Editorial: Real Estate in California

01 August 2007

DLA Piper US LLP’s real estate practice group boasts an international reputation and was awarded the ‘Who’s Who Legal Real Estate Law Firm of the Year’ award for the third consecutive year in 2007. DLA has greater bench strength in this chapter than any other firm in the state, with seven nominees. San Francisco’s Caryl Welborn, a former president of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers (ACREL), is “fantastic for transactional work”. Stephen Cowan is also based in San Francisco and is a founding member of ACREL. He has worked on numerous multibillion-dollar real estate transactions, which include the $1.2 billion sale of the Embarcadero Center in San Francisco, the $1.62 billion refinancing of the Venetian Resort Hotel in Las Vegas and a $1.7 billion multi-property acquisition for Irvine Diversi- fied Company. The “very well respected” Alan Wayte is senior counsel to the firm and is joined from the Los Angeles office by four further practitioners. Pamela Westhoff “does a really good job”, according to one source and boasts a high-quality transactional practice. Richard Mendelson has “big name clients” that include domestic and international banks and other financial institutions, insurance companies, pension funds and major developers. Michael Meyer is known as “the best in California for leasing work” and has worked with clients such as Bank of America, City National Bank and The Capital Group. John Whitaker completes the firm’s impressive showing and he is extremely active in the development of downtown Los Angeles, with residential development clients including The Hanover Company, Legacy Partners and IDS Real Estate Group.

Cox Castle & Nicholson LLP is a full-service firm catering to the real estate, finance and construction industries and provides four nominees in this chapter. Ira Waldman received the most nominations in this group. He was hailed by his peers as “outstanding”. Waldman represents lenders and developers on real estate matters across the board and serves as the chair of the public policy forum working group of ACREL. He is a “great speaker” and writes frequently in the area. Phillip Nicholson is regarded by his peers as “top-grade” and applauded for his “great work on the developer’s side”. Ronald Silverman’s practice has a focus on structuring, strategising, negotiating and drafting real estate transactions and he works a great deal with public-private partnerships. Mathew Wyman is “one to watch” and was described to researchers as “just terrific” for M&A- related work. 

Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP is well known in the area of real estate investments and boasts four experts on our list. Noel Nellis is “a truly exceptional lawyer”, highly praised for his development and real estate investment trust (REIT) work. Nellis is regarded by competitors as “one of the gurus of the real estate practice”. William Murray chairs the firm’s global real estate group and is based in San Francisco. Murray is a “smart finance lawyer” and is heavily involved in the securitisation of real estate assets, REITs, public market financing of real estate companies and pension fund investment in real estate. Michael Liever is “very strong” and has a client list to prove it – New York Life Insurance, Starbucks, Morgan Stanley and BlackRock Realty Advisors. Michael McAndrews has represented a bank syndicate in the $100 million construction financing of a high-rise hotel in downtown San Diego, and advised on real estate investment funds in subscription facility financings of $275 million, $425 million and $250 million. 

Allen Matkins Leck Gamble Mallory & Natsis LLP is also home to four well-known names. Bruce Hyman resides in the San Francisco office and is of-counsel to the firm. Hyman is a “very fine lawyer” and is engaged in real estate finance matters. Founding partner Richard Mallory is renowned for his commercial and industrial leasing work for both landlords and tenants. Mallory is a member of ACREL and a popular speaker. He is joined on the following pages by Michael Matkins, also a founding partner and a “development specialist”. Matkins is widely regarded as a “wonderful lawyer” who does a great deal of work in the luxury hotel industry. Anton Natsis is a “big name in leasing”, he is co-chairman of the firm’s commercial project group. Clients have included JP Morgan Fleming Asset Management, Boston Properties, Equity Office Properties and Beacon Capital Partners. 

Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP is the other firm with four representatives here. A “terrific firm”, Gibson Dunn has an especially strong group in Los Angeles. Dennis Arnold is “extremely sharp and a noted academic”. Michael Sfregola was praised for his REIT work and is “very strong for real estate tax”, according to one source. Clients and peers “strongly endorse” Jesse Sharf, who is the co-chair of the firm’s real estate department. Sharf is particularly active in representing real estate funds in their fund formation and investment and financing activities. Amy Forbes is a “real star” and an authority on land use planning issues. Forbes represented Lillian Disney and the Music Center of Los Angeles County in connection with the development of a concert hall. 

Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP fields three inclusions, two from its real estate, land use and environmental practice group and one from its finance and bankruptcy practice group. Robert Thompson was praised by a number of his peers for his “superb work in zoning and development matters”. He has worked on many large commercial and residential projects, including the San Francisco Centre and the Kaiser Permanente Geary Boulevard Campus, and the ‘Macy’s block’ redevelopment on Union Square. Joan Story was praised for her impressive work ethic – she was said to be “working astonishingly hard” for her clients, which include foreign investors, pension funds and pension fund advisers, lenders and developers. Story is experienced in the structuring of Islamic investment in US real estate market and has recently worked for Lend Lease Corporation on a new cruise terminal and mixed-use project on the San Francisco waterfront. Robert Williams focuses his practice on the representation of real estatesecured lenders, which include domestic and foreign banks and insurance companies. He is a member of ACREL and “very well respected”. Williams’s clients include Wells Fargo Bank, whom he has represented in purchases and credit enhancements of multifamily housing revenue bonds. 

Munger Tolles & Olson LLP has a “great reputation in the field”, thanks in part to the two practitioners listed in this chapter. Richard Volpert is the “grand old man of Californian real estate” and a former member of the board of governors of ACREL. His practice centres on the planning and development of large-scale real estate projects and he has represented companies such as Pacific Enterprises, Southern California Gas, CBS and Olympia & York. O’Malley Miller has an “excellent transactional practice” representing institutional investors, developers and lenders such as Developers Diversified Realty Corporation and Goldman Sachs & Co. Miller is a prolific writer and speaker, and a member of ACREL. 

Pircher Nichols & Meeks is a real estate firm with offices in Los Angeles and Chicago. Leo Pircher comes very highly nominated and is “one of the bar’s most respected practitioners”. Pircher recently represented The Blackstone Group in connection with the real estate aspects of its acquisition of the assets of Equity Office Properties for $39 billion, of Trizec Hahn for $9.2 billion and of CarrAmerica for $6 billion. In addition to participating in the work related to the acquisition, he also represented Blackstone on the subsequent multibillion-dollar sale of a number of these properties. Sources “cannot say enough good things” about Phillip Nichols. He has represented Starwood Capital Group and Urban Shopping Centers in complex real estate-related matters, working a great deal on joint ventures, acquisitions and dispositions. 

Paul Hastings Janofsky & Walker LLP also has two practitioners in this chapter. Philip Feder is chairman of the firm’s real estate department and boasts an impressive national and international practice. On the international side Feder is experienced in the representation of US-based investors on transactions in Asia and Europe. A member of ACREL, Feder is a seasoned and “engaging public speaker”. Charles Thornton is chair of the San Francisco real estate department and represents institutional real estate investors, large developers and public real estate companies. He has also had experience of military-base conversion. 

Latham & Watkins LLP is home to “the best land use lawyers in the state”, according to one source we spoke to. The international powerhouse is the last firm to field multiple entries in this chapter. Don Berger is “a great lawyer” with a broad practice and an enviable client list. Berger’s experience includes representing a Fortune 500 company in the redevelopment, re-entitlement and disposition of a number of large-area properties including conversion of industrial and agricultural uses to mixed-use development. George Mihlsten has been involved in a number of high-profile, large-scale development projects, which include the $350 million, 20,000 seat, Staples Center Arena. 

Carl Seneker II is a senior counsel at Morrison & Foerster LLP and leads the charge in terms of nominations, receiving more than any other practitioner in the chapter. Seneker is a past president of the ACREL and is seen as “the dean of the Californian real estate bar”. His international transactional practice is admired by his peers, as is his enviable client list, which includes names such as Hyatt, Divco West Properties and Takenaka Corporation of Japan. Seneker has also worked with Bank of America on a range of transactions. 

