has extensive experience in handling real estate disputes of all kinds and at all levels. We can develop a strategy for your dispute.Mediation / Arbitration
Having litigated hundreds of cases, the Mediation/Arbitration practice is well-equipped to effectively value cases to resolve disputes according to your needs and goals.
Product Liability
Conn Kavanaugh’s lawyers regularly represent manufacturers, distributors, and retailers in defending against product liability claims.Professional Liability
Our trial attorneys are accomplished in defending claims against attorneys, health care professionals, insurance agents and brokers, and other professionals.Real Estate
Our Real Estate practice provides skilled representation in a variety of transactions, including the financing, leasing, acquisition and disposition of commercial properties.
- Business Litigation
- Complex Tort Defense
- Construction
- Corporate / Transactional
- Criminal / White Collar / Regulatory
- Employment Litigation / Counseling
- Estate Planning / Administration
- Family Law / Probate Litigation
- Insurance Litigation
- Land Use / Real Estate Litigation
- Mediation / Arbitration
- Product Liability
- Professional Liability
- Real Estate
Architects/Engineers
Conn Kavanaugh has a wealth of experience advising and representing architects and engineers in many aspects of their businesses.
Cannabis
Closely Held/Family Businesses
Conn Kavanaugh’s business attorneys have a broad range of skills and are very experienced in providing legal services to family-owned and other closely-held businesses.
Construction
Conn Kavanaugh has provided an array of services to private and public clients in the construction industry, including the manufacturers of building materials and systems.Financial Services
Conn Kavanaugh draws upon a wide range of disciplines to meet the needs of individual and institutional clients in the financial services industry.
Food and Beverage
Our decades of work in the food and beverage industry, including alcohol regulatory and distribution, have permitted us to gain expertise and insight into the typically fast paced and challenging world of our clients engaged in the food and beverage industry.Government
Conn Kavanaugh provides an array of services to clients in the public sector, including state agencies, municipalities, and public officials.Healthcare
The Conn Kavanaugh team has the skills and experience necessary to successfully maneuver our clients through the increasingly complex and highly regulated environment of the health care industry.Insurance
Our lawyers work with our insurance industry clients in a variety of ways. We represent their insureds in virtually every type of lawsuit for which insurance coverage is available. We represent insurance companies directly in bad faith actions, and in high-exposure losses or losses that present unusual or challenging coverage issues.Law Firms
Since the firm was founded in 1988, our attorneys have been known as “lawyers’ lawyers.”Manufacturing
Conn Kavanaugh has broad experience in representing the interests and needs of various manufacturers.
Real Estate
Conn Kavanaugh has a wealth of experience in the real estate field.Staffing and Recruiting
Staffing companies and Professional Employer Organizations (PEOs) are playing an increasingly important role in many aspects of human resource management, as employers are relying more and more on staffing companies and PEOs for payroll and employee benefit administration, risk management, and other increasingly complex administrative burdens.
Bob B. Rosenthal
Partner
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Print Full BioBob has extensive experience in business planning, organization of corporations, limited liability companies and partnerships, purchases and sales of businesses and real estate, leasing, and financing transactions. Bob’s practice covers business and real estate law. He is highly skilled in negotiating, with a practical style that emphasizes "active listening" to best understand the objectives of both his client and the opposing party, so as to maximize the prospects for successfully concluding a deal. Drawing upon an unusual combination of depth and expertise in both the corporate and real estate practice areas, Bob employs a creative, solutions-oriented approach in guiding clients through sophisticated business transactions.
Bob strives for clear and precise drafting in all agreements. In addition to his many years of proficiency with documents associated with purchase and sale, loan and leasing transactions, he also has experience across a broad variety of business contracts, ranging from employment and non-competition agreements to shareholder buy/sell arrangements to supply and distribution contracts.
Bob regularly has been named a “Massachusetts Super Lawyer” (top 5% of Massachusetts) by the publishers of Boston Magazine. He has received an AV Peer Review Rating, the highest rating, in The Martindale-Hubbell Lawyers Directory.
