Real Estate Law and Construction Law

Purchasing a residential property with existing tenants requires careful attention to lease agreements, possession rights, and financing requirements. Understanding how tenant occupancy affects closing timelines, security deposits, and the buyer's ability to occupy or use the property can prevent costly surprises and legal complications during the transaction process.

It’s an uncomfortable topic, but it also creates immediate legal and financial questions for surviving family members, sellers, lenders, and real estate professionals.

Recent amendments to Mass. R. Prof. C. 1.15 have significantly changed how Massachusetts law yers must handle unclaimed and unidentified funds held in IOLTA accounts.

Some of the biggest real estate disputes I’ve handled have started with a document that may be only a few paragraphs long: an easement. Easements are everywhere. Utilities use them for pipelines and transmission lines. Developers rely on them for access and infrastructure.

Monmouth County is experiencing a major development surge driven by projects like Netflix Studios Fort Monmouth, the Monmouth Park redevelopment, and residential developments across multiple municipalities.

Attorney Joshua G.R. Curtis explores how the Consumer Protection Act applies to unsolicited offers to purchase residential properties. This webinar examines the legal framework governing direct home-buying solicitations and what protections exist for homeowners receiving such offers.

New York City's rent stabilization system has evolved significantly since the 1960s, shaped by legislative changes, policy shifts, and economic pressures that continue to impact multifamily housing. Partner Alex Lycoyannis and Christina Smyth, founding partner of Smyth Levenson LLP and former Rent Guidelines Board member, trace this evolution through key legislative milestones including the 2019 Stability and Tenant Protection Act...

In AIF Dartmouth, LLC v. Hanson, the Massachusetts Appeals Court considered claims arising from two residential summary-process actions.

A California Court of Appeal has invalidated San Francisco's Empty Homes Tax, ruling that the Ellis Act—which protects property owners' right to exit the rental market—also shields them from being forced to enter it through vacancy taxation. This landmark decision raises critical questions about the viability of similar residential vacancy taxes that other California municipalities have enacted or are considering as housing policy tools.

On September 28, 2026, a Seattle federal court in North Cascades Conservation Council v. National Park Service issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) halting construction of a road segment within the channel of the Stehekin River in the North Cascades National Park Complex, after finding a strong likelihood that the National Park Service (NPS) violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by relying on a categorical exclusion that did not adequately consider impacts to aquatic habitat and ecology.

Some of the biggest real estate disputes I’ve handled have started with a document that may be only a few paragraphs long: an easement. Easements are everywhere. Utilities use them for pipelines and transmission lines. Developers rely on them for access and infrastructure.

California has enacted seven new laws that fundamentally reshape how data centers are approved, powered, and supplied with water. These regulations eliminate fast-track environmental approvals, impose mandatory water supply assessments regardless of facility size, and require data centers to bear full grid interconnection costs through special utility tariffs.