Residential

  • October 22, 2024

    Building Permits, Construction Starts Dip In September

    The number of building permits issued and construction starts fell in September, even as the total number of housing units completed nationwide continues to rise, a delayed marker of previous months' stronger permitting activity, per data compiled by the U.S. Census Bureau.

  • October 22, 2024

    Housing Biz Engaged In 'Rent-To-Own' Fraud, Renters Say

    A proposed class of renters has accused homeownership company Landis Technologies Inc., its affiliates and multiple investment firms in Pennsylvania federal court of running a fraudulent rent-to-own scheme.

  • October 22, 2024

    The 2024 Prestige Leaders

    Check out our Prestige Leaders ranking, analysis and interactive graphics to see which firms stand out for their financial performance, attractiveness to attorneys and law students, ability to secure accolades and positive legal news media representation.

  • October 22, 2024

    How Law Firms Get And Keep Elite Status

    For decades, a handful of New York-based law firms thoroughly dominated the national consciousness when it came to power, profitability and prestige. But in today's legal market, increased movement of partners and clients from one firm to the next has begun to shake things up and create opportunities for go-getters to ascend the ranks.

  • October 21, 2024

    Rocket Mortgage Faces DOJ Suit Alleging Refi Race Bias

    The U.S. Department of Justice on Monday sued Rocket Mortgage and two appraisal companies in Colorado federal court for allegedly undervaluing a woman's Denver home because she was Black, asserting that the mortgage company then canceled her refinancing application when she reported the alleged discrimination.

  • October 21, 2024

    Colo. Tenants Facing Eviction Are Entitled To Jury Trials

    The Colorado Supreme Court ruled Monday that tenants in the state have a right to jury trials in eviction actions filed by their landlords if factual disputes exist in the case.

  • October 21, 2024

    US, Land Donor Settle Fight Over $1.9M Cut To Deduction

    The federal government settled a suit brought by a Louisiana partnership that accused the IRS of using a flawed appraisal to drive down its tax deduction for a land donation by nearly $1.9 million, according to Louisiana federal court filings.

  • October 21, 2024

    Baha Mar Developer Wins $1.6B Verdict Over Delays

    A New York state judge has handed the developer of the Bahamian resort Baha Mar a $1.6 billion verdict against a Chinese state-owned construction firm that was accused of concealing its massive delays in building the project and then sabotaging the development entirely when it realized catching up was hopeless.

  • October 21, 2024

    NYC Real Estate Week In Review

    Greenberg Traurig and Fried Frank were among the law firms that handled the largest New York City real estate deals that hit public records last week, a period headlined by a nearly $160 million Manhattan deal.

  • October 21, 2024

    North Carolina Hits Vacation Rental Co. With Robocall Lawsuit

    North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein filed suit against timeshare company Club Exploria LLC in North Carolina federal court, accusing the company of illegally spamming residents across the state with robocalls that sought to sell timeshares and vacation rentals.

  • October 21, 2024

    Judge Upholds Ginnie Mae's Authority To Vacate Bank's Lien

    A Texas federal judge ruled that the Government National Mortgage Association didn't overstep its authority when it vacated a bank's lien on a loan worth tens of millions of dollars, rejecting Texas Capital Bank's bid for partial summary judgment.

  • October 21, 2024

    Justices Won't Review IRS' Additions To Developer's $2M Deal

    The U.S. Supreme Court said Monday it wouldn't review an Eleventh Circuit decision allowing the Internal Revenue Service to back out of a deal to settle an Alabama real estate developer's tax debt for $2 million.

  • October 18, 2024

    Law360 MVP Awards Go To Top Attys From 74 Firms

    The attorneys chosen as Law360's 2024 MVPs have distinguished themselves from their peers by securing hard-earned successes in high-stakes litigation, complex global matters and record-breaking deals.

  • October 18, 2024

    Timeshare Co. Preyed On Fla. Servicemember, High Court Told

    A Florida U.S. Army soldier and his wife petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday to review their case against Bluegreen Vacations Unlimited Inc., disputing that his contract isn't legal under the Military Lending Act because the company used predatory tactics to sell him a timeshare.

  • October 18, 2024

    Cos. Say Brokerage Startup's NAR Listing Rules Suit Is Stale

    HomeServices of America Inc. and HSF Affiliates LLC told a Utah federal court on Friday to toss a residential brokerage startup's antitrust suit that accused them, multiple brokerages and the National Association of Realtors of conspiring to block the startup from NAR's multiple listing services.

  • October 18, 2024

    Ohio High Court Restores Developer's FHA Penalty Suit

    The Ohio Supreme Court has revived a developer's attempt to recoup some of a Fair Housing Act penalty from franchisees who built inaccessible multifamily housing, finding Friday the lower courts jumped the gun when they found the developer's claims were preempted by the FHA.

  • October 18, 2024

    Enforcers Fight RealPage Transfer Bid In Rent-Fixing Case

    Enforcers urged a North Carolina federal court not to transfer the government's antitrust case against RealPage to the Tennessee court overseeing similar private cases, saying Congress has made it clear that public antitrust actions should not be roped into multidistrict litigation.

  • October 18, 2024

    Judge Excuses Nationwide From Ga. Mold Death Coverage

    A Georgia federal judge found Nationwide Property & Casualty Insurance Co. has no duty to defend an apartment owner from claims in a separate lawsuit alleging the landlord failed to treat black mold or warn a tenant who died of exposure to the infestation.

  • October 18, 2024

    Feds Win 1st Trial In Sprawling NYC Housing Bribery Case

    A former New York City Housing Authority superintendent was convicted of taking bribes to award no-bid contracts, handing federal prosecutors a win in the first trial in a case that saw 70 defendants arrested earlier this year.

