Firm News
Recent Summary: In recent years, Lev Berlin & Sousa has counseled clients assisting with all phases of corporate governance, from formation, to stucturing, to restructuring, conversions, to dissolutions, for entities based in Connecticut, New York, Delaware, Massachusetts, and Florida. We counsel clients with setting up employee stock option plans, preparing and negotiating corporate shareholders and operating agreements for emerging businesses, to preparing executive employment agreements and independent contractor agreements and explaining issues and challgenges relating thereto to our clients. We counsel joint-venture clients and analyze and navigate issues resulting from same, whether arising out of joint venture agreements or the relationships among the joint venture parties. We advise clients on restrictive covenant agreements, from confidentiality and non-disclosure, to non-solicitation, to non-publicity, to non-competition and/or exclusivity.
Regulatory: Lev Berlin & Sousa has recently assisted clients in leading internal investigations to review, analyze, and determine to what level certain of a company's officers may have been engaged in misfeasance including usurpring opportunities of the business, in successfully counseling businesses through issues arising with state department of labor and tax departments, and in successfully assisting clients with inquiries relating to state banking departments.
Trademarks: Lev Berlin & Sousa has recently counseled clients across industries in seeking federal trademark approval (including overcoming office actions for likelihood of confusion from the USPTO) and protection (including preventing others from unauthorized use of clients' trademarks), such clients ranging from a joint-venture between leaders in the market research field, a center for public opinion research, consulting companies, manufacturers and suppliers, apparel companies, an international survey research firm, and local artists.
Private Financing: Over the last decade, Lev Berlin & Sousa has counseled clients in closing private securities financings, both primary and secondary, representing, underlying offering companies, venture capital firms involved in such offerings, and lead and individual investors subscribing to such offerings. Offering companies range in location, both regionally in Connectiut and the tri-state New York metro area, to nationally, and span industries, from launching new venture funds, to healthcare, to biotech, to marketing and market research, to real estate investment funds, to international financial technology provider, to the pet food industry. The offerings typically range from convertible debt, to preferred equity, often incorporating warrants and options, and the amounts of the offerings ranged from $500,000 to $25 million. We further represent clients in secured lending and refinaning and restructuring with institutional debt in addition to private sources.
Acquisitions: Lev Berlin & Sousa has counseled numerous clients in company sales and purchases over the last decade, for transactions ranging for less than $1 million to $20 million or more, from market research companies to real estate investment companies to healthcare and technology companies, from local and regional franchise businesses to companies in the construction industry and the pet food industry. Whether by stock or asset sale or purchase, on transactions large or small, LB&S strives to give clients the advice they need to navigate and understand the risks and challenges of buying or selling a business.
Regulatory: Lev Berlin & Sousa has historically represented and counseled both private and public companies on regulatory issues, including relating to filings and disclosures to state and federal governmental and regulatory authorities, whether at the stage of fund formation, ongoing regulatory advice and compliance, and/or periodic public and/or private filings, periodically adjusting to the ever-changing landscape, whether from adjustments to crowdfunding and other developments under the JOBS Act, to developments in cryptocurrency markets, to developments in legalization of cannabis-related industry matters, to securities laws, risks, and issues arising out of COVID-19 related matters.
Summary:

Over the last decade, LB&S has been counseling marketing, market research, survey research, public opinion research, and other technology companies in both regulatory matters (including CCPA and GDPR) as well as commercial and contract matters, for businesses small and large, regional and national. Typical agreements include license agreements, maintenance and support agreements, service level agreements (SLAs) with both clients and vendors, strategic alliances, value-added reseller (VARs) and dealer agreements, outsourcing and data processing agreements, hosting agreements, source code escrow agreements, website development agreements, and IT consulting services agreements.
Residential: Over the last decade, Lev Berlin & Sousa has represented countless clients across Fairfield County, Connecticut for their residential real estate needs, including sales, purchases, and refinancing. The LB&S team prides itself on its ability to navigate both the legal complexities and unique, fact-specific challenges that can arise during the span of a residential real estate transaction, from lenders, to brokers, to the attorneys representing other parties to the transaction. We offer competitive rates in the Fairfield County real estate community and place an emphasis on attentive communication with and education to our clients throughout the process. Property values for residental property transactions we deal with customarily range from under $500,000 to over $3,000,000.
Commercial: Lev Berlin & Sousa frequently counsels its clients on commercial real estate matters which range from negotiating and analyzing commercial leases on behalf of its business clients, to representing landlords owning and managing multiple properties, to representing clients in the purchase or sale of commercial real estate properties, most notably representing a long-standing client of the firm in the sale of multiple historic properties at the top of Greenwich Avenue in Greenwich, Connecticut, in combination residential and commercial real estate transaction, for a combined aggregate sale price of approximately $19 million, in October 2016.
March 20, 2020:

Lev Berlin & Sousa remains open at this time to assist clients with legal needs during this COVID-19 pandemic. For more information, please see our Business Law Blog.

October 17, 2019:

Attorney Jack H. Sousa was recognized by Super Lawyers® as a 2019 Connecticut Rising Star in the field of Business and Corporate law.

For selection information for Super Lawyers, please see: http://www.superlawyers.com/connecticut/selection_details.html

October 18, 2018:

Attorney Jack H. Sousa was recognized by Super Lawyers® as a 2018 Connecticut Rising Star in the field of Business and Corporate law.

For selection information for Super Lawyers, please see: http://www.superlawyers.com/connecticut/selection_details.html

October 17, 2017:

Attorney Jack H. Sousa was recognized by Super Lawyers® as a 2017 Connecticut Rising Star in the field of Business and Corporate law.

For selection information for Super Lawyers, please see: http://www.superlawyers.com/connecticut/selection_details.html

September 30, 2016: Lev Berlin & Sousa is pleased to announce that Jack H. Sousa, Esq. has been named a Principal of the firm. Having joined the firm in 2012, Jack’s experience spans across the firm’s client base and practice areas, with a specific area of focus on business, corporate, securities, and financing work, as well as intellectual property, commercial and residential real estate, and executive employment.
May 26, 2015:

CBRE General Counsel discusses with Law360 the influence that Lev Berlin & Sousa counsel and founder Bruce Lev had on his career.

To review the article in its entirety, please click here.

January 2012: Martindale-Hubbell reaffirms Duane L. Berlin’s AV Preeminent Attorney Rating.
January 2011: Duane L. Berlin has been elected to the Board of Directors of The Roper Center for Public Opinion Research (www.ropercenter.uconn.edu). The Roper Center is one of the world's leading archives of social science data, specializing in data from surveys of public opinion. The data held by the Roper Center range from the 1930s, when survey research was in its infancy, to the present. Most of the data are from the United States, but over 50 nations are represented. Founded in 1947, the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research is the leading educational facility in the field of public opinion. The Center exists to promote the intelligent, responsible and imaginative use of public opinion in addressing the problems faced by Americans and citizens of other nations. In an increasingly complex and interdependent global environment, the Roper Center hopes to foster increased international understanding and to promote cross-national research.
December 2010: Principal, Duane L. Berlin named in the 2010 edition of the New Canaan/Darien and Stamford Magazines Top Lawyers.
August 2010: Duane L. Berlin is co-founding member of CASRO’s Social Media Research Task Force. CASRO announced the formation and purpose of the group as follows: To address the many ethical and methodological issues developing in the wake of social media research’s emergence, CASRO has established a task force charged with defining salient topics and soliciting industry-wide commentary with an eye on crafting guidelines that may potentially be included within The CASRO Code of Standards & Ethics.