Commercial
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June 14, 2024
Citadel Expands Footprint At Soon To Open Miami Office
Citadel expanded its footprint at a new 57-floor Class A office building in Miami, grabbing another two floors and 37,000 feet at 830 Brickell Plaza, a representative for the hedge fund confirmed Friday.
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June 14, 2024
Miami Tower Takes $668M In Fla.'s Biggest Construction Loan
Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP and Saul Ewing LLP advised developer Property Markets Group on taking out a $668 million construction loan — the largest in state history — for its Waldorf Astoria Hotel and Residences Miami.
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June 14, 2024
DOJ Can't Force Retroactive FARA Registration, DC Circ. Says
The U.S. Department of Justice can't force casino magnate Steve Wynn to retroactively register as a foreign agent because his alleged lobbying efforts on behalf of China ended years ago, a D.C. Circuit panel ruled Friday.
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June 14, 2024
Data Center Builder Starts $10B Project In Illinois
Sears' former headquarters in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, is being turned into a $10-billion campus that will have five hyperscale data centers, Compass Datacenters announced.
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June 14, 2024
Polsinelli Adds Ex-Withers Real Estate Atty In NY
Polsinelli PC has hired a commercial real estate attorney from Withers as a shareholder in New York.
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June 14, 2024
Real Estate Broker Claims Lewis Brisbois Breached Deal
A real estate broker who had exclusive rights to represent Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP has slammed the firm with a breach of contract suit in California state court, alleging its abrupt termination of their deal will cost him millions in commissions.
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June 14, 2024
Goetz Fitzpatrick To Merge With Platzer Swergold Next Year
Goetz Fitzpatrick LLP and Platzer Swergold Goldberg Katz & Jaslow LLP will combine forces next year to create a single New York City firm.
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June 13, 2024
Mich. Co. Claims Mexico Owes $2.7B For Illegal Land Grab
A Michigan consumer products manufacturer has asked an international tribunal to order Mexico to pay it $2.7 billion, saying the country wrongfully seized 700 acres of the company's agricultural land in the Mexican state of Jalisco.
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June 13, 2024
NYC Sued Over Policy Targeting Unlicensed Pot Stores
More than two dozen New York City retailers have launched a proposed federal class action against the city alleging that enforcement of a new policy targeting stores for selling cannabis without a license has resulted in the unconstitutional closing of hundreds of businesses.
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June 13, 2024
Monsanto Can't Plead Ignorance On PCB Pollution, Cities Say
Chicago suburbs looking to hold Monsanto and related businesses accountable for their financial share of reducing pollutants in water that flows into Lake Michigan urged an Illinois state court to keep their case alive, arguing the companies should have known about the dangers of the chemicals in products.
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June 13, 2024
NJ Justices Create New Liability Rule For Property Owners
The New Jersey Supreme Court on Thursday voted 4-3 to craft a new rule stating that owners of commercial vacant lots have a duty to maintain the public sidewalks abutting the lots, and reinstated a woman's trip-and-fall injury suit.
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June 13, 2024
Indicted Ex-Conn. Official Missed Gun Sale Deadline, Feds Say
Former Connecticut state budget official Konstantinos Diamantis has missed deadlines to remove guns from his residence and claimed he couldn't locate his passport despite orders to surrender it to federal authorities while he awaits trial on bribery and extortion charges, a U.S. probation officer reported Wednesday.
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June 13, 2024
CRE Expert Joins Emmet Marvin's Real Estate Finance Group
Emmet Marvin & Martin LLP announced that the firm has added a partner to its real estate finance group, bringing with her the commercial real estate expertise she gained from Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft LLP.
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June 13, 2024
Data Center Developer Secures Upsized $9.2B Investment
Hyperscale data center campus company Vantage Data Centers said it has secured a $9.2 billion equity investment from DigitalBridge Group Inc. and Silver Lake, which is nearly $3 billion more than anticipated when the investment was first announced back in January.
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June 13, 2024
Red Roof Had 'Revolving Door' For Trafficking, Ga. Jurors Told
A former Red Roof Inn Inc. employee and the leader of a nonprofit testified Thursday about sex trafficking they saw take place at two metro Atlanta Red Roof Inn locations as part of a landmark civil trial in which 11 women allege the company knew trafficking was taking place at the locations and did nothing to stop it.
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June 13, 2024
Pryor Cashman Aided Developer Fraud, Owes $5.7M, Cos. Say
New York-based law firm Pryor Cashman LLP has been hit with a $5.7 million lawsuit in state court accusing it of aiding and abetting fraud while representing a real estate developer by allegedly providing false information to another party in a transaction involving a Manhattan property.
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June 13, 2024
Ohio Senate OKs Requiring Tax Payments For Property Splits
Ohio would require delinquent property taxes to be paid before a real parcel was subdivided or transferred and would prohibit tax-delinquent property owners from buying tax-foreclosed property under a bill passed by the state Senate.
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June 13, 2024
NYC Real Estate Week In Review
Willkie, Latham and Milbank were among the law firms that handled the largest New York City real estate deals that hit public records last week, a period that saw three deals north of $100 million hit records.
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June 12, 2024
Mississippi Casino Developer's Creditors Want To Force Ch. 7
Creditors for developer Diamondhead Casino Corp., which has been trying for years to build a casino in Mississippi near the Gulf Coast, filed an involuntary bankruptcy petition in Delaware bankruptcy court against the company Wednesday, saying they are owed $2.4 million.
