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
On June 23, 2021, Bilzin Sumberg summer associates gathered on Zoom and watched a recorded message from Mary Fitzgerald of Netflix’s trending reality show, “Selling Sunset.” We also received a digital binder with a hypothetical scenario that blends the drama of the luxe life of real estate brokers at The Oppenheim Group with facts that would catch the attention of any issue spotting law student. The real fun started when the summer associates were split into two different groups and tasked with representing either the buyer or seller of a prime slice of real estate in Miami’s Brickell community.
Under the direction of Alexandra Lehson, a Partner in Bilzin Sumberg’s Real Estate Practice Area, John Trach, Saron Musa, and I are representing Nathifa Parker (Selling Sunset, LLC), the buyer. Danielle Hall and Joseph Beguiristain are representing Lucas Pizzutti (This Isn’t Us, LLC), the seller, with support from Partner Sara Herald. Thus far, we’ve attended two of three seminars aimed at providing us with an overview of each step in the real estate transaction process. Led by Partners Timothy DeKeyser and Phillip Sosnow, the seminars provide us with substantive and technical guidance for the immediate next steps in the process: negotiating terms and drafting agreements.
Continue Reading Learning by Doing: “Selling Sunset” Style
On Wednesday, the other summer associates and I had the opportunity to teach a group of middle school students the relationship between freedom of speech under the First Amendment and cyber bullying.
The small group of students visited the firm through the Breakthrough Miami program, which Sara Herald is deeply involved in. Breakthrough Miami is an academic enrichment program that uses student-teaching-student models to ensure that young children attending under-resourced schools still have access to educational opportunities. The program has a 100% high school graduation rate as well an over 90% college attendance rate for the young students involved.
Continue Reading Breakthrough Miami Visits Bilzin Sumberg
If you think back to my last post about the Real Estate Mock Negotiation, you will remember how excited I was to cut my teeth on transactional practice. Be careful what you wish for. My eagerness quickly turned to frustration when presented with the very real ambiguity that transactional lawyers deal with on a
As we enter Phase II of the mock real estate transaction, negotiations are heating up! INEVITABLE, LLC, comprised of Brian Trujillo and Kayla Hernandez (a.k.a. supervillain Thanos), is trying its best to thwart STARK, LLC’s plan to save the world. But the STARK team, led by Franco Piccinini, Sophia Guzzo, and Jordan
We are at war. Today was the first battle negotiation in the summer program’s Mock Real Estate Negotiation. While this is something all of us looked forward to with great anticipation, I must admit that I looked towards this programing quite nervously.
Towards the conclusion of last week, the 2018 Bilzin Sumberg summer associates began one of the stages of the annual summer associate program: the real estate mock transaction. This exercise will take us through all of the stages of an actual real estate transaction while providing us with a practical dose of legal practice as we take on the roles of buyer, seller, and each parties’ respective attorneys. I will be representing Devin and Lucas, who will serve as the buyers, and Eric will be representing Brianna, who will play the role of our seller. Our fact pattern is (loosely) based on the recent Marvel Avenger’s Infinity War movie, with the buyer’s working to purchase the last “Infinity Stone property” from the seller Thanos’ holding company, “THE BAD GUY LLC”. Devin, Lucas, and I are the only thing standing between Thanos and world domination! As per usual, Jessica Bucshbaum and Betsi Cobas did an outstanding job making the exercise especially interesting by creating a fun scenario for us.
Continue Reading Some Friendly Competition for World Domination
Over the summer, we have had the chance to experience every stage of a typical real estate transaction through the Mock Real Estate Transaction program. From the initial contract negotiation to contract amendment, Adam Lustig and Phil Sosnow led the summer associates through each step to closing. This week, after preparing a special warranty deed, a general assignment, a no lien affidavit, and a closing statement, we were finally ready! The teams showed up prepared (or so we thought).
Continue Reading (Almost) Getting to Closing
I think it was Posh Spice who once said, “The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” Sure enough, we ran into the proverbial wrench in the plan during a mock real estate transaction meeting last week. Due to a (thankfully fictional) emergency, an amendment to our carefully negotiated contract was suddenly necessary. Luckily for us, there is protocol for these types of situations. We sat down once again at the negotiating table; when the dust settled, the buyer’s team had more time, and the seller’s team had more money.
As you can tell, our deal is moving right along! To refresh the reader’s memory, Lauren and I serve as counsel for the buyer, David Beckham (aka Eric Reissi). Hannah and Luis serve as counsel for the seller, Scary Spice (aka Alex Barshel). At stake for the buyer is the last piece of property needed for the construction of a MLS stadium; at stake for the seller is a pile of cold, hard cash. Since our first negotiation for the letter of intent (which Eric so eloquently explained) we have actually had several meetings and cut numerous deals.Continue Reading The Wrench in the Plan
The summer is definitely in full swing, and there are constant opportunities to learn more about Bilzin Sumberg. Tag alongs are opportunities to accompany attorneys to meetings, depositions, or court, or to listen in on phone calls. Last week, I was lucky enough to go on a tag along with Jay Sakalo and Jeff