Developing the Reality of the America Dream 

Building Real Estate and Construction Opportunities  

Archer Norris is a business law firm aligned with the real estate and construction industries. In good times we help clients build, buy and sell, and comply with local and state and federal regulations. In less good times, we innovate and negotiate workouts, minimize obstacles and maximize opportunities, and support the viability of clients’ real property assets. 

Focus on California Properties and Projects

Established during the West's post-WWII economic surge, Archer Norris represents developers, property owners, construction companies, municipalities and their insurers. We work with active players in California’s housing market, which is the biggest in the nation and considered an economic driver of the state’s economy and American building industry.

Expanding the Frontier and Gaining Regulatory Approval

The population isn’t decreasing and they're not making any more dirt. Consequently, real estate and construction opportunities carry more regulations and legal challenges than ever before. Archer Norris attorneys provide comprehensive commercial real estate counsel. Our services range from drafting lease agreements and structuring sophisticated financings to securing tough discretionary approvals and high-stakes litigation.

Focus on Real Estate, Land Use and Construction

Mainstays of our real estate counsel include complex transactions, title matters and guidance on Department of Real Estate regulatory issues.  For land use concerns, we regularly manage such issues as zoning amendments, use permits and variances, and development agreements. In construction matters, our in-depth representation includes construction defects, injuries, insurance issues and business operational matters such as contracts, agreements, and mechanics liens and bonds.

Construction Defect and Dispute Litigation

• Construction/Bad Faith - Defended a general contractor using a failure of good faith argument against the plaintiff, a bonding company. We shifted the burden for over $2 million of construction costs from the contractor back to its bonding company.
• Construction Disputes - Extensive experience representing clients and subcontractors in litigation involving construction defects, delay claims, mechanics liens and other contentious issues. Clients have included such trades as graders, sewers, framers and concrete subcontractors.
• Construction Overruns - Represented Chevron in a $30 million claim for cost overruns, manufacturing delays, and breach of contract in the construction of several offshore oil platforms. The binding arbitration before a three-judge panel in Houston resulted in a confidential settlement.
• Public Housing - Trial defense of a contractor of a 98-unit housing project in Richmond. We reduced the contractor's liability in multiple suits with the city and surety company.
• Shopping Center - Defended claims of waterproofing defects against a general contractor who built a multilevel, retail center in Emeryville. Assertive handling of the plaintiff's allegations led to a favorable settlement for our client.

Acquisitions and Dispositions

• Residential Subdivision - Resolved multiple issues triggered when our client, the US subsidiary of a multinational, publicly-traded developer, was presented with changing business strategies by its parent. We developed a quick and economically efficient exit strategy from a near fully entitled proposed 500-lot subdivision. With the client's permission, we secured a new purchaser, another Archer Norris client, the deal closed on time, penalties that would have arisen if there was a delay in closing were avoided, and the business needs of both developers were met.

Construction Injuries

• Construction Head Injury - Represented concrete subcontractor involved in litigation related to a worker impaling his head on rebar at a Los Angles Unified School District site, leaving the plaintiff unable to communicate. We protected our client by substantially reducing the initial high demand and successfully indemnifying other parties in the lawsuit.
• Construction Site Injury - Represented a national general contractor in a re-trial related to an accident that rendered the plaintiff a paraplegic. The accident occurred at a four-building office park project on the former site of the Bay Meadows Racetrack in San Mateo, California. During the five-week retrial, we applied a novel argument involving alternative safety and design measures. After a single day of deliberation, the jury delivered a new verdict that drastically reduced our client's share of liability to a fraction of the original award.
• Elevator Accident/Construction Negligence - Successfully defended and reduced risk exposure of a commercial subcontractor in a negligence suit connected to an ironworker's injuries from a four-story fall down an elevator shaft.
• Explosion Injury - Initially represented the City and County of San Francisco, our attorneys substituted in as counsel of record for Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E). This case involved a personal injury/wrongful death action stemming from an explosion. Investigation revealed that the explosion was triggered when the backhoe operator lit a cigarette after he saw he had punctured the gas line. Archer Norris attorneys facilitated the negotiation of a very satisfactory settlement on behalf of our clients.
• Roofing - Obtained a defense verdict for a roofing contractor in an eight-day trial related to ladder accident.

Earth Movement

• Earth Movement - Handle multiple cases involving landslides and other earth movement-related damage claims. Issues include maintenance of properties, road cut and vineyard construction in cases across Southern and Northern California.