Practice Areas
Industries
Education
- Harvard Law School, J.D., magna cum laude (1977)
- The University of Pennsylvania, B.A., summa cum laude (1974)
Court Admissions
- Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts
Recognition
- Selected as Massachusetts Super Lawyer by Law & Politics and the publishers of Boston Magazine (2004 - 2012, 2014 - 2018)
Representative Matters
- Corporate / Transactional
- Represented the corporate owner of two retail stores in improving a strained business relationship with its sole supplier by restructuring their franchise like agreement, including transferring operations of one store to the supplier while maintaining favorable lease terms for our client's affiliated landlord entity.
- Represented the minority owner of a financial services company in purchasing the stock of the founder/majority owner.
- Represented a solar power technology company in structuring, negotiating and documenting a preferred class of ownership interests to be issued to a new investor.
- Represented a transportation services company based in the United Kingdom in its expansion into the New England market, including negotiation of employment and stock ownership arrangements with the CEO of the new U.S. subsidiary.
- Represented a company in the fuel industry in multiple acquisitions of similar businesses, in structuring arrangements with a key supplier, and in a purchase of real estate with particular emphasis on protection against potential environmental law claims.
- Represented a principal of an environmental services company in structuring equity ownership and employment arrangements. Later represented this company as it expanded its geographic base of operations by multiple strategic acquisitions of similar businesses with complementary expertise.
- Represented a regional marine transportation company in several acquisitions and sales of vessels, including associated financing and refinancing transactions.
- Real Estate
- Represented a family trust in negotiating and documenting two related but separate transactions with respect to a single-tenant retail property owned by the trust located along a major suburban commercial thoroughfare, one transaction involving dispute settlement and lease termination arrangements with the tenant, and the other transaction involving the sale of the property to an alternative retail business on terms that included a complex seller financing structure.
- Represented a family trust in its sale of a portfolio of commercial/residential properties in the Back Bay section of Boston, negotiating simultaneous transactions with multiple buyers and resolving associated tenant issues.
- Represented the owner of an entertainment/restaurant business in formulating, negotiating and documenting two coordinated settlement transactions to resolve independent real estate disputes, one transaction involving the sale of a newly constructed store to its national chain tenant despite prior construction defect issues, and the other involving carefully crafted easements and use restrictions to end a long standing contest about the effectiveness of a decades old agreement.
- Represented a co owner of real estate in enforcing a partially documented agreement to buy out the other owner, ultimately resulting in the completion of the purchase transaction on the previously agreed terms, using legitimate structuring techniques to keep the specifics of this intra family matter off the public land records.
- Devised and implemented a ground lease structure to enable the separate financing of two buildings on a parcel of land that could not satisfy the requirements for a traditional subdivision, including negotiating key agreements with the lender and the publicly-owned company that was the sole tenant of one building.
- Represented a biotechnology company in negotiating a lease for its new office/research facility in a major complex in the City of Cambridge.
- Represented a commercial real estate owner for over two decades in structuring, negotiating and documenting retail and office leasing transactions, financing and refinancing transactions, and new acquisitions, including responsibility for sensitive negotiations of our client's long desired purchase of valuable abutting property in the context of a higher subsequent offer by a different bidder.
- Structured a multi-phase sale of a parcel of almost 100 acres for residential development in one of Boston's most desirable South Shore communities, negotiating specially tailored rights to protect our client's interest in the remaining property prior to the completion of the last phase of the sale.
- Represented a family-owned manufacturing company in its move to a larger facility in the Route 495 corridor, assisting in coordination of lease termination arrangements at its departed site and managing the acquisition and financing transactions for its new space.
- Represented a developer selling land to a major regional real estate company under a joint venture arrangement in which our client received a multi-million dollar cash payment and a substantial ownership interest in the project.
Professional Affiliation and Activities
- Massachusetts Bar Association, Member
- Boston Bar Association, Member
