$re = '/(?<!s)\'(?!(?:t|ll|e?m)\b)/';
$str = 'I\'m one of the persons\' stackoverflow don\'t th\'em said, \'hey what\' I\'ll handle it.';
$subst = "\"";
$result = preg_replace($re, $subst, $str);
echo "The result of the substitution is ".$result;
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php