Big Firm Experience, Boutique Service.
A real estate and business law firm.
Hale & Messina Law, PLLC is a full-service real estate and business law firm.
Real estate services include: brokerage audits, contract preparation and review, commission recovery, escrow disputes, buyer/seller representation, quiet title actions, landlord tenant disputes, leases, HOA disputes, among many others.
Business services include: forming LLC's and Corporations, drafting Operating Agreements and Shareholder Agreements. Extensive experience handling real estate and business related litigation, including landlord tenant matters and drafting lease agreements. Handle franchise matters and disputes, confidentiality and non-compete matters and disputes, commercial litigation, business torts, breach of fiduciary duty claims, among many others.
Hablamos Espanol.
Mercedes Gonzalez Hale, the managing attorney of the firm, received her B.A., with Honors, in Economics, with a minor in Business Administration from the University of Florida in 1988, and her Law Degree, with Honors, from the University of Florida in 1991. Ms. Hale has been practicing law in the Tampa Bay area for over 20 years. She was the Hiring Partner in the Tampa office of DLA Piper, one of the largest law firms in the world with over 4,200 lawyers. While at DLA Piper, she represented large franchisors throughout the United States, and advised clients in general real estate related matters. During this time, a significant portion of the litigation work she handled was on behalf of Cendant Corporation. Most recently, she worked at Broad and Cassel, prior to starting her own law firm. She is admitted to practice in all state and federal courts in Florida. She has represented many real estate brokerages and has vast experience handling real estate related matters, both on the transactional side and on the litigation side. She has extensive experience handling jury trials, bench trials and arbitrations. She has successfully represented clients in a variety of commercial litigation cases, including construction related disputes, real estate related disputes and landlord tenant disputes. She has also successfully represented clients in complex business matters involving: trademark infringement claims, copyright infringement claims, franchising disputes, antitrust disputes, unfair competition disputes, including covenants not to compete, and other business torts. Her transactional experience includes drafting commercial lease agreements, shareholder agreements, operating agreements, purchase contracts, warranty deeds, quit-claim deeds, mortgages and promissory notes.
Ms. Hale is fluent in Spanish and regularly represents Hispanic clients in a variety of matters. Ms. Hale currently serves as counsel for the Central Pasco Association of Realtors. She is a member of the Florida Bar, the Hillsborough County Bar, the Hillsborough Association of Women Lawyers, the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals and the Bay Area Real Estate Council. She was selected by the Florida Bar to serve on the Joint Realtor Attorney Committee of the Florida Bar and serves on the Consumer Protection Law Committee of the Florida Bar. Ms. Hale is also an active volunteer. She is a member of The Rotary Club of Tampa and serves on the Board of Directors of Brooks DeBartolo Collegiate High School. Ms. Hale is also a Leadership Tampa Alumni. Ms. Hale lives in New Tampa with her husband Dean and their daughter Katie.
Our mission is to provide exceptional service to every client. Mercedes has been practicing law in Tampa for over 25 years and was the hiring partner in the Tampa office of DLA Piper, one of the largest law firms in the world. We bring the big firm experience representing Fortune 500 companies to small and medium size businesses and individuals throughout the Tampa Bay Area.
