Residential
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May 14, 2025
Landlords Detail Policies To Cut After Trump Admin Ask
Two trade groups for apartment owners requested that federal officials eliminate COVID-19-era eviction restrictions and a framework for accepting emotional support animals, as well as undo appliance efficiency standards, union wage rates and other policies the groups say are holding back multifamily development.
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May 14, 2025
McGlinchey Stafford Adds Real Estate, Financial Services Pro
McGlinchey Stafford PLLC announced that the firm has added a real estate and financial services pro to its financial services litigation practice, who joins the firm following a five-year stint in private practice.
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May 14, 2025
Attorneys Size Up NYC Condo Conversion Bill
Tucked away in New York's 2026 budget are changes to blue-sky law that allow some mixed-income rental buildings to be converted to condominiums, but attorneys say the update comes with numerous caveats and regulatory hurdles, and that it prompts questions about cost-sharing.
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May 14, 2025
NYC Real Estate Week In Review
Fried Frank, Gibson Dunn and Kramer Levin are among the law firms that handled the largest New York City real estate deals that became public last week, a list topped by Amazon and Blackstone purchases in Manhattan.
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May 13, 2025
Mortgage Lender Overcharges Service Members, Suit Says
Mortgage lender Planet Home Lending LLC faces a proposed class action alleging that it violated the federal Servicemembers' Civil Relief Act by refusing to retroactively apply an interest rate below the act's maximum threshold during a customer's time on active duty.
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May 13, 2025
Senators Grill Allstate, State Farm Heads On Disaster Claims
Officials from Allstate and State Farm defended their claims-handling procedures for natural disasters before a U.S. Senate committee Tuesday amid testimony that the two major homeowners insurers routinely altered estimates and underpaid policyholders to protect their profits.
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May 13, 2025
State Farm's Emergency Rate Hike Request Approved In Calif.
California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara announced Tuesday that he had adopted a judge's recommendation to approve State Farm General Insurance Co.'s request for an emergency rate increase for property insurance in the state, following January wildfires that have already cost California insurers $12.1 billion.
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May 13, 2025
K&L Gates Adds Ex-Taylor Wessing Atty In London
K&L Gates LLP announced Tuesday that it has hired a former Taylor Wessing LLP attorney as a partner on its finance team in London.
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May 13, 2025
1st Circ. Urged To Rule In Appeal Over Canceled HUD Grants
Groups challenging Trump administration cuts to $30 million in housing grants asked the First Circuit to rule that a Massachusetts federal judge, in fact, has the power to order federal officials to fund the grants, even after the judge dissolved such a ruling in reaction to a recent U.S. Supreme Court finding.
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May 13, 2025
Ga. Property Owner Says Insurer Must Pay For Burst Pipes
A property owner told a Virginia federal court that although its insurer received late notice of property damage after a 2022 winter freeze burst pipes at its Georgia property, it was still owed coverage under a more than $30 million policy because the insurer accepted its reasons for the delay.
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May 13, 2025
NJ AG, Data Co. Defend Judicial Privacy Law At 3rd Circ.
Data protection company Atlas Data Corp. and New Jersey's attorney general are urging the Third Circuit to uphold a decision declaring the state's judicial privacy measure known as Daniel's Law as constitutional.
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May 13, 2025
Berkshire Unit Loses Bid To Transfer Commission Fee Suit
A Berkshire Hathaway unit and a full-service real estate company cannot transfer a proposed class action accusing real estate brokers of conspiring to inflate commissions for home sales out of Missouri federal court, the presiding judge has ruled.
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May 13, 2025
BCLP Adds 4 Atty Litigation Team From Lewis Brisbois
Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP announced that the firm has hired a four-member litigation team from Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP, who will join the firm's class action and mass torts practice group.
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May 13, 2025
6th Circ. Demands New Atty Fee Calculation In Property Row
The Sixth Circuit has agreed that the state of Michigan and one of its counties are liable for attorney fees in a lawsuit alleging the county unlawfully kept proceeds from a tax-foreclosed sale, adding on Monday that the lower court must better explain why it slashed the victorious property owner's fee request.
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May 13, 2025
NY Real Estate Firm Adler & Stachenfeld Absorbs Boutique
New York real estate firm Adler & Stachenfeld LLP has welcomed six attorneys and support staff from real estate boutique Seiden & Schein PC, including name and founding partner Alvin Schein, Adler & Stachenfeld said Tuesday.
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May 13, 2025
Paul Weiss, Latham Guide $1.2B Merger Of Homebuilders
Latham & Watkins LLP and Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP advised a $1.2 billion acquisition by Apollo Global Management to take Landsea Homes Corp. private, creating a combined company operating in seven states.
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May 12, 2025
Dentons Hires Veteran Real Estate Partner In NYC
Dentons has hired a veteran real estate attorney, who has represented clients such as developers and property owners in real estate projects for more than a decade, for a partner role in one of its New York offices, the firm announced Monday.
