Commercial
-
January 24, 2025
Property Plays: AT&T, Blue Owl, Flow Life
Property Plays is a weekly roundup of the latest loans, leases, sales and projects around the country. Send your tips — all confidential — to realestate@law360.com.
-
January 24, 2025
NJ Judge Rejects Bid For New Trial In Red Roof Inn Deal
A New Jersey state judge has rejected a bid for a new trial over a deal gone wrong to purchase a Red Roof Inn, ruling two witnesses who asserted their Fifth Amendment rights outside of the jury's presence had no bearing on the jury's verdict.
-
January 24, 2025
Gordon Rees Expands Litigation Bench With Atlanta Partner
Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani LLP has added a former Gray Rust St. Amand Moffett & Brieske LLP partner in Atlanta, strengthening the firm's commercial litigation practice.
-
January 24, 2025
Lutnick Settles Chancery Suit Ahead Of Commerce Hearing
Billionaire Howard L. Lutnick, President Donald Trump's nominee for secretary of commerce, has settled a Delaware Court of Chancery derivative suit accusing the Newmark Inc. principal executive officer of "blowing smoke" around his part in a $500 million stock-value gain in order to receive a $50 million bonus.
-
January 24, 2025
GSA Taps Ex-BlackRock Atty As New GC
The General Services Administration has tapped Russell McGranahan, the former general counsel of Focus Financial Partners who held legal roles at BlackRock and in private practice for almost 30 years, as its next general counsel, according to a Friday announcement.
-
January 24, 2025
Taxation With Representation: Latham, Simpson Thacher
In this week's Taxation With Representation, a Brookfield private real estate fund acquires Divvy Homes' property portfolio and platform, Kantar Group proposes the sale of Kantar Media, and an Ares Management-led group buys a majority of Form Technologies Inc.'s common equity.
-
January 24, 2025
AT&T Unloads Copper Network Sites To Developer For $850M
AT&T said on Friday it has reached a sale leaseback agreement with New York real estate development firm Reign Capital netting the telecommunications company $850 million to unload 74 properties as it transitions to a fiber optic and wireless network instead of one reliant on copper.
-
January 24, 2025
Blackstone To Buy $1B Power Plant In Va. Data Center Mecca
Blackstone, advised by Kirkland & Ellis LLP, plans to purchase a natural gas power plant in Loudoun County, Virginia — a region known for having the biggest data center market in the world — for $1 billion from Latham & Watkins LLP-led Ares Management, according to a source familiar with the matter.
-
January 23, 2025
Conn. Lawmakers Target Healthcare After Hospital's Ch. 11
In the lead-up to and aftermath of California hospital operator Prospect Medical Holdings Inc.'s $1 billion bankruptcy, Connecticut lawmakers are considering new regulatory powers, promising and penning oversight bills for hospitals owned by private equity firms and real estate trusts while seeking to stabilize the state's healthcare markets.
-
January 23, 2025
Wells Fargo Prevails In $25M Mortgage Default Dispute
A Pennsylvania state court sided with Wells Fargo in a foreclosure suit accusing a Philadelphia property owner of defaulting on a nearly $25 million mortgage loan, finding the owner failed to abide by the loan agreement.
-
January 23, 2025
Rosenberg & Estis Adds NY Gov't Atty To Transactions Dept.
Rosenberg & Estis PC has hired Lisa S. Lim, the general counsel of the New York City Public Housing Preservation Trust, as a member of a city-focused development team that's part of the firm's transactions department.
-
January 23, 2025
Harrison Street Pulls In $600M For Data Center-Focused Fund
Harrison Street said Jan. 23 that it raised $600 million for the investment management firm's first dedicated pool of capital for digital infrastructure and plans to primarily target U.S. data center projects.
-
January 23, 2025
Corporate Transparency Law Remains Flanked By Threats
The Corporate Transparency Act is facing threats across the branches of government despite the U.S. Supreme Court pausing a nationwide injunction on it Thursday, with another universal injunction in place, other court battles underway and some Republican lawmakers targeting the law.
