Vanessa Rousso is a Partner and Business Unit Leader at Kelley Kronenberg, focusing her practice on business litigation and complex transactional matters across commercial real estate, corporate, construction, and healthcare. Vanessa provides clients with forward-thinking counsel at the intersection of litigation, deal strategy, and business innovation. Her practice spans high-stakes commercial disputes, sophisticated transactional matters, and strategic advisory engagements for companies, developers, contractors, brokerage firms, entrepreneurs, and ultra-high net worth individuals.

Vanessa’s combination of complex commercial litigation experience, sophisticated commercial real estate transactional work, deep developer-side counsel, and broad industry exposure positions her to serve as either lead transactional counsel or strategic real estate counsel for complex commercial real estate matters. She has handled commercial real estate transactions across asset classes including shopping centers, single-tenant net lease properties, retail strips, ground leases, hotels, restaurants, storage facilities, hospitals, and undeveloped commercial parcels.

On the transactional side, Vanessa combines strategic vision with detailed command of her clients’ businesses to resolve sophisticated legal challenges across several industries. Her real estate practice spans traditional retail real estate, including shopping centers, single-tenant net lease properties, retail strips, and ground leases. She also has niche experience consulting with developers on condominium termination strategies and risks, complicated title issues, and other real estate matters. She brings extensive construction industry expertise, having personally negotiated, drafted, and reviewed hundreds of construction contracts with intimate knowledge of AIA contracts and wide-ranging risk-reduction strategies for her clients. In the healthcare sector, Vanessa has advised hospitals, medical providers, and laboratories on employment-related disputes, regulatory compliance issues, dispute avoidance, and Medicare Advantage-related concerns through her general outside counsel services and representation in litigation, arbitration, and mediation. Beyond these specialized areas, Vanessa provides comprehensive legal counsel to businesses across industries, handling contract negotiations, corporate governance matters, risk management, and dispute resolution while working closely with executives and business owners on practical legal solutions.

Vanessa has extensive experience managing complicated matters through all phases of litigation and resolution. She has successfully represented multinational corporations, prominent developers, international brokerage firms, construction companies, condominium associations and board members, hospitals and medical centers, businesses, and ultra-high net worth individuals. Her practice encompasses complex business disputes, sophisticated breach of contract actions, Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act (FDUTPA) claims, construction defect claims, real estate, contractor, and broker commission disputes, as well as defending high net worth individuals and their entities from attempts to pierce the corporate veil through alter ego liability claims.

As one of the pioneering legal practitioners in artificial intelligence compliance and governance, particularly in South Florida, Vanessa provides risk mitigation strategies and specialized consulting to businesses involved with AI technology. Vanessa advises clients on the complex legal risks associated with AI implementation across all phases: pre-deployment risk assessment, implementation oversight, and post-deployment compliance monitoring. Her technological fluency, broad knowledge of AI technology and applications, and her proficiency as a coder using Python enable her to provide uniquely informed guidance on AI-related legal challenges.

Vanessa’s highly strategic legal approach was cultivated in the courtroom, the boardroom, and on the global stage as an internationally acclaimed professional poker player and media personality. With more than $4.5 million in tournament winnings and extensive global media experience, Vanessa brings a high-performance decision-making framework to every matter she handles, along with a proven ability to thrive in high-pressure, high-stakes environments.

Vanessa earned her Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Duke University, graduating cum laude, with studies focused on game theory and strategic decision-making. She received her Juris Doctor from the University of Miami School of Law, where she graduated magna cum laude and was inducted into the Order of the Coif.

Vanessa is fluent in French and proficient in Spanish.