Dawda PLC

09/02/2026

Congratulations to the four Dawda PLC attorneys recognized in Commercial Litigation in the 2027 edition of The Best Lawyers in America.

Frances Belzer Wilson
Randal Cole
John Mucha III
James J. Vlasic

Commercial litigation is the practice a business owner hopes never to need and is grateful for when they do. It calls for judgment about which disputes are worth trying, which are worth resolving, and what each path actually costs the business.

Congratulations to all four.

09/01/2026

A building that sat empty for roughly a decade reopened with 216 apartments in it.

The Bank Tower Apartments in Southgate held its ribbon cutting on August 18. The tower is 14 stories, was built as the Security Bank and Trust headquarters, and is still the tallest building between Detroit and Toledo. At nearly $50 million, it is the largest private investment in Southgate's history. A new public park was built as part of it, with funding from Wayne County, and includes a putting green, tennis court, pickleball courts, a walking path and entertainment shell. Inside, they kept the vault and the original aluminum lobby ceiling to honor the building's history.

Dawda represented the owner and developer, Alexander Begin and Southgate Tower, LLC, from the start. Richard Schloss led the acquisition and the work with the City of Southgate and Wayne County. Neil Silver handled the Brownfield plan and reimbursement. Alfredo Casab handled the construction contract.

Rick called it a true firm effort. He is right. A project this size does not fit inside one practice area.

Congratulations to Alexander Begin and to all of the Southgate officials who enthusiastically supported the development and worked tirelessly to bring it to a successful conclusion .

The former Security Bank & Trust building has been transformed from offices into apartments. See the tower, its sweeping views and ribbon cutting.

08/31/2026

On August 14, our parking lot on Woodward filled up with dream cars.

Dawda was a proud sponsor of the 14th Annual Dreams Come True on Woodward Avenue, hosted by the DMAN Foundation, Danny's Miracle Angel Network. The event gives children and adults with disabilities their own ride down Woodward during Dream Cruise week, in the kind of car most people only get to watch go by.

Our team went out to see it. It was loud and it was happy and it was worth stepping away from a desk for.

Thank you to DMAN for bringing it here, and to everyone who made the day happen.

08/27/2026

Late summer is quiet on the surface and busy underneath. The deals that close before year-end are being papered right now, and the first thing they ask for is the thing most companies never keep up.

Consider a business owner who gets a serious offer in early fall. The financials are ready. The team is capable. What no one has maintained is the corporate record: the minutes, the consents, the signed resolutions, the documentation of decisions the company has made over the years.

Diligence does not start with the pitch. It starts with the records. A buyer's counsel asks for the corporate book, and the gaps become the story. Ownership that was never properly documented, approvals that happened by conversation rather than by resolution, agreements that were amended verbally. None of it was a problem while the company was simply operating. All of it becomes a problem when someone is deciding whether to buy.

Corporate housekeeping is invisible until it is the thing standing between an owner and a closing. The least expensive time to assemble a clean record is the year before you need it, not the week a buyer asks.

Dawda's corporate team helps owners keep the record clean, so the business is ready when an opportunity is.

08/26/2026

Congratulations to the nine Dawda PLC attorneys recognized in Real Estate Law in the 2027 edition of The Best Lawyers in America.

Paul A. Bringer
Alfredo Casab
Edward C. Dawda
Dana A. Kreis Glencer
Daniel M. Halprin
Joseph M. Judge
Christopher R. Martella
Todd A. Schafer
Wayne S. Segal

Real estate is the deepest bench at the firm, and the recognition reflects the range of it: acquisitions and dispositions, development, leasing, and financing, for owners, developers, and lenders. Edward C. Dawda has been recognized in this category since 2006.

Our congratulations to all nine.

08/20/2026

We are proud to share that 21 Dawda PLC attorneys have been selected for inclusion in the 2027 edition of The Best Lawyers in America, earning 38 recognitions across 15 practice areas.

