Real Estate Transactions and Litigation

• The Firm’s Real Estate Practice Group represents clients engaged in all areas of Alabama real estate law.
• Our clients include residential and commercial buyers and sellers, shopping center owners and tenants, apartment complexes, condominium owners and developers, brokerage companies, residential and commercial contractors, real estate investment trusts, title companies, and banks and other financial institutions who lend monies secured by real estate.
• The Firm’s services include:
  • Assisting clients in negotiating, drafting, and structuring of real estate transactions and business relationships
  • Advising clients in connection with federal, state and local laws and regulations concerning real estate law
  • Routinely supplying legal opinions to out-of-state lenders on real estate financing and other real estate legal matters.
  • Extensive experience in representing clients in court and arbitration proceedings involving real estate and construction law, as well as in representing owners, sureties, contractors and subcontractors in payment and performance bond claims.
  • The Firm has a substantial eminent domain and condemnation practice, representing both property owners and condemning agencies
  • Regular representation of developers and other clients before planning commissions and zoning boards of adjustment and appeal
  • Representing borrowers and lenders in connection with secured transactions involving real estate
  • Pursuing or defending construction defect claims, and litigating all types of real estate disputes
  • Representation on sales and acquisitions of timber land and current use properties
  • Drafting, reviewing and negotiating all types of real estate contracts and agreements, including commercial and residential lease agreements
  • Advising and advocating for clients on matters of municipal law and government affairs at a state and national level
  • Negotiating and litigating issues involving oil and gas pipelines and related issues
  • Condominium law and multiphase residential and commercial developments
  • Formation of joint ventures, partnerships, or limited liability companies specifically organized for real estate development or investment
  • Land use planning and entitlement work, including zoning, subdivision approval, variances, planned unit developments, and planning approvals
  • Negotiating and closing interim and long-term credit facilities for existing or proposed commercial developments
  • Disposal and acquisition of investment property for Section 1031 tax-deferred treatment, including reverse like-kind exchanges
  • Determining riparian rights and property boundaries for properties adjacent to navigable and non-navigable waterways
  • Boundary line litigation and adverse possession and prescriptive rights litigation
  • Use and disposal of surface and subsurface water
  • Handling all aspects of other real estate actions and disputes, including UCC filings and workout agreements
  • Perfecting or defending against materialmen liens, warehouse liens, and other types of statutory liens on real property

Attorneys

Warren C. Herlong, Robert H. Rouse, John T. Dukes, J. Casey Pipes, Russell C. Buffkin, Charles R. Mixon, Jr., Leslie G. Weeks