Martin Knaust joined Adams and Reese in 2010 in the St. Petersburg office as an Associate in the Transactions and Corporate Advisory Services Practice Group.
His practice focuses on commercial and business litigation, with an emphasis on loan workouts, banking and finance law, and real estate. Martin represents national, regional and community institutional lenders, as well as private lenders in workouts, foreclosures, receiverships, loan redocumentation and loan sales. He has experience in defending institutional lenders in disputes with condominium and homeowners’ associations over liability issues.
Martin’s representative experience includes:
- Representing commercial lenders in multi-million dollar foreclosure actions involving collateral ranging from raw land and partially completed subdivisions to fully developed and operating commercial income and hospitality property.
- Structuring sales of loans and judgments to individual investors and private equity groups.
- Representing lenders and other purchasers of property at foreclosure sales in issues with homeowner and condominium associations for past due assessments.
Martin’s article, Guilt by Association: Lender Liability to Homeowners Associations After Foreclosure, will be published in the Stetson Law Review in Spring 2012.
In the community, Martin is a member of the St. Petersburg Public Arts Commission, a group appointed by the city to oversee St. Petersburg’s multi-million dollar public art collection.
Martin was a former certified legal intern with the Pinellas County Public Defender's Office, where he participated in all aspects of misdemeanor criminal defense and obtained trial experience. He has law clerk experience researching and drafting more than 200 motions to suppress and numerous civil and criminal appeals.
Martin received his J.D. from Stetson University College of Law, where he also was a teaching assistant in Advanced Criminal Trial Advocacy. He was honored with the William F. Blews Pro Bono Service Award while in law school at Stetson University College of Law.
He earned his B.A. in political science from the University of Florida.
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