Environmental Injuries and Claims

• Electrical Contractor - Favorably settled a claim by a homeowner against an electrical contractor involving fire-related injuries.
• Environmental Remediation Verdict - Achieved a 12-0 defense verdict, following a four-week trial, on behalf of a remediation contractor facing allegations related to mold, sewage and personal injury claims in an Oakland Hills property. Following the trial, the client was awarded attorney costs, which was later affirmed on appeal.
• Landfill Development - Facilitated local agency permitting and environmental review for landfill development and expansion and related operations, plus other recycling facilities. These include integrated waste recycling center, composting operation, concrete/asphalt/wood waste processing, purification of contaminated soil, tires. Continued representation through negotiation of complex leases and other agreements related to these operations.
• Mold Injuries - Represented three property management/ownership clients facing plaintiffs' allegations that they became asthmatic from mold caused by an undiagnosed roof leak in the clients' building. By undermining expert testimony on the linkage between mold and serious permanent physical injury, the Archer Norris defense team prevailed in the three-week trial and obtained a defense verdict. The matter was a nominee for Alameda County's Trial of the Year.

Government Tort Claims

• Government Tort Claims - Representing appeal on behalf of a contractor against the City of Berkeley connected to defective construction claims involved with a city library.

Insurance Coverage and Disputes

• D&O Insurance - Defended the chief financial officer of a major international contractor in a Director and Officers policy claim.
• Homeowner Associations (HOA) - Advise and represent HOAs, managers and their insurers in various disputes.
• Real Estate Appraisal / Arbitral Immunity - Represented a real estate appraiser who performed work as a party appointed appraiser in a fire insurance claim, obtaining a defense judgment based upon arbitral immunity that was affirmed by the California State Court of Appeal. Plaintiffs' petition for review by the California Supreme Court was denied.

Inverse Condemnation and Easements

• Land Use - Defended and advised the City of Concord in numerous land use issues including a cause of action for inverse condemnation and trespass. We settled the high-demand case for a fraction of the original claim.
• Easement Claims - Represented the City of Concord as a plaintiff in an action against a homeowner who fenced off areas of a park and claimed to own them. He also claimed that city rights of way and sewer easements across his property were invalid. The homeowner filed a $1 billion Notice of Claim. We eventually resolved the issue for zero payment and dismissed the lawsuit.

Issue Advocacy

• Encroachments - Represent a municipality in actions against private sector improvements that encroach into city-owned property.
• Prevent Airport Closure - Represented local business interests, including the largest owners of commercial and office space in the region, when county officials and competing developers attempted to close a local airport. In the process, we met and communicated with members of U.S. Congress and representatives of federal agencies, appeared before the County Board of Supervisors and coordinated the work of citizens' groups supporting the airport. The county ultimately abandoned its efforts and the airport remains open.

Lending, Financing and Workouts

• Real Estate Lending - Represent several banks and financial services companies in claims involving the Truth in Lending Act (TILA), fraud, Fair Debt Collection Practice Acts (FDCPA), Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) and other regulatory issues for licensed and regulated lenders.

Planned Community Development Agreements

• Planned Community Development - Negotiated and developed the agreements for a 3,000-unit residential and one-million-square foot, commercial planned community that balanced the interests of the developer, the municipality and the community.

Property Development

• Property Development Approval - Facilitation of the public approval process for a residential subdivision on unimproved land alongside San Francisco Bay for a major landowner and developer. The arduous process required extensive meetings with elected leaders, state and local bureaucrats, neighbors and organized environmental opposition.
• Property Development and Construction Dispute - Represented a real estate developer that purchased land from some property owners who retained their interest in adjacent property. Our client was threatened with great bodily harm when trying to grade the land it purchased, and the seller argued that grading was not permitted under the applicable contracts. Under the court order we obtained, our client secured the repeated assistance of the United States Marshals Service so that it could proceed with the project and keep the peace. The subdivision was successfully completed as a result of our work.
• Property Development - Successfully advised developer client and guided consultants and city staff in a complex land use matter to obtain City Council approval for a 1,300-home development on 520 acres overlooking the Kern River, overcoming organized opposition by environmentalists, neighbor groups and other special interests.

Fast Facts

• Comprehensive real estate and business experience you need to succeed in the complex arena of commercial real estate.
• Archer Norris attorneys provide the legal counsel to get your projects off the ground.
• Construction litigation attorneys adept at unraveling the complex issues of construction litigation.