Finance and Loans

• Represented numerous originators of commercial mortgage loans, including JP Morgan, Wells Fargo, Nomura, UBS, Countrywide and Thorofare Capital in connection with the origination of commercial loans throughout the United States.
• Served as lead counsel handling low-income multifamily loan programs for over a decade with a public housing authority.
• Prepared Guidelines and instructed multiple special servicing units as to the rules and regulations associated with the servicing of defaulted CMBS loans, including Bank of America, GE Capital, Prudential and Wells Fargo.
• Represented many of the country’s leading special servicers of commercial loans in connection with the resolution of hundreds of defaulted commercial mortgage loans.

Multistate Retail Locations

• Represented a major regional discount chain in the acquisition, leasing and operation of over 100 locations located in 10 states.
• Represented a Fortune 500 client in a transaction involving the acquisition of over 200 home improvement retail stores located in 5 states.

Bankruptcy and Distressed Properties

• Negotiated the sale of the Wilshire Plaza Hotel in downtown Los Angeles out of bankruptcy on behalf of hotel’s ownership. Negotiated the sale of the Wilshire Plaza Hotel in downtown Los Angeles out of bankruptcy on behalf of hotel’s ownership.
• Negotiated the resolution of a distressed multi-family portfolio of over 2 billion dollars situated in more than a dozen States on behalf of project sponsor.

Shopping Center Leases

• Lead counsel representing ownership in numerous shopping center lease negotiations with major credit tenants such as Ross, Anna’s, Staples, Office Depot, Starbucks, Chase and numerous national and regional grocery chains.
• Implemented regional commercial leasing program for major shopping center REIT.
• Lead counsel for local County government on the leasing of over 40 retail stores in a major southern California harbor property.

Property Development and Real Property Portfolios

• Provided long-term representation of a build-and-hold developer of office properties, advising the client regarding the voluntary cleanup of contaminated brownfields, obtaining no further action letters so that development may proceed and successfully prosecuting cost recovery actions against responsible parties. Recently, assisting this client in successfully obtaining public financing for a new project when conventional, private financing was unavailable due to the credit crisis.
• Retained frequently as member of a developer’s team of lawyers and experts formed to obtain entitlements on major projects.
• Represented multifamily venture groups in the formation, acquisition, financing, operation and disposition of multifamily properties located throughout the United States.
• Provided long-term representation of a family with a substantial interest in a portfolio of commercial real property with a gross value of half a billion dollars, advising them with respect to acquisitions and divestitures as well as a current reorganization of the portfolio management structure.
• Drafted and negotiated a development agreement with the City of Anaheim, which provided for the development of a mixed-use site, including office, retail, hotel and apartment components.
• Represented landlord in the negotiation of a long-term lease of an industrial property to be used as a charter school.
• Assisted the nation’s largest sponsor of TIC owned commercial properties in re-positioning its nationwide portfolio.
• Negotiated the purchase and sale agreements and handled escrow and closing on behalf of several high-profile entertainment clients, both as sellers and buyers of luxury residential homes.

Land Use Permitting

• Represented property owners in successful effort to obtain government approvals necessary to develop a high-profile property in the City of Malibu. Handled all legal issues arising during dealings with the City of Malibu Planning Commission and City Council ZORACES Subcomittee, including extensive interaction with City staff, as well as dealings with the California Coastal Commission and in fending off challenges from a neighboring property owner.
• Presented aspects of the legal and project issues to the planning commission in open meetings. Managed and coordinated a variety of task specific geological, environmental, and architectural consultants. Client successfully obtained all necessary permits and governmental approvals for remodeling and construction of three separate dwellings on the property, two on the beach and one on the bluff above, with shared septic and a number of complicated and challenging issues.
• Represented landlord in the negotiation of a long-term lease of an industrial property to be used as a charter school.

Condemned and Contaminated Property and Eminent Domain

• Counseling a Fortune 200 company, assisting the client in overseeing the investigation and remediation by other responsible parties of contaminated land owned by the client. Specific tasks include identification of historically responsible parties and their current successors in liability, research and discovery of evidence of responsibility, and interfacing with environmental consultants and regulators.
• Negotiated a purchase agreement and handled the closing of the sale of commercial property under threat of condemnation, among multiple Taiwanese individuals, as sellers, and the school district, as buyer.
• Represented the seller in complex negotiations for the sale of commercial property to the City of Santa Monica under threat of eminent domain. The site was the planned station for the Expo Line, a light rail line currently under construction in the Los Angeles County Metro Rail System.
• Represented manufacturing company in connection with potential condemnation of real property by City Redevelopment Agency; negotiated and drafted complicated long-term ground sublease on replacement property.
• Represented manufacturing company in connection with potential condemnation of real property by City Redevelopment Agency; negotiated and drafted complicated long-term ground sublease on replacement property.

Railroad Property Rights

• Served as lead counsel for defendant national railroad in a real estate dispute in which landowners alleged that the railroad had abandoned property rights, those rights had reverted to the landowners and the railroad violated their rights by attempting to sell those rights on the open market. Obtained defense verdict at trial and prevailed on subsequent appeal.