Real Estate & Property Law

Users Keepers: Pirates, zombies and adverse possession

“Trespassing plus time equals adverse possession,” Paul Golden writes in his new book, Litigating Adverse Possession Cases: Pirates v. Zombies. It’s a concept more popularly discussed as squatter’s rights.

Apr 10, 2024 8:48 AM CDT

Court clears path for reopening antitrust probe of Realtors group

A federal court cleared the way Friday for the Justice Department to reopen an antitrust probe into the National Association of Realtors and its rules regarding home sale commissions.

Apr 5, 2024 2:00 PM CDT

Florida lawyer uses ‘unorthodox foreclosure auction’ tactics to ensure clients get deals on property, report says

Judges in South Florida are approving “unorthodox foreclosure auction rules” proposed by a lawyer that help ensure that his client will own the property for a fraction of its value, according to an investigation by the Miami Herald.

Apr 4, 2024 8:59 AM CDT

As law firm office space shrinks, natural light is in and ‘capacious’ corner offices are gone

Law firms moving to new offices are often saving on space, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they will save money, according to a story in the New York Times on the BigLaw office market.

Feb 29, 2024 9:06 AM CST

NAACP-trained nonlawyers may provide limited advice to tenants facing eviction, top state court says

The South Carolina Supreme Court is allowing the NAACP’s state conference to train nonlawyer volunteers to advise tenants as part of a three-year pilot program.

Feb 14, 2024 9:47 AM CST

Lawyer went the extra 29 miles to shut down refinance scam

A lawyer in Charlotte, North Carolina, put the knowledge that he gained at a fall conference to use when he visited a homeowner and averted a financial scam.

Feb 13, 2024 3:59 PM CST

Florida can’t enforce law blocking real estate purchases by Chinese citizens against 2 plaintiffs, court rules

A federal appeals court has ruled that a Florida law barring real estate purchases by Chinese citizens can’t be enforced against two plaintiffs while their court challenge continues.

Feb 6, 2024 1:05 PM CST

GC Fatheree III uses real estate law skills for history-making pro bono cases

In 2020, GC Fatheree III began what became his most notable pro bono case, representing members of a Black family in their quest to secure “Bruce’s Beach,” a stretch of oceanfront property that was taken from their ancestors nearly a century earlier by officials in Los Angeles County who cited eminent domain. It was unprecedented because, according to Fatheree, stolen property had never been returned to a Black family or community in the United States.

Feb 1, 2024 12:30 AM CST

7 ways that lawyering is ‘ethics in action’

Winding down my Polish airport real estate development projects, I sold my Polish car parking company in 2011 to a Belgian company, closing the deal in a Warsaw conference room packed with 11 lawyers and towers of documents in Polish and English, even though the buyers primarily spoke French.

Dec 11, 2023 12:19 PM CST