David Van Atta from real estate boutique, Hanna & Van Atta also has a “terrific reputation”. Van Atta is a long-time member of ACREL and a “top grade lawyer”. He is well known for his high-end condominium work and is a former chairman of the condominium cooperative housing and subdivision committee of the state bar of California.

Stephen Cassidy is founding partner of Cassidy Shimko Dawson & Kawakami, a member of ACREL and is known among his peers as a “senior” and “very strong” competitor. An “authority on land use law”, he has taught in the area for a number of years. Marvin Leon from Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp LLP has been a board member and programme chair for ACREL and is regarded by his peers as “excellent”. Leon has served as special real estate counsel to banks, construction companies, government agencies and real estate development companies.

Charles Trainor from the commercial real estate law firm of Trainor Fairbrook is based in California’s Central Valley and is “my go-to-guy in Sacramento” according to one source. He is the only lawyer in the city invited to be a member of ACREL. Trainor represents developers, landowners, title companies, lending institutions, shopping centre owners, property management entities and construction companies. Pamela Duffy from Coblentz Patch Duffy & Bass LLP was showered with praise by her competitors, with sources commending her “land-use expertise” and “phenomenal reputation for zoning work”. Duffy, another member of ACREL, is also included in the environment chapter of this publication. 

Louis Eatman is based in the Los Angeles office of Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw LLP. His broad practice won praise from peers who have “worked with him many times and would recommend him to anybody”. Eatman was inducted into ACREL in 1999 and is also a member of the pension real estate association. Robert Caplan from the San Diego firm of Seltzer Caplan McMahon Vitek was also highly nominated. Caplan works on complex retail, office, industrial, hospitality, residential and mixed-use projects and is also a member of ACREL. roy geiger from Irell & Manella LLP’s Newport Beach office is “truly one of the smartest people I know”, according to one prominent source. Geiger has been involved in major financings and workouts, representing both borrowers and lenders in the real estate industry. He is a member of ACREL, co-chair of the real property section of the state bar of California and co-chair of the joint committee on legal opinions in California real-estate transactions. 

John Hosack moved from Jeffer Mangels Butler & Marmaro LLP to join Buchalter Nemer, where he is a shareholder in the firm’s litigation group and represents institutions and individuals in complex real estate matters. In the San Francisco office of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP Robert Herr’s reputation as a “solid and wholly reliable counsel” has earned him loyal clients that include the Shorenstein Company LLC, IBM Corporation, Stein Kingsley Stein and Chivas USA. 

Goodwin Procter LLP’s Dean Pappas is an “extremely good lawyer” and would “be on the wish list of any hiring partner”. Pappas is a member of ACREL and is extremely active in structuring, negotiating, drafting and closing diverse real estate transactions. Michael Dean from Wendel Rosen Black & Dean LLP is “one of the best leasing lawyers in the San Francisco Bay area”. He is a prolific speaker and author, and another ACREL member. Ellman Burke Hoffman & Johnson is a San Francisco-based law firm that specialises in real estate, land use and environmental law. Howard Ellman is “one of its top lawyers” and has served as lead counsel on highprofile projects that include representing AT&T in complex real estate aspects of the telephone divestiture across 11 western states. Stephen Dyer from Horan Lloyd Karachale Dyer Schwartz Law & Cook Incorporated is based in Monterey. He is another highly regarded lawyer in the state. Sources across California recommend him for his “excellent local knowledge”. 

Lance Bocarsly is a founding partner of Bocarsly Emden Cowan Esmail Parker & Arndt LLP. His practice focuses on all aspects of acquisition, development and investment, with a special concentration on affordable housing transactions – where he was described to researchers as “a leader”. Susan Reid is a sole practitioner and member of ACREL. Competitors affirmed their high opinions of her, noting her “great name in the market” and “strong practice”. Sheldon Rubin from Rubin & Eagan APC also comes highly recommended and is based in Los Angeles. He is a member of ACREL and known for his workouts practice. Rubin brings our analysis to a close.

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