Commercial Lease Transactions: The Lifeblood of the Real Estate Industry
The Center presented the 2007 Kratovil Conference on Real Estate Law & Practice on October 19, 2007. It was based upon the premise that landlords, tenants, lenders, and their attorneys are evaluating and negotiating commercial leases from a new perspective. Commercial leases have been described as the lifeblood of the transaction by those who develop, finance, own, lease, and occupy office buildings and shopping centers. Without signed leases and promised income, projects do not go forward and existing projects go into default.
Daniel B. Bogart gave the keynote address, speaking about good faith and fair dealing in commercial leases. Bogart is the Donley and Marjorie Bollinger Chair in Real Estate, Land Use, and Environmental Law at the Chapman University School of Law in Orange County, California. As director of the Center for Land Resources at Chapman, Bogart also develops programs that connect land use, environmental law, and real estate transactions.
Bogart received his BA, JD, and MA in Economics from Duke University. He has focused his work on transactional law throughout his career, which began in an Atlanta, Georgia, practice that specialized in real estate transactions. For several years, he served as editor of the “Keeping Current (Property)” column in Probate and Property, the bimonthly magazine of the ABA’s Section on Real Property, Trust & Estate Law. He is chair-elect of the Real Estate Transactions Section of the American Association of Law Schools.
Bogart began his teaching career in 1990 at Drake University Law School. He joined the Chapman University School of Law faculty in 1998.
The John Marshall Law Review will publish Professor Bogart’s article “The Right Doctrine in the Wrong Transaction: Good Faith and Fair Dealing in Commercial Leasing” in a forthcoming issue.
Continuing a long-standing Kratovil Conference tradition, a panel of practitioners discussed leases and lease transactions from a variety of perspectives. Victoria “Vickie” S. Berghel of CBL & Associates Properties Inc. in Chattanooga, Tennessee, moderated the discussion. Panel members included Virginia M. Harding of Gould & Ratner LLP, Janet M. Johnson of Schiff Hardin LLP, Ronald R. Pollina, PhD, of Pollina Corporate Real Estate Inc., and David Alan Richards of McCarter & English LLP in New York.
Attorneys, members of the real estate community, faculty, and LLM program alumni attended the Kratovil Conference. Like all programs organized and presented by the Center for Real Estate Law, current students were invited to attend the conference at no charge.
The annual Kratovil Conference on Real Estate Law & Practice is held in honor of the late Robert Kratovil. Remembered as the dean of Chicago’s real estate attorneys, Kratovil served as Chicago Title Insurance Company’s chief underwriter before joining The John Marshall Law School faculty.
Since its inception in 1994, the Kratovil Conference has been an important function of the Center’s mission to support research and scholarship in real estate law. These events have provided academics, practicing attorneys, and real estate industry professionals with the opportunity to gather and consider timely topics.