Condo Media - May 2014 - 44

VENDOR SPOTLIGHT

Flynn Law Group
A One-Stop Shop for Residential Law
by Pamela Schweppe

here's an old saying that, if you
love your job, you never work
a day in your life. If that's true,
then Frank Flynn has never
worked a day in his life - even though
he brings 24 years of experience in real
estate law to his newly formed law firm,
the Flynn Law Group.
While still a student Boston College
Law School, Flynn began his career at
the Legal Assistance Bureau (LAB),
representing indigent clients - many
of whom were tenants. "I had a lot
of great victories," he recalls. "That
would probably shock a lot of my residential landlord clients now."
Knowing of this experience, his next
employer made him the go-to person
for eviction cases, and Flynn soon
found that his caseload included as
many as 120 such cases a month. "It
was great experience," Flynn affirms. "I
loved it."
From there, Flynn joined a firm
specializing in commercial and residential real estate law, before going into
partnership with another attorney to
form a practice that enjoyed success for
20 years.

A Brand-New Firm With
Decades of Experience

Now that he and his former partner
have come to a cordial parting of the
ways, Flynn is proud to announce the
grand opening of his new law firm,
Flynn Law Group. Located in downtown Boston, the new firm serves clients throughout Massachusetts, as well
as Rhode Island and New Hampshire.
Flynn Law Group specializes in the real
estate industry, including condominium
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law. In addition, the firm handles residential and commercial real estate cases,
including landlord/tenant issues. "We're
a one-stop shop," he says. In all, the firm
is staffed by five "very experienced" attorneys, as well as four full-time paralegals and an office manager.

Expert in Associations' 8
Most Common Service Areas

From his experience in real estate law,
Flynn has identified eight areas where
Flynn Law Group can provide essential
services to condominium clients. First
and foremost is collections. "There's a
specialized procedure under the superlien [a Massachusetts law that protects
associations against delinquent fees],"
Flynn explains.
A second common complaint among
condominium associations is what Flynn calls "issues such as misconduct" by
unit owners or tenants. He gives as an
example a case in which a unit owner
who owned a snowplowing business
would park his equipment on association property. In such cases, Flynn likes
to make use of the "notice of misconduct" segment of the condominium
statute. While many associations simply
impose a fine, Flynn prefers to make
use of this often-neglected part of
the statute, because it puts the unit
owner on notice and makes him or her
responsible for attorney fees if the case
goes to court. In this case, the notice
of misconduct was sufficient to resolve
the problem.
Reviewing and amending condominium documents is another area where
Flynn Law Group can provide value to
clients. In one recent case, a unit owner

in a 10-unit complex decided to rent
out his unit as a B&B. "People were
parking in the wrong spots, people
were wandering around the building -
it created havoc, as you can imagine,"
Flynn says. By amending the documents to prohibit short-term rentals,
he was able to resolve the situation.
Attending annual meetings is Flynn
Law Group's fourth area of focus.
Flynn finds this especially important
when amendment votes are on the
agenda, so that he can be on hand
to explain the proposed changes and
answer questions.
Fifth, Flynn Law Group is expert
in fair housing and discrimination
laws and in ensuring that associations comply with their provisions. In
fact, a growing part of the practice is
defending discrimination lawsuits and
analyzing reasonable accommodation
requests from disabled residents.
The final three areas of concentration
that Flynn has identified in condominium law all involve contracts: vendor
contracts, management contracts, and
construction contracts. Flynn stresses
that all association contracts should be
reviewed by attorneys, and while his
firm always works well with property
managers, they never lose sight of the
fact that the association is the client
and that their advice is always given
with the client's best interest in mind.

Emphasis on Practical Law

Underlying everything Flynn Law
Group does is a fundamental philosophy: doing a great job for a reasonable
price. "We want to have clients for 20
years, and for that, we have to develop

Condo Media - May 2014

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