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May 12, 2025
Redfin Shareholder Sues To Block $1.75B Rocket Cos. Merger
A shareholder has hit Redfin Corp. and several members of its top brass with a class action in Washington state federal court, seeking to block the real estate technology company's planned merger with Rocket Cos. by alleging the merger's proxy statement is false and misleading.
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May 12, 2025
2 Firms Guide $112M Buy Of Nashville Apartment Tower
Hunton and Thompson Burton advised real estate firm Tishman Speyer's $112 million acquisition of a luxury Nashville apartment building previously owned by investment platform Yieldstreet and a venture related to WeWork founder Adam Neumann.
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May 12, 2025
Real Estate Attorney On Going In-House And Back Again
For a real estate attorney, Nick Buehner has had an unconventional career path, from flipping houses with his father in high school to landing an in-house role at a prominent developer, where he worked, briefly, on a dazzling Austin skyscraper that now houses Google.
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May 12, 2025
Will Justices Finally Rein In Universal Injunctions?
The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to address for the first time Thursday the propriety of universal injunctions, a tool federal judges have increasingly used to broadly halt presidential orders and policy initiatives, and whose validity has haunted the high court's merits and emergency dockets for more than a decade.
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May 12, 2025
Toll Bros. Must Face Counterclaims In $12M Security Sale Suit
The home security arm of Pennsylvania-based homebuilder Toll Brothers can't make any further cuts to the counterclaims from Security Systems Inc. in a $12 million lawsuit over the latter's purchase of nearly 10,000 customer accounts, a Connecticut state court judge ruled Friday.
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May 12, 2025
SC Condo Board Inks $1.2M Deal In Owners' Lawsuit
A putative class of current and former South Carolina condominium unit owners is ready to settle its claims that the property's board hid the building's deteriorating conditions for years, saddling the residents with millions of dollars worth of repair assessments as a result.
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May 12, 2025
Capital Group Inks $18.7M Deal With Conn. Housing Authority
Titan Capital ID LLC on Monday accepted $18.7 million to settle a damages feud with a nonprofit tied to a Connecticut public housing authority, agreeing to drop an interest rate from 24% to 12% on an underlying $16.2 million promissory note while waiving an 8% late fee.
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May 12, 2025
Homeowners, Title Co. Settle Excessive Notary Fees Suit
Two homeowners and Equity National Title informed a Pennsylvania federal court that the parties have reached a settlement in the homeowners' proposed class action alleging the title company charged excessive notary fees.
Expert Analysis
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New Proposal Signals Sharper Enforcement Focus At CFIUS
Last week's proposed rule aimed at broadening the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States' enforcement authority over foreign investments and increasing penalties for violations signals that CFIUS intends to continue expanding its aggressive monitoring of national security issues, say attorneys at Kirkland.
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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.
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Illinois EV Charging Act Sparks Developer Concerns
A recent state law in Illinois requiring multifamily housing to provide facilities for electric vehicle charging raises significant concerns for developers over existing infrastructure that isn't up to the task, says Max Kanter at Much Shelist.
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What NAR Settlement Means For Agent Commission Rates
If approved, a joint settlement agreement between the National Association of Realtors and a class of home sellers will likely take the onus off home sellers to compensate buyers' agents, affecting considerations for all parties to real estate transactions, say attorneys at Jones Foster.
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Calif. Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q1
The first quarter of the year brought the usual onslaught of new regulatory developments in California — including a crackdown on junk fees imposed by small business lenders, a big step forward for online notarizations and a ban on predatory listing agreements, says Alex Grigorians at Hanson Bridgett.
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2nd Circ. Ruling Clarifies When Demand Letters Are Claims
The Second Circuit’s decision last week in Pine Management v. Colony Insurance, affirming that an insurer had no obligation to defend an insured for claims made before the policy period, provides clarity on when presuit demands for relief constitute claims — an important issue that may be dispositive of coverage, says Bonnie Thompson at Lavin Rindner.
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Preparing For Possible Calif. Criminal Antitrust Enforcement
Though a recent announcement that the California Attorney General's Office will resume criminal prosecutions in support of its antitrust enforcement may be mere saber-rattling, companies and their counsel should nevertheless be prepared for interactions with the California AG's Antitrust Section that are not limited to civil liability issues, say Dylan Ballard and Lillian Sun at V&E.
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Conn. Loan Law Tweaks May Have 3 Major Effects On Lenders
Recently proposed minor amendments to Connecticut’s consumer protection laws could nonetheless mean major and unexpected changes to state consumer financial services regulations that dictate how lenders and their customer-facing service providers handle fee payments, mortgage servicer licensing and private student loans, says Jonathan Joshua at Joshua Law Firm.
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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.
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Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: March Lessons
In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy discusses four notable circuit court decisions on topics from consumer fraud to employment — and provides key takeaways for counsel on issues including coercive communications with putative class members and Article III standing at the class certification stage.
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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.
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How Calif. Video Recording Ruling May Affect Insured Exams
A recent California appellate decision, Myasnyankin v. Nationwide, allowing policyholders to video record all parties to an insurance examination under oath, has changed the rules of the road for EUOs and potentially opened Pandora's box for future disputes, say John Edson and Preston Bennett at Sheppard Mullin.
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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.