Summary:
Our client, a highly active real estate investment and operating company, is seeking an Associate General Counsel to join its in-house legal team in Sonoma, California.
Reporting directly to the General Counsel, this attorney will play a critical role supporting acquisitions, dispositions, leasing, financing, joint ventures, asset management and corporate legal matters across a growing real estate portfolio. The position offers significant exposure to senior leadership and is ideal for a commercially minded real estate attorney who enjoys managing sophisticated transactions in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment.
Key Responsibilities:
Acquisitions & Dispositions
- Lead legal aspects of acquisitions and dispositions, including drafting and negotiating purchase and sale agreements, letters of intent and closing documentation.
- Manage legal due diligence, including title, survey, zoning, environmental, lease and entity reviews.
- Coordinate transactions with lenders, title companies, brokers, outside counsel and internal stakeholders through closing.
Leasing
- Draft and negotiate commercial leases, amendments, assignments, subleases and related agreements.
- Advise internal leasing and property management teams on lease interpretation, defaults, renewals, exclusivity, co-tenancy and operating issues.
- Support leasing matters involving single-tenant retail and franchised restaurant operators.
Financing & Corporate Matters
- Support mortgage financings, refinancings and portfolio-level debt transactions.
- Assist with joint ventures, partnership agreements, entity formation and corporate governance.
- Advise on legal risk, compliance, insurance and operational matters affecting the portfolio.
- Manage outside counsel across transactional and litigation matters.
- Help develop legal processes, templates and best practices to support the continued growth of the business.
Qualifications:
- J.D. from an accredited law school with active bar membership in good standing.
- Approximately 6โ10 years of commercial real estate legal experience.
- Strong experience handling acquisitions, dispositions, leasing and financing transactions.
- Demonstrated expertise negotiating purchase and sale agreements, commercial leases, loan documents and conducting title and survey review.
- Experience with joint ventures, entity structuring and sophisticated real estate investments.
- Ability to manage multiple complex transactions simultaneously while maintaining exceptional attention to detail.
- Outstanding drafting, negotiation and communication skills.
- Commercially minded with the ability to balance legal risk against business objectives.
Preferred Experience:
- In-house experience with a real estate private equity firm, REIT, developer or institutional owner/operator.
- Experience with net lease investments, retail real estate and/or franchised restaurant portfolios.
- Familiarity with fund structures, capital markets transactions and joint venture arrangements.
- Experience managing outside counsel and coordinating across multiple legal disciplines.
Why Join?
This is an outstanding opportunity to join a growing, entrepreneurial real estate organization where legal is viewed as a true business partner. You'll work directly alongside senior executives, lead sophisticated transactions from inception through closing, and have the opportunity to make a meaningful impact on the continued growth of the platform.