  • October 17, 2024

    9th Circ. Upholds Wash. City's Anti-Car Camping Law

    A Ninth Circuit panel has rebuffed a veteran's challenge to a Washington city's ordinance that he says displaced residents living in their vehicles, ruling Oct. 17 that the ordinance does not violate his purported right to intrastate travel, which the judges said may not exist to begin with.

  • October 17, 2024

    Pa. Appeals Court Stops Damaged Philly Building's Demolition

    A Pennsylvania appellate court has tossed a lower court order that required the demolition of a seven-story Philadelphia apartment building that had a partial façade collapse in September 2022.

  • October 17, 2024

    Milton Brings High Insured Costs, Familiar Pressures To Fla.

    While Florida avoided a worst case scenario following Hurricane Milton's landfall, insurance experts say that the high cost of the storm will add familiar pressures to a Florida homeowners insurance market that has been battered for years by storms.

  • October 17, 2024

    NJ Atty Disbarred On Charges Of Stealing Over $600K

    A New Jersey attorney accused of stealing over $600,000 from several clients through fraudulent real estate transactions over the last 10 years has been disbarred in New Jersey state and federal court.

  • October 17, 2024

    5th Circ. Tosses Policyholder's Hurricane Coverage Suit

    The Fifth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a National Flood Insurance Program policyholder's suit seeking coverage for at least $100,000 in hurricane damage to a Mississippi beachfront property, saying it was time-barred and failed to allege any extracontractual duties.

  • October 16, 2024

    NYC Condo Building's Revised Ch. 11 Plan Gets Confirmation

    A New York federal bankruptcy judge has confirmed the owner of a Manhattan condominium complex's revised Chapter 11 plan, signing off on the planned restructuring after initially sending it back for revisions in late September, according to a notice filed Wednesday.

Expert Analysis

  • A Closer Look At Feds' Proposed Banker Compensation Rule

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    A recently proposed rule to limit financial institutions' ability to award incentive-based compensation for risk-taking may progress through the rulemaking process slowly due to the sheer number of regulators collaborating on the rule and the number of issues under consideration, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.

  • The FTC And DOJ Should Backtrack On RealPage

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    The antitrust agencies ought to reverse course on their enforcement actions against RealPage, which are based on a faulty legal premise, risk further property shortages and threaten the use of algorithms that are central to the U.S. economy, says Thomas Stratmann at George Mason University.

  • Fishing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Atop the list of ways fishing makes me a better lawyer is the relief it offers from the chronic stress of a demanding caseload, but it has also improved my listening skills and patience, and has served as an exceptional setting for building earnest relationships, says Steven DeGeorge​​​​​​​ at Robinson Bradshaw.

  • Circuit Judge Writes An Opinion, AI Helps: What Now?

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    Last week's Eleventh Circuit opinion in Snell v. United Specialty Insurance, notable for a concurrence outlining the use of artificial intelligence to evaluate a term's common meaning, is hopefully the first step toward developing a coherent basis for the judiciary's generative AI use, says David Zaslowsky at Baker McKenzie.

  • Ohio Tax Talk: The Legislative Push For Property Tax Relief

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    As Ohio legislators attempt to alleviate the increasing property tax burden, four recent bills that could significantly affect homeowners propose to eliminate replacement property tax levies, freeze property taxes for longtime homeowners, adjust homestead exemptions annually for inflation, and temporarily expand the homestead exemption, say Raghav Agnihotri and Rachael Chamberlain at Frost Brown.

  • In The CFPB Playbook: Regulatory Aims Get High Court Assist

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    Newly emboldened after the U.S. Supreme Court last month found that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's funding is constitutional, the bureau has likely experienced a psychic boost, allowing its already robust enforcement agenda to continue expanding, say attorneys at Husch Blackwell.

  • What's New In Kentucky's Financial Services Overhaul

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    Kentucky's H.B. 726 will go into effect in July and brings with it some significant restructuring to the Kentucky Financial Services Code, including changes to mortgage loan license fees and repeals of provisions relating to installment term loans and savings associations, say attorneys at Frost Brown.

  • A Comparison Of FDIC, OCC Proposed Merger Approaches

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    Max Bonici and Connor Webb at Venable take a closer look at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's respective bank merger proposals and highlight certain common themes and important differences, in light of regulators continually rethinking their approaches to bank mergers.

  • Tax Assessment: Recapping Georgia's Legislative Session

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    Jonathan Feldman and Alla Raykin at Eversheds Sutherland examine tax-related changes from Georgia’s General Assembly — such as the governor’s successful push to accelerate income tax cuts — and suggest steps to take before certain tax incentives are challenged in the state's next legislative session.

  • 11th Circ. Ruling May Foreshadow Ch. 15 Clashes

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    The Eleventh Circuit's recent decision in In re: Talal Qais Abdulmunem Al Zawawi has introduced a split from the Second Circuit regarding whether debtors in foreign proceedings must have a domicile, calling attention to the understudied nature of Chapter 15 of the Bankruptcy Code, say attorneys at Cleary.

  • Teaching Yoga Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Being a yoga instructor has helped me develop my confidence and authenticity, as well as stress management and people skills — all of which have crossed over into my career as an attorney, says Laura Gongaware at Clyde & Co.

  • A Look At New IRS Rules For Domestically Controlled REITs

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    The Internal Revenue Services' finalized Treasury Regulations addressing whether real estate investment trusts qualify as domestically controlled adopt the basic structure of previous proposals, but certain new and modified rules may mitigate the regulations' impact, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.

  • What CRA Deadline Means For Biden Admin. Rulemaking

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    With the 2024 election rapidly approaching, the Biden administration must race to finalize proposed agency actions within the next few weeks, or be exposed to the chance that the following Congress will overturn the rules under the Congressional Review Act, say attorneys at Covington.