General Counsel Services –Real Estate Matters
Real Estate issues are always a concern for most businesses. Major corporations, of course, have internal law firms that are there to handle every regulatory issue as it arises. For companies that aren’t headed for the Fortune 500, however, that’s not practicable. What is practicable, though, is having a smart, nimble law firm a text or phone call away that will respond to your every regulatory need.
Hopkins Centrich, The premiere premier business law firm, acts as general counsel for medium-sized companies and closely held businesses. Over the years we have been the primary outside general counsel (and chief compliance officer) for a variety of privately-owned companies from tech to software developers, healthcare providers, architectural firms, real estate developers, retailers, restaurants, breweries, CPA firms, and others.
Hopkins Centrich has been the “go-to” legal advisor to start-up ventures and more mature closely held and family-owned businesses, and national enterprises for over two decades. We work with you through all your real estate issues, concerns, and transactions.
What an Off-Site General Counsel Means
When asked about how Hopkins Centrich acts as a ‘General Counsel’ service we tend to answer with this: it means acting as an outside lawyer for all business-related law issues and occasional chief compliance officer to a variety of privately owned companies, tech companies, healthcare providers, architectural firms, among others . . . as well as advisor to start-up ventures.
Summarizing what we do as outside General Council for mid-cap sized (among others) companies is not easy: our services are too wide-ranging and involve so many areas of the law that it’s rather difficult to sum up in a few sentences.
And, once we start using examples, the discussion tends to focus too much on one area of the law at the expense of others – all of which can and probably will pop up throughout any business life.
Here are a few of the common real estate-related responsibilities we, as general counsel, may handle for a company:
Review and negotiation of leases - Analyzing lease terms and negotiating favorable lease agreements for corporate office space, retail locations, warehouses, etc.
Acquisitions and sales - Overseeing legal due diligence and closing processes for corporate real estate purchases and sales.
Landlord/tenant issues - Advising on landlord/tenant rights and obligations, lease disputes, eviction proceedings, and subleasing terms.
Zoning and land use - Navigating zoning changes, variances, permitting, and land use restrictions affecting company properties.
Environmental compliance - Guiding compliance with environmental laws and regulations applicable to company-owned real estate.
Title review - Examining title reports and surveying issues to identify risks, boundaries, easements, covenants, and encumbrances on properties.
Financing - Negotiating mortgages, loans, and other financing for corporate real estate transactions.
Construction contracts - Drafting and reviewing design, engineering, construction, and contractor agreements for corporate projects.
Property taxes - Appealing tax bills, litigating valuation disputes, and negotiating tax incentives relating to corporate real estate assets.
Disputes - Managing real estate litigation such as boundary disputes, zoning appeals, landlord/tenant lawsuits, and eminent domain proceedings.
Compliance auditing - Conducting diligence to ensure company properties comply with applicable laws and regulations.
Risk management - Identifying legal risks associated with corporate real estate holdings and transactions.
About Hopkins Centrich
Hopkins Centrich PLLC provides cutting-edge, high-quality, creative legal solutions for business and business owners in Texas.
Our attorneys and staff have decades of experience in virtually every aspect of business law in The Woodlands and Texas. We have designed and incorporated businesses, managed their every legal concern, engaged in litigation on their behalf, aided with mergers and acquisitions, managed mergers, acquisitions, and sales.
Hopkins Centrich knows Texas business law. We are uniquely positioned to help business owners from startup to merger or sale or transfer to family members.
When we work with a client, our sole focus is on them. We take advantage of everything technology has to offer to optimize how we work. That gives us more time to spend with you, more time to understand the issues, and more time to negotiate and prepare for trial.
We get that no one wants to contact a law firm unless they feel they absolutely have to. When they do, it almost always means that ‘things have reached a head.’
The attorneys and staff of Hopkins Centrich understand business. We understand business owners. We will make any legal process understandable; you will know what is happening with your case every step of the way, and you will never have to track us down for answers.
How We Work
Hopkins Centrich is a team with a deep bench. All our attorneys have extensive litigation experience which they fully use when called for.
Hopkins Centrich’s attorneys all have ‘big firm’ backgrounds. They formed our firm with the goal of keeping the best of those firms while employing far more personal experience for our clients.
We do this by using technology to its fullest. We will make use of every cutting edge legal and business technology and methodologies to ensure that we will continue to deliver the highest quality legal services to our clients while allowing us to respond promptly and efficiently to client needs, exceed project requirements, operate effortlessly with narrow timeframes, and develop innovative and flexible legal solutions at competitive fees.
We are creative. We are agile. We quickly adapt to rapidly changing circumstances, including changes in the law.
Our vision statement may sum it up best. We will deliver highly skilled, ethical, and aggressive legal representation to every client by:
Responding promptly to our clients’ needs;
Anticipating business and legal trends that may affect our clients;
Managing our clients’ matters in an efficient, caring, and proactive manner;
Communicating regularly and clearly with our clients