-
January 23, 2025
Kirkland Advises Blue Owl On $2.3B Texas Data Center Loan
Kirkland & Ellis LLP advised Blue Owl Capital in arranging a $2.3 billion loan to build a 206-megawatt, build-to-suit data center development in Abilene, Texas, a project with Crusoe Energy Systems and Primary Digital Infrastructure.
-
January 23, 2025
O'Melveny Hires Troutman Real Estate Atty, Board Member
O'Melveny & Myers LLP announced Jan. 23 it added a Dallas-based attorney from Troutman Pepper Locke LLP — who describes herself as a "dirt lawyer" advising property transactions, construction financing and other real estate matters — as a partner in its project development and real estate group.
-
January 23, 2025
Latham-Led Brookfield Buying Divvy Homes For $1B
A Brookfield private real estate fund has agreed to acquire Divvy Homes' property portfolio and platform for approximately $1 billion, with an expected close in mid-February, the companies announced Wednesday.
-
January 23, 2025
Freddie Mac Puts End To $32M SEC Probe Coverage Dispute
Freddie Mac told a D.C. federal court that it has reached a settlement with underwriters at Lloyd's of London, bringing an end to the government-backed mortgage lender's $32 million coverage suit stemming from civil actions and federal probes related to its collapse during the 2008 global financial crisis.
-
January 22, 2025
'Unicorn Prosecution' Could Upend Legal Practice, Court Told
Brown & Connery LLP partner William Tambussi told a New Jersey state judge Wednesday that the entire practice of law in the Garden State rests on his impending decision on the charges against him in the state's sweeping racketeering case targeting power broker George E. Norcross III, arguing that a lawyer has never been prosecuted for routine legal work.
-
January 22, 2025
J&J Seeks To Defeat $30M Punitive Bid After Conn. Talc Trial
Johnson & Johnson has blasted a bid requesting that it pay $30 million in punitive damages on top of a $15 million jury award to a real estate developer who allegedly contracted mesothelioma from the company's talc, telling a Connecticut state court that, "at most," it should pay $5 million.
-
January 22, 2025
How A Lawyer Saved His Home Office From The Eaton Fire
Dozens of Los Angeles County lawyers shared stories with Law360 of how the L.A. fires impacted their offices and practices, and one attorney recounted how he saved his home office from the Eaton blaze.
-
January 22, 2025
Hotel Guests Urge 3rd Circ. To Revive Algorithmic Pricing Suit
Guests accusing Atlantic City hotel-casino owners of inflating room rates by using the same software have told the Third Circuit that a lower court was wrong to rely on a similar case targeting room rates in Las Vegas when dismissing their claims.
-
January 22, 2025
Sotomayor Halts 2nd Circ. Ruling In Landmark Graft Case
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor halted a decision from the Second Circuit on Wednesday that would have set up a second trial against four men whose convictions were overturned in a landmark 2023 high court ruling in which the justices narrowed certain types of public corruption cases.
-
January 22, 2025
Full DC Circ. Stands By Wipeout Of FERC Pipeline Approvals
The D.C. Circuit has rejected Williams Cos.' requests to reconsider a panel's decision scrapping Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approvals of a five-state expansion of the company's Transco pipeline system, despite more than a half-dozen amicus parties backing the rehearing requests.
-
January 22, 2025
Greenberg Traurig Folds Digital Infrastructure Into RE Group
Greenberg Traurig LLP announced that the firm is merging its digital infrastructure, data center and cloud computing practice group into Greenberg Traurig's global real estate group, noting that the integration will allow it to better serve data center clients.
-
January 22, 2025
Army, SD Tribe Fight For Early Win In Dakota Access Row
The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers are both asking for early wins in a challenge to shut down the Dakota Access Pipeline over alleged violations of federal environmental laws.
Expert Analysis
-
Weisselberg's Perjury At Trial Spotlights Atty Ethics Issues
Former Trump Organization executive Allen Weisselberg’s recent guilty plea for perjury in the New York attorney general's civil fraud trial should serve as a reminder to attorneys of their ethical duties when they know a client has lied or plans to lie in court, and the potential penalties for not fulfilling those obligations, say Hilary Gerzhoy and Julienne Pasichow at HWG.