Frances Belzer Wilson
Paul A. Bringer
Alfredo Casab
Randal Cole
Brian J. Considine
Edward C. Dawda
Dana A. Kreis Glencer
Daniel M. Halprin
Joseph M. Judge
Christopher R. Martella
Jeffrey D. Moss
John Mucha III
Glenn G. Ross
Susan J. Sadler
Marc K. Salach
Todd A. Schafer
Wayne S. Segal
Neil S. Silver
Tyler D. Tennent
James J. Vlasic
Robert A. Wright

Recognition in Best Lawyers is based on peer review, which means these listings come from the lawyers who work across the table from ours. That is the part we are proudest of.

Congratulations to every one of them.

08/19/2026

Most owners decide how to handle a dispute once they are already in one. The better time to decide is while the relationship is still good.

Consider two companies entering a long-term arrangement. The terms are favorable, the trust is high, and disputes are the last thing on anyone's mind. So the contract says nothing specific about how disagreements get resolved. When one eventually surfaces, and one usually does, both sides default to the most adversarial and most expensive option available.

A dispute resolution clause written at the outset changes the path entirely. A stepped provision can require the parties to negotiate directly, then mediate, and only then litigate if the first two fail. Built in while everyone is aligned, it channels a future disagreement toward a private, faster, relationship-preserving process instead of the courthouse. Left out, the contract hands the parties straight to litigation by default.

How you will disagree is a term worth negotiating before you need it. The clause costs almost nothing to include and shapes every dispute that follows.

Dawda's dispute resolution team helps clients build these provisions into agreements while the relationship is still working.

08/13/2026

A commercial lease looks like a settled document once the tenant moves in. One provision stays dormant for years and then decides whether a sale of the business can close.

Consider a business owner who leases the space their company operates from. The lease has run smoothly for a decade. Then the owner agrees to sell the company, and the buyer's counsel starts reading the lease closely.

Buried in it is an assignment and change-of-control provision. Transferring the business, or even changing who controls it, requires the landlord's consent. The landlord, now holding leverage nobody anticipated, can withhold that consent, ask for a higher rent, or require a personal guarantee as the price of approval. A clause that meant nothing for ten years is suddenly a gate the entire transaction has to pass through.

Assignment and consent language determines whether a lease helps or hinders a future sale. It is easiest to address when the lease is signed or renewed, and hardest to fix when a deal is already on the table.

Dawda's real estate team reviews these provisions before they become the obstacle at closing.

08/12/2026

Owners think of a personal guarantee as tied to a single loan. Pay off the loan, and the guarantee is gone. It often is not.

Consider a business owner who signs a personal guarantee to secure an initial credit facility. Years pass. The company refinances, renews the line a few times, and eventually the owner sells the business and moves on. In their mind, that guarantee ended long ago.

A guarantee is often written to cover more than the original note. Depending on its language, it can extend to renewals, replacements, and future advances under the same lending relationship, and it does not automatically terminate when the business changes hands. An owner who assumed personal exposure ended at closing can remain on the hook for obligations they no longer control.

A personal guarantee is a separate promise from the loan it supports, and it lives by its own terms. The time to understand its reach, and to secure a written release when a facility is repaid or a business is sold, is before you assume it is over.

Dawda's banking and finance team reviews guarantee language so owners know exactly what they are still standing behind.

08/11/2026

An earn-out is supposed to bridge the gap between what a seller wants and what a buyer will pay. It is also the single most disputed term after the deal closes.

Consider a business owner selling their company. Buyer and seller are apart on price, so they agree that part of the payment depends on the business hitting certain targets over the next two years. The deal closes. Everyone shakes hands believing they got what they wanted.

The trouble is that performance was never defined the same way by both sides. The seller assumed revenue would be measured as the business always measured it. The buyer folds the company into a larger operation, changes how costs are allocated, and shifts priorities. The targets that looked achievable at signing are now measured on terms the seller never anticipated. What felt like alignment was two different readings of the same paragraph.

An earn-out is only as good as its definitions. How performance is calculated, who controls the levers that affect it, and what the buyer can and cannot change all belong in the agreement, not in the assumptions each side brought to the table.

Dawda's corporate team helps structure earn-outs so the terms mean the same thing to both sides after closing as they did before.