Our real estate litigation team offers pre-litigation consulting advice as well as extensive experience in alternative dispute resolution forums and the courtroom.  Our goal is to prevent litigation, but we know that it is sometimes necessary. Our team offers pre-dispute advice involving crisis management arising out of real property-related events, analysis of liability and damages exposure, negotiations to avoid or minimize potential litigation, and practical considerations related to potential disputes to ensure rights are preserved.

If litigation ensues, we represent REITs, developers, investors, owners, landlords, tenants, contractors, design professionals, and large subcontractors in a wide variety of disputes including:

  • Partnership and joint venture disputes
  • Real property related contract disputes, including option contracts and purchase and sales agreements
  • Complex commercial landlord/tenant disputes, including lease defaults, recission, unlawful detainer / eviction actions, and holdover disputes
  • Real estate partition proceedings
  • Easement and boundary disputes, and quiet title actions
  • Compliance issues including ADA, environmental, and zoning

Maximizing the Value of Insurance

Let’s face it – risk is inherent in real estate development, management, acquisition, construction, and disposition. As one of the few firms with a policyholder-only practice, our insurance recovery attorneys represent clients in all aspects of insurance disputes to ensure they receive the benefit of the coverage purchased. We help our clients—owners, developers, public entities, design professionals, general contractors, and subcontractors—receive the maximum coverage available and litigate against insurance companies in disputes arising out of:

  • Builder’s risk and commercial property insurance
  • General liability, including OCIP and CCIP programs
  • Professional liability, including owner and contractor protective professional indemnity
  • Directors and officers/management liability
  • Pollution legal liability

Inherent Environmental Risks

Environmental risk is everywhere, and our experienced environmental lawyers have assisted clients with a range of issues. Whether representing current landowners, former landowners, or developers, we have created opportunities to redevelop significant brownfields (contaminated) project sites across California and elsewhere in the Western United States. We have prosecuted and defended potentially responsible parties regarding environmental clean-up costs, negotiated with USEPA and state regulatory agencies (DTSC and Regional Water Quality Control Boards) concerning cleanup requirements, and developed environmental mitigation measures and conditions of approval for project sites big and small.

Real estate development is inherently embedded with the potential for environmental litigation. From the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and state and local planning laws through federal and state regulations addressing groundwater, stormwater, air emissions, endangered species, “green” development, and wetlands, our environmental lawyers have experience with virtually every cause of action to delay or stop a development project, including:

  • Land use entitlement challenges
  • Contractual claims related to environmental indemnities and releases
  • Third-party personal injury and property damage claims
  • Governmental investigation and cleanup orders

Farella’s real estate litigation team brings depth, experience, and practical advice to any project. We are a key resource for our clients who are buying, selling, developing, redeveloping, or investing in real estate.

Firm Highlights

News

Farella Announces 2024 Leadership Council on Legal Diversity Pathfinders: Taylor Rottjakob and John Ugai

Farella Braun + Martel is proud to announce that senior associates  Taylor E. Rottjakob and John M. Ugai have been named 2024 Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD) Pathfinders. Pathfinders have been identified as...

Read More
Publication

California AI Proposal Rethinks Consumer Scope and Recordkeeping

The California Privacy Protection Agency will revisit its  draft  regulations for automated decision-making technology on March 8, including use of artificial intelligence to process personal information. Comment periods should be coming soon in 2024...

Read More
News

Brookfield Forecloses on 2,150-Unit Veritas Portfolio With Uncontested $464M Bid

Restructuring, insolvency, and creditors rights partner Gary Kaplan provided expert commentary in The Real Deal  article, "Brookfield forecloses on 2,150-unit Veritas portfolio with uncontested $464M bid." Read the full article  here  (subscription may be...

Read More
News

Winston Liaw Named a Leadership Council on Legal Diversity Fellow

Northern California legal powerhouse Farella Braun + Martel is proud to announce that Winston Liaw has been named a Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD) Fellow for 2024. Winston joins a select group of...

Read More
News

Lawdragon Names 7 Farella Lawyers Among “Leaders in Environmental Law”

Northern California legal powerhouse Farella Braun + Martel is pleased to announce that seven lawyers were selected to The Lawdragon Green 500: 2024 Leaders in Environmental Law . Farella lawyers selected for inclusion: Sarah...

Read More
Publication

Achieving Compatibility Between Solar Project Developers and Mineral Estate Holders

By Dirk R. Mueller , Alyssa Netto , and Will Russ Texas and California lead the country in terms of solar energy generating capacity while also maintaining major oil and gas production operations, which...

Read More
Publication

Employment Law Update for Nonprofits With Holly Sutton

Welcome to  EO Radio Show - Your Nonprofit Legal Resource . Charities, foundations, and their founders often request help addressing employment practices and compliance questions. In this episode, host Cynthia Rowland is joined by Holly...

Read More
Publication

Nonprofit Basics: Unpacking Prudent Investments, PRIs and MRIs

Welcome to  EO Radio Show - Your Nonprofit Legal Resource . Episode 73 discusses frequently used terms in the nonprofit world pertaining to investment activities. Public charity and private foundation directors and officers need...

Read More
News

Scraping Battles: Meta Loses Legal Effort to Halt Harvesting of Personal Profiles

Alex Reese spoke to Matt Fleischer-Black of  Cybersecurity Law Report about the Meta v. Bright Data decision and its impact on U.S. scraping case law. Read the article here (paywall or trial).

Read More
Publication

Corporate Transparency Act: A Guide on Beneficial Ownership for Nonprofit Executives

The Corporate Transparency Act, enacted as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021, represents a significant shift in regulatory requirements for entities across the United States. This act, set to...

Read More