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Practice/Industry Group Overview
The ability to provide premium legal services to clients in today's highly competitive real estate industry demands not only depth of knowledge in real estate law, in order to resolve traditional real estate issues and problems, but also the initiative, skill, and understanding necessary for creative approaches to address new, emerging legal concerns. At the same time, the quality of legal services which a firm provides derives most directly from the breadth of experience of its attorneys.
Graham & Dunn's Real Estate Team draws upon the extensive knowledge and experience of its member attorneys in all aspects of real estate representation. If the complexity of legal issues demands a flexible, interdisciplinary approach, lawyers from a variety of industry and resource teams are available to contribute to the solution. The diversity of our real estate practice is also reflected in the diversity of our real estate clients, which include regional and national institutional lenders; local, regional, national, and international developers; pension funds and other institutional investors; life insurance companies; governmental entities; industrial manufacturers and distributors; family businesses; and individual owners and investors.
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Services Available
Our Real Estate Service Team represents owners, developers, buyers, sellers, lenders, investors, landlords, and tenants in all aspects of real estate-related transactions. The goal is simple: to complete the planning, preparation, and documentation of the transaction in accordance with the client's instructions. We recognize that responsiveness and cost control are among the most important elements of the product we deliver to our real estate clients, and we continue to strive to provide high quality and cost efficient legal services.
The Real Estate Team provides services for the entire range of real estate transactions, including Environmental, Land Use & Natural Resources, and Condemnation. Other areas of practice are:
Real Estate Acquisition and Development
- Acquisitions and dispositions of undeveloped land.
- Evaluation, acquisition, and/or development of office, industrial, retail, residential, or mixed-use projects, and creation of entities, such as joint ventures, for the ownership of such projects.
- Negotiation of architectural and construction contracts and agreements relating to commercial real estate development projects.
- Resolution of issues involving title to real estate and negotiation and structuring of title insurance coverage in connection with real estate transactions.
Real Estate Financing
- All types of real estate financing, including land loans, acquisition and development loans, construction loans, and other interim and permanent financing of commercial real estate or real estate-related project.
- Loan participation arrangements, including co-lender agreements, intercreditor agreements, and equity participation agreements.
- Refinancing and loan restructuring, workouts involving distressed real estate, and foreclosure of secured real estate loans.
- Alternative financing arrangements, including sale/leaseback transactions, ground leasing and lease financing, and letters of credit and other credit enhancement arrangements.
Land Use
- Permitting and approval process for real estate development, including matters related to building and construction, zoning, special use permits, planned unit developments, subdivision, and owners' associations.
- Historic structures and landmarks, including designation of structures and compliance with historic preservation laws and regulations.
- Matters involving environmental laws and regulations, review and evaluation of the impact of environmental laws on real estate transactions, working with regulatory agencies for the purpose of ensuring complacence with environmental laws, and planning for remediation of contaminated land.
- Ensuring compliance with wetlands and other marine laws and regulations affecting real estate development and related transactions.
Leasing
- Negotiation and drafting of commercial leases for office, retail, industrial, and warehouse projects.
- Ground leasing, equipment leasing, and other hybrid lease-financing arrangements.
- Ensuring compliance with wetlands and other marine laws and regulations affecting real estate development and related transactions.
Structuring and Transactions
The choice, structure, and formation of an ownership entity, or the structure of particular real estate transactions, is important in maximizing the potential value of both the entity and the transaction to the client. Graham & Dunn's Tax, Corporate Finance and Securities Teams provide valuable assistance in analyzing and structuring the form of ownership entity and the form of transaction.
Workouts, Creditors' Rights, and Bankruptcy
Graham & Dunn's litigation and bankruptcy attorneys work closely with the Real Estate Team in assisting clients with matters involving distressed real estate, problem loan transactions, and bankruptcies involving real estate assets on behalf of lenders, debtors, or other interested parties. Our representation in this area ranges from negotiation, planning, and structuring of loan workouts to litigation of landlord/tenant and creditors' rights, lender liability, and bankruptcy issues.
Dispute Resolution
Our real estate and litigation attorneys work together to represent vendors, purchasers, lenders, borrowers, contractors, owners' associations, brokers, agents, landlords, and tenants in the solution, arbitration, and litigation of a wide variety of real estate-related disputes.
Environmental, Land Use, or Other Regulatory Proceedings
In land use and environmental matters that often involve participation in negotiations with or quasi-judicial proceedings before regulatory or administrative agencies, the Real Estate Team works closely with litigation attorneys who have valuable experience acting as advocates before these governmental authorities on behalf of our real estate clients. These lawyers also provide a valuable resource in conducting investigations of property prior to completing purchase or financing transactions.
Construction & Design
Our construction and design attorneys provide a full range of services to our clients, including contract drafting, risk analysis and loss prevention, alternative dispute resolution and litigation. Two of the team members are also licensed civil engineers who worked as civil engineers before going to law school, and therefore know the construction industry from a viewpoint not shared by most other attorneys. Our attorneys work hard to understand our client's business goals, and then even harder to exceed those goals by: (1) thoroughly evaluating and explaining risks; (2) creating business and contracting systems that fairly allocate risks and achieve the client's objectives; (3) drafting clear contract language that allocates risks and expresses the desired objectives; (4) providing advice during project execution on strategies to avoid and resolve potential disputes; and (5) if disputes cannot be avoided, developing and following through on effective trial strategies to cost-effectively resolve the dispute consistent with the client's objectives.
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