-
Climate Disclosure Mandates Demand A Big-Picture Approach
As carbon emissions disclosure requirements from the European Union, California and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission take effect, the best practice for companies is not targeted compliance with a given reporting regime, but rather a comprehensive approach to systems assessment and management, says David Smith at Manatt.
-
Trump's NY Civil Fraud Trial Spotlights Long-Criticized Law
A New York court’s recent decision holding former President Donald Trump liable for fraud brought old criticisms of the state law used against him back into the limelight — including its strikingly broad scope and its major departures from the traditional elements of common law fraud, say Mark Kelley and Lois Ahn at MoloLamken.
-
$175M Bond Refiled By Trump Is Still Substantively Flawed
The corrected $175 million bond posted by former President Donald Trump on Thursday to stave off enforcement of the New York attorney general's fraud judgment against him remains substantively and procedurally flawed, as well as inadequately secured, says Adam Pollock of Pollock Cohen.
-
Calif. Ruling Shows Limits Of Exculpatory Lease Clauses
A California court's recent decision in Epochal Enterprises v. LF Encinitas Properties, finding a landlord liable for failing to disclose the presence of asbestos on the subject property, underscores the limits of exculpatory clauses' ability to safeguard landlords from liability where known hazards are present, say Fawaz Bham and Javier De Luna at Hunton.
-
Payment Provision Lessons From NJ Construction Ruling
A New Jersey appellate court's decision in Bil-Jim v. Wyncrest, holding that an American Institute of Architects contract was not an installment contract, highlights both the complexities of statute of limitations calculations and the significant consequences that can arise from minor differences in contract language, say Mitchell Taraschi and Zac Brower at Connell Foley.
-
A Legal Playbook For Stadium Construction Agreements
As a new wave of construction in the professional sports arena space gets underway, owners must carefully consider the unique considerations and risks associated with these large-scale projects and draft agreements accordingly, say attorneys at Akerman.
-
The Challenges SEC's Climate Disclosure Rule May Face
Attorneys at Debevoise examine potential legal challenges to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's new climate-related disclosure rule — against which nine suits have already been filed — including arguments under the Administrative Procedure Act, the major questions doctrine, the First Amendment and the nondelegation doctrine.
-
How FinCEN Proposal Expands RE Transaction Obligations
Against a regulatory backdrop foreshadowing anti-money laundering efforts in the real estate sector, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's proposed rule significantly expands reporting requirements for certain nonfinanced residential real estate transfers and necessitates careful review, say attorneys at Fried Frank.
-
Unpacking FinCEN's Proposed Real Estate Transaction Rule
Phil Jelsma and Ulrick Matsunaga at Crosbie Gliner take a close look at the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's recently proposed rulemaking — which mandates new disclosures for professionals involved in all-cash real estate deals — and discuss best next steps for the broad range of businesses that could be affected.
-
New FinCEN Guide Provides Useful BOI Context For Banks
Financial institutions should review a new Financial Crimes Enforcement Network compliance guide for helpful details about how the agency's beneficial ownership information database should be used, though questions remain about the access rule and whether it will truly streamline bank borrowers' Corporate Transparency Act due diligence, says George Singer at Holland & Hart.
-
DC's Housing Tax Break Proposal: What's In It, What's Missing
Proposed Washington, D.C., rules implementing the Housing in Downtown Tax Abatement program — for commercial property owners who convert properties into residential housing — thoroughly explain the process for submitting an application, but do not provide sufficient detail regarding the actual dollar value of the abatements, says Daniel Miktus at Akerman.
-
Contract Disputes Recap: The Terms Matter
Stephanie Magnell and Zachary Jacobson at Seyfarth examine recent decisions from the U.S. Civilian Board of Contract Appeals, the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals and the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, which offer reminders about the importance of including contract terms to address the unexpected circumstances that may interfere with performance.