Before joining Johnson Pope, Mary Jo Carney was a founding partner of a boutique law firm in St. Petersburg, Florida which enjoyed 34 years of providing legal services to many local and out-of-state clients. Mary Jo is a real estate transactional attorney specializing in commercial retail projects. Throughout her 40-year career, Mary Jo has represented clients in the acquisition, financing, leasing, development, re-development and sale of numerous grocery-anchored, build-to-suit and mixed use projects. Mary Jo’s practice has also included representation of owners of apartment, hotel, industrial, office and car wash properties. Incidental to her commercial real estate practice, Mary Jo has negotiated and prepared complex leases with numerous credit tenants and she has extensive experience in title insurance matters and in coordinating and conducting closings.