Bonnett Fairbourn Friedman & Balint, P.C.

Mr. Widener has been Of Counsel to the firm since May, 2008. Following a one-year judicial clerkship at the Supreme Court of Arizona, Mike Widener entered private law practice in 1983, where he has practiced in the areas of shopping center and industrial property development, commercial leasing, property and business acquisitions, sales, reorganizations and mergers, financing, workouts and foreclosures, zoning and land use, and administrative and governmental relations law. Mr. Widener has represented shopping center, industrial and office building developers, a supermarket chain, automobile dealerships, a national nursing-care facility chain, a national behavioral healthcare provider, commercial property management companies, restaurant chains, a major Maricopa County municipality, institutional and commercial banks, wholesalers, retailers and land speculators.

Though many of his clients outside the real estate arena have significant revenues, Mr. Widener advises emerging businesses and entrepreneurs, too. He counsels long-established businesses in the retail sales, service and manufacturing sectors, and has counseled a variety of organizations (including hospitals and law firms) in matters pertaining to organization and regulatory compliance. Mr. Widener also represents a variety of non-profit corporations involved in private citizen diplomacy, homeless and HIV-client advocacy, affordable housing and community redevelopment.

Mr. Widener owns commercial properties outright or in co-ownership in five states, including agricultural and forest lands, resort rentals, office and industrial properties. He has been a borrower, and his holdings have been damaged from natural causes. As an owner, he has dealt with administrative agencies such as the Federal Communications Commission, the U.S. Forest Service, the Army Corps of Engineers and state Historic Preservation Offices, as well as contractors, insurance carriers, lenders and tenants. His understanding of the development, leasing and management of commercial real estate is based upon hands-on engagement. While Mr. Widener holds a Certificate of Specialization in Real Estate Law from the State Bar of Arizona Board of Legal Specialization, he values his personal experience with the realities of the commercial real estate marketplace as highly as his academic credentials and experience gained from the practice of law. Mr. Widener applies a common-sense approach, focused on cost-effectiveness to the client, in solving commercial transactional problems.

Mr. Widener’s community engagements include being the past President of the Saint Mary's High School Scholarship and Benefit Fund, past President of the Board of Trustees of the Orangewood Presbyterian Church of Phoenix, a past member of the steering committee of the University of Virginia Club of Phoenix, and past Chair of the Catania, Italy, Committee of the Phoenix Sister Cities (and a former Director on the Sister Cities’ Board). He presently serves on the Board of Directors of Phoenix Shanti, Inc. Mr. Widener holds a license to practice law in Tennessee as well as in Arizona, and is admitted to practice in federal courts at all levels. He has published several articles, most recently in The Arizona Business Lawyer, and periodically serves as a faculty member at continuing legal education seminars and in the University of Phoenix’s MBA programs, where he teaches Business Law. Mike has been blissfully married these last 31 years and has three capable, adult daughters, who include a children’s fiction writer, an apparel designer and a student of veterinary medicine in Melbourne, Australia. His real estate and business law blog is viewable at this URL: http://terraincogito.blogspot.com; and some of his writings are available on EzineArticles.com. Mike is listed in Southwest Super Lawyers in the 2008 and 2009 editions.

[Arizona Business Lawyer Article]

Collective Bargaining as a Dispute-Reduction Vehicle Accomodating Contrary Animal Welfare Agendas

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