Advice From the Trenches

Alums discuss careers in real estate law

Story and photos by Maria Iacobo

Students eager to learn what the practice of real estate law is like and receive advice on what they can do to be successful in that field crowded into a lecture room recently to hear from a panel of professionals working in the Los Angeles real estate law market. Four of the attorneys were USC Gould graduates and one was a UCLA Law graduate. The event was sponsored by the Real Estate Law Society.

Students wanted to know the differences between litigation and transactional law, the latter reflecting the practice of real estate law. Dana Treister ’94, a partner at Greenberg Taurig and an adjunct professor at USC Gould, shared a simple scenario that he has found will help to quickly identify which practice a prospective lawyer is better suited to.

“If I say to you, ‘I’ve got a position and you’ve got a position and lets go battle it out and see who will win’ and that excites you — you should be a litigator,” Treister said. “If the following excites you more — ‘There is a problem to be solved and we need to solve it together’ — then you should be a transactional lawyer. After 20 years of doing this, it still holds true. It’s just a different approach, a different mindset.”

Alan Weakland '83

Alan Weakland ’83, a partner at Paul Hastings offered another “litmus test” to determine which area of law is more appealing to a new lawyer: do you want to spend your time researching and writing memos or would you like to be working on transactions? He turned to his colleague, Sam Alavi ’11, a third-year associate at Paul Hastings.

“How many research memos have you done at Paul Hastings?” he asked Alavi.

“I don’t even have a Westlaw or Lexis account,” was Alavi’s response to the amusement of the audience.

“It’s a big difference,” Weakland said. “Even within transactional I think there’s a different mindset, different culture, different type of person. Different practices [of law] have different personalities. It’s much easier to be successful if you have a personality that matches both your clients and your co-workers. It can be a little difficult sometimes to figure out what that is, but that’s what [working as a summer associate helps you figure out].”

For an example, Weakland suggested that the mergers and acquisitions attorneys at his firm are “more buttoned-up, a little more dot the ‘i’ and cross the ‘ts,’ and the real estate guys are a little more free-wheeling, get the deals done.”

Given that the panel included associates and partners, each lawyer outlined what his or her day-to-day responsibilities tended to be.

Daniel Shlomi '11

“At [Akin Gump] the partners are responsible for the big picture, “said Daniel Shlomi ’11. “It’s [the associate’s] job to catch something [that could be problematic for the deal.] For example, if someone had an easement over your property and could park there whenever he wanted, you had better catch that.”

Michelle Sassounian, a 2009 UCLA Law graduate and an associate at Greenberg Taurig, concurred.

“As an associate, I review a lot of documents and spend a lot of time on the phone with clients and opposing counsel,” Sassounian said. “I try to find out where the client’s stance is on issues that may arise or what they’re trying to get out of whatever transaction they’re doing and try to make sure I represent those positions in the documentation and cover them adequately. I also rely on the partners to give guidance.”

Treister, who works with Sassounian, told the audience that, as you progress in your career, “your role becomes more of a counselor or an advisor as opposed to someone doing the nitty-gritty of the practice. What I love about the practice, and transactions in particular and real estate in specific, is that it varies tremendously. Every deal is different. The key is understanding what your client’s goals are and being an advisor to them.”

Students were curious about the job market and the panelists reflected on the mercurial nature of real estate law given that many factors in the economy affect the real estate market.

“When times get bad, there just aren’t as many jobs because our clients aren’t as active doing transactions,” Treister said. “If you really know you wanted to go into real estate, there may be other ways than as a first-year associate at a law firm to do it.”

Treister noted that students could explore in-house jobs and jobs with real estate companies and then parlay that experience to acquire a job with a firm when the market improves.

Dana Treister '84, Michelle Sassounian, Daniel Shlomi '11 Sam Alavi '11, Alan Weakland '83 (left to right)

“While you’re a student, everybody wants to help you,” Alavi said. “So reach out to as many people as you can. If you’re reading [an article on a deal that just closed and the lawyer who closed it is named in the article], don’t be shy to shoot an email and ask him if he would talk with you about it. Expand your network while you’re still in school. People very much want to help you while you’re still a student.”

Daniel Shlomi ’11, an associate with Akin Gump, told students to “try to get as much experience as you can. Apply to mid-size and smaller firms. You can always parlay that work experience with a larger firm later on.”
One question all the panelists weighed in on was what classes they found helpful in their practices. The two recent USC Gould graduates suggested Prof. George Lefcoe’s Real Estate Law and Business class was a must. Other useful classes mentioned were contracts, bankruptcy and tax.

“I took a transactional drafting contracts class which was very helpful and gave me a very good sneak peek into what being a transactional attorney really is,” Sassounian said.