One large boardroom. Two teams of five summer associates. All ready to get to business.

This week, Bilzin Sumberg kicked off the Mock Real Estate Transaction with the help of Real Estate partners Sara Barli Herald and Phillip Sosnow. Given that Bilzin Sumberg’s award-winning real estate practice group is among the largest in Florida (with most recent accolades from the Daily Business Review and Chambers USA), it makes sense that the summer associates get an inside look into this practice.

For most of the summer associates, the mock real estate transaction is their first exposure to real estate. While Sarah Carraher and I are far from experts in the field, we had a slight advantage coming in. Last week, we had the opportunity to join a few client calls with Partner Martin (Marty) Schwartz on a complex commercial real estate deal. Fortunately for everyone else, Sarah and I ended up on opposite teams.

With guidance from our coach Manny Gonzalez, Aaron Finkel, Lucas Pizzutti, Ariana Wagner, and I are representing Lazaro Gonzalez (Top Gun Maverick LLC), the buyer. Megan Barney, Savannah Bergeron, Ridgana Bonne-Anne, and Sarah Carraher represent Carlos Markovich (Rogue Nation, LLC), the seller, with advice from their coach Alexandra Lehson. Thank you Jessica for the creative hypothetical, which convinced us summers that we now need to watch both Top Gun films.

Although we only have one session under our belts, I can confidently say we applied Sara’s advice in our negotiations. We cooperated to get the best deal for our clients, instead of treating the negotiation as a zero-sum game. Stay tuned to see how the contract and closing go!