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June 12, 2024
CMBS Loan Special Servicers Rack Up Fees — And Lawsuits
Commercial mortgage-backed securities deals are structured to protect special servicers from litigation, but a recent crop of lawsuits and counterclaims may make it harder for them to continue business as usual.
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June 12, 2024
NY Court Strikes Housing Tax Break's Labor Dispute Process
A New York state court has undercut a provision in a since-expired affordable housing tax break that enabled a city watchdog to issue judgments against developers who underpaid construction workers, deeming the provision unconstitutional because decisions could not be appealed.
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June 12, 2024
$18.8M Theft Coverage Suit Must Be Heard In State Court
A Texas federal judge ruled that a lawsuit brought against an insurer over $18.8 million in theft and vandalism at a Georgia shopping center belongs in state court, refusing to create diversity by removing a plaintiff.
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June 12, 2024
Real Estate Firm Fights CBRE's Bid To Slip Negligence Claim
A real estate investment firm told an Iowa federal court to reject CBRE Inc.'s dismissal bid in a $10.3 million suit over Iowa property deals that fell through, arguing that CBRE "grossly oversimplifies" the firm's professional negligence claim against it.
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June 12, 2024
Texas AG: Wind Project Lease Negotiators Need A License
Texas' attorney general told the Lone Star State's real estate commission that a person involved in lease negotiations for a wind farm project should have had a license from the commission following a recent project that cast doubt on the requirement.
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June 12, 2024
Historic Brownfields Funding Is Fueling Cleanup Catch-Up
Under the time crunch of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, funding for brownfield cleanups has increased by more than 700% in the last three years as cities and nonprofits vie to tackle their most complex sites.
Expert Analysis
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A Case For Sharing Mediation Statements With Counterparties
In light of a potential growing mediation trend of only submitting statements to the mediator, litigants should think critically about the pros and cons of exchanging statements with opposing parties as it could boost the chances of reaching a settlement, says Arthur Eidelhoch at Eidelhoch Mediation.
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EB-5 Reform Continues To Weigh Heavily On Participants
Recent U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services guidance helps clarify aspects of the 2022 EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act, which increased oversight of EB-5 regional centers, but does not end the industry's continuing state of uncertainty, says Robert Divine at Baker Donelson.
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Preparing For Legal Scrutiny Of Data Retention Policies
Two recent cases involving Google and Meta should serve as a call to action for companies to ensure their data retention policies are updated and properly implemented to the degree of being able to withstand judicial scrutiny, especially as more data is generated by emerging technologies, say Jack Kallus and Labeed Choudhry at Kaufman Dolowich.
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Attorneys Should Have An Ethical Duty To Advance DEI
National and state bar associations are encouraging attorneys to apply diversity, equity and inclusion practices in the legal profession and beyond, and these associations should take it one step further by formally recognizing ethical duties for attorneys to promote DEI, which could better the legal profession and society, says Elena Mitchell at Moore & Van Allen.
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Data-Driven Insights Are Key To Attracting Today's Clients
As law firm growth slows and competition for clients increases, modern firms must rely on robust data analytics to develop the sector-based expertise and industry insights that clients increasingly prioritize in relationships with counsel, says Lavinia Calvert at Intapp.
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EV Chargers Can Bring Benefits For Calif. Property Owners
California property developers and owners face growing pressure to provide electric vehicle charging infrastructure — but this can be a unique opportunity to add value to real estate assets, and can be accomplished in multiple ways, say Riley Cutner-Orrantia and Eurie Hwang at Crosbie Gliner.
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Brownfield Renewables Guidance Leaves Site Eligibility Murky
Recent IRS guidance sheds some light on the Inflation Reduction Act's incentives for renewable energy development on contaminated sites — but the eligibility of certain sites for brownfield status remains uncertain, say Megan Caldwell and Jon Micah Goeller at Husch Blackwell.
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Pending Legislation Holds Promise For SF Buildings
Recently introduced state and local legislation could make it easier for office-to-residential conversion projects in San Francisco to secure approval and funding sources, although financial incentives similar to those implemented by other states may be necessary to ensure the feasibility of such projects, say Caroline Chase and Nick DuBroff at Allen Matkins.
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Ghosting In BigLaw: Why Better Feedback Habits Are Needed
Not giving assignments or constructive criticism to junior associates can significantly affect their performance and hours, potentially leading them to leave the firm, but partners can prevent this by asking the right questions and creating a culture of feedback, says Rachel Patterson at Orrick.
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SVB Collapse Underscores Policy And Regulatory Pitfalls
The recent failures of three American banks reveal hidden vulnerabilities, raise concerns about moral hazard, and highlight the need for tighter regulation and closer monitoring of unrealized investment-portfolio losses in the U.S. banking system, says attorney Patrick Meson.
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Law Needs A Balance Between Humanism And Formalism
A recent Law360 guest article rightly questions the pretextual pseudo-originalism that permits ideology to masquerade as judicial philosophy, but the cure would kill the patient because directness, simplicity and humanness are achievable without renouncing form or sacrificing stare decisis, says Vanessa Kubota at the Arizona Court of Appeals.
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NY Bankruptcy Court Pivots On Commercial Rent Damage Cap
A New York bankruptcy court departed from its prior precedent in the recent Cortlandt Liquidating case, effectively lowering the commercial rent damages cap, and making the court a little less friendly for landlords but potentially an attractive venue for debtors planning to reject significant commercial leases, say attorneys at MoFo.
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Short Message Data Challenges In E-Discovery
As short message platforms increasingly dominate work environments, lawyers face multiple programs, different communication styles and emoji in e-discovery, so they must consider new strategies to adapt their processes, says Cristin Traylor at Relativity.