Practices

Real Estate

Williams & Connolly has substantial experience litigating major real estate disputes and advising clients in a variety of real estate transactions. We have represented private equity funds, national and global companies, real estate developers and builders of shopping centers, office buildings, and residential and government projects in a range of matters. The firm has represented real estate clients in everything from the acquisition of new properties to litigation over their management agreements, including pre-complaint investigations and demands, trials and arbitrations, employment matters, and appeals.

Firm lawyers have also represented real estate clients in cross-border transaction and construction disputes before the leading international arbitral institutions and under the rules of the International Chamber of Commerce (“ICC”); the International Center for Conflict Prevention and Resolution (“CPR”); the American Arbitration Association (“AAA”) and its international division, the International Centre for Dispute Resolution (“ICDR”); and the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (“HKIAC”).

Williams & Connolly is consistently recognized as a top firm for business disputes. Chambers has ranked the firm in Band 1 for commercial litigation for over a decade and reports that clients and peers say the firm “offers top-drawer advice and masterful trial expertise to an enviable list of clients that includes a whole host of high-profile individuals as well as multinational companies, global financial institutions and media organizations.” For nearly two decades, Vault has ranked Williams & Connolly as a top ten firm for General Commercial Litigation.

Experience

Some of the firm’s matters include representing:

  • The Washington Post in a dispute over the ownership rights of a building adjacent to the Post’s main building.
  • A real estate investment trust in litigation concerning the sale of an apartment complex, winning a jury verdict against a $30 million claim over the sale of an apartment complex.
  • A real estate company in an arbitration with a national home developer for breach of a land development contract.
  • A real estate development company in litigation concerning the client’s exclusive right to develop a major shopping center and residential project in Northern Virginia.
  • A major international hotel chain in ICC arbitrations with various owners.
  • CoStar Group in copyright and unfair competition litigation against a competitor in federal court in Missouri, and coordinated related copyright lawsuits against the competitor’s agents in the Philippines and India.
  • A real estate developer in a dispute with a land owner over a major mixed-use development, obtaining reversal of the trial court’s judgment against the developer.
  • A billion-dollar real estate management company in a DOJ/IRS investigation concerning an alleged tax shelter scheme involving the use of syndicated conservation easements.
  • A multinational fire-protection company in an HKIAC arbitration, seated in Hong Kong, concerning construction of a casino and hotel in Macau.
  • A top commercial developer in a $500 million dispute over the development of a sports complex (AAA Arbitration).
  • A hotel property owner in a contract dispute with a hotel chain concerning territorial restrictions.
  • An international private equity company and its main commercial real estate fund to defend an action by a competing real estate fund sponsored by another private equity company, filed in Delaware seeking injunctive and other relief for alleged tortious interference with contract.
  • A non-bank mortgage servicer in an investigation and threatened enforcement action by the CFPB concerning compliance with Regulation X, including the negotiation of a draft consent order.
  • A global company in an ICC arbitration concerning a sub-contracting dispute related to the construction of a government project in the Middle East.

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