Commercial Leasing

• Providing advice and representation to real estate owners, management companies, users of real estate and real estate brokers
• There are two major practice areas, the Commercial Leasing Practice and the Real Estate  Brokerage Practice
• Commercial Leasing Practice
  • Services include:
    • Office and retail leases
    • Ground leases
    • Subleases
    • Built-to-suit leases
    • Occupancy agreements
    • Communication tower leases
  • We place a premium on:
    • Promptly negotiating and documenting lease transactions
    • Proactively representing our clients to make sure the lease is accurate and contains all necessary legal protections
    • Focusing on financial and economic provisions of the lease
  • Examples of landlord representation include:
    • Leasing a building for use as an Internet co-location, telecommunication and data center
    • Leasing two buildings to a public, human genetics research company
    • A ground tenant renegotiating an existing retail ground lease and then leasing the property to a publicly-held grocery store user
    • Owners of retail and office property leasing space to government entities located in Washington D.C. and Montgomery County, Maryland
    • Examples of tenant representation include:
    • A government contractor negotiating a built-to-suit lease for 100,000 square feet of space
    • A national energy company consolidating into a 200,000 square foot headquarters and subletting excess space
    • A retail tenant leasing and opening up over 30 new locations
    • A publicly-held biotechnology company negotiating a built-to-suit lease for its headquarters
  • Commercial Leasing also works closely with the Land Use Practice group to help with zoning and governmental approval process and obtaining government funding, grants and incentives
  • Group members often organize and present legal seminars, for example, the Georgetown University Law Center's advanced Commercial Leasing Institute's annual conference on commercial leasing is co-chaired by Lawrence A. Shulman, a Commercial Leasing Group member.
• Real Estate Brokerage Practice
  • Services include:
    • Drafting and negotiating commission agreements
    • Counseling in disputes over commissions
    • Counseling brokers in real estate brokerage license issues
  • We regularly host breakfast seminars for the real estate brokerage community, where we gain considerable insight on critical day-to-day issues