MEMORANDUM TO: Lex Mundi Real Estate Practice Group FROM: Andrew J. Weiner DATE: February 9, 2004 RE: Annual Report As Chair of the Lex Mundi Real Estate Practice Group, I am delighted to send this annual message to the real estate lawyers in Lex Mundi member firms. This message is being sent to everyone who has subscribed to the Real Estate Practice Group Listserv. Please feel free to circulate it to all real estate lawyers in your firm. The Lex Mundi Real Estate Practice Group was very active in 2003 and has ambitious plans for calendar This message reports on past activities and invites members of the Group to participate with us in the coming year. We look forward to working with you. What is the Lex Mundi Real Estate Practice Group? The Lex Mundi Real Estate Practice Group includes all attorneys in member firms whose practice involves the acquisition, development, leasing and financing of real property, and the formation and operation of entities which are created for those purposes. It collaborates with other Lex Mundi Practice Groups, including the Bankruptcy and Reorganization Practice Group and the Environmental Practice Group. The goal of our Practice Group is to assist us in serving our existing clients, expanding our client base and sharing expertise. Who are the current leaders of the Lex Mundi Real Estate Practice Group? Chair: Andrew Weiner, Morrison & Foerster LLP (New York) (aweiner@mofo.com) Regional Vice-Chair, Asia Pacific: Rupert Nicholl - Johnson Stokes & Master (Hong Kong) (rupert.nicholl@jsm-law.com) Regional Vice-Chair, Europe: Charles Coward - Uría & Menéndez (Spain) (ccc@uria.com) Regional Vice-Chair, North America: Robert Krapf - Richards, Layton & Finger, P.A. (Delaware) (krapf@rlf.com) Chair-Emeritus: Sandra Shapiro - Foley Hoag LLP (Massachusetts) (sshapiro@foleyhoag.com)
Lex Mundi staff liaison: Jeanelle Fisher (jfisher@lexmundi.com) Achievements of the Lex Mundi Real Estate Practice Group in 2003. Guide to Lex Mundi Real Estate Lawyers. The Group has prepared a Guide to real estate groups within each member firm. The Guide is posted on the Lex Mundi website and is easily available to member firms and the general public. It can be accessed at http://www.lexmundi.com/committees/realestate.html. The Guide provides contact names, addresses, telephone and fax numbers and e-mail addresses for real estate groups in each member firm. The Guide is periodically updated, and will be updated in first quarter Real Estate Listserv. The Group has created its own Listserv for communication among member firms. We invite all real estate lawyers in member firms to subscribe to the Listserv. Items can be posted to the Listserv at the following address: LMREALESTATE@WCSR1.WCSR.COM. Information about Group Activities. Listserv announcements are the principal means to notify Lex Mundi members of Group activities. Sharing of Practice Information. The Listserv has been used to distribute information among firms or to request information from other lawyers in the Group. Tracking of referrals. We have been tracking referrals of real estate clients and engagements among member firms. We will be awarding a prize for the most significant referral in 2003. Meetings. We believe in providing opportunities for real estate lawyers in the Lex Mundi network to meet. The Group sponsored successful events in 2003, both in conjunction with Lex Mundi Conferences and with other events. April 3, 2003: New York. American Bar Association's Symposium of the Real Estate, Probate & Trust Law Section. In connection with the Symposium, the Group met for drinks at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York. May 16, 2003: Paris. Lex Mundi Europe/Middle East/Africa Regional Conference. The Group met at the Paris Intercontinental. Member firm Gide Loyrette Nouels sponsored the event, with presentations by its partners and its client. Partners in Gide hosted private dinners after the event for members of the Group. September 12, 2003: San Francisco. Lex Mundi Annual and North America Regional Conference. The Group met at the Palace Hotel for an event sponsored by member firm Morrison & Foerster, who presented three large-scale projects in California in 2
which Morrison & Foerster represented the developer. A dinner for Group members was another highlight of the Conference. Plans for the Lex Mundi Real Estate Group in Updating the Guide to Lex Mundi Real Estate Lawyers. Please review the listing for your firm and provide any updates or corrections to Jeanelle Fisher of Lex Mundi at jfisher@lexmundi.com. We are planning to reissue the Guide in February 2004, so please provide this information by the end of January, Please feel free to distribute the Guide to all real estate lawyers in your firm or to any other persons, within or without your firm, who may find it useful. THE MORE WIDELY DISSEMINATED IS THE GUIDE, THE GREATER IS THE LIKELIHOOD OF REFERRALS BY MEMBER FIRMS TO OTHER MEMBER FIRMS. In this regard, I note that several of the referrals from my firm, Morrison & Foerster, to real estate lawyers in other firms have come from corporate or restructuring transactions in which my firm acts as counsel, rather than directly from my firm s Real Estate Group. Using the Real Estate Practice Group Listserv. All real estate lawyers within your firm are invited to subscribe to the Listserv. It is easy to do so. Please submit names and e-mail addresses to Jeanelle Fisher at jfisher@lexmundi.com, with a copy to me at aweiner@mofo.com. Alternately, please fax the names and e-mail addresses to Jeanelle Fisher at 713-626-9933, with a copy to me at Morrison & Foerster LLP, 212-468-7900. If you wish to see a list of lawyers in your firm who already participate in the Listserv, please contact Jeanelle by e-mail or fax. As noted above, messages can be posted to the Listserv at the following address: LMREALESTATE@WCSR1.WCSR.COM. We ask each member firm to post to the Listserv: Any memoranda, reports or other information about real estate law or practice which the firm distributes generally to its clients and friends. It is usually a simple matter to add the Listserv to your firm s distribution list. Any memoranda, reports or other information about real estate law or practice which the firm produces for internal use, but which might be appropriate to share with other member firms. 3
The Listserv can also be used to raise questions which other Group members may be able to answer. o o We will continue to use the Listserv to track referrals of real estate matters among member firms. Please assist us by reporting referrals to Jeanelle Fisher and to me by e-mail, at jfisher@lexmundi.com and aweiner@mofo.com. To assist in introducing member firms to each other, we will be asking firms to post short descriptions of their lawyers and their practice on the Listserv. Our goal will be for one member firm from each region to be highlighted each month. Group Meetings. We are planning a slate of meetings and get-togethers for members of the Lex Mundi Real Estate Group. We are already planning the following events, and invite you to attend: o Lex Mundi Europe/Middle East/Africa Regional Conference: Rome, Italy, March 5-7, o Lex Mundi North America Regional Conference: Boston, Massachusetts, May 11-15, o Lex Mundi Latin America/Caribbean Regional Conference: Quito, Ecuador, July 16-17, o Lex Mundi Annual and Asia Pacific Regional Conference: Auckland, New Zealand, October 21-24. o MIPIM: Cannes, France, March 9-12, We are open to suggestions for other events and ask for volunteers to be planners and hosts. Lex Mundi Real Estate Practice Group Projects. We are considering a number of additional projects, two of which are listed below. We ask for your comments, and suggestions for any other projects which might be of interest. How can we best help each other? What would you like to see from the Group? What would you like to do with the Group? o International Real Estate Guide. We are considering the preparation of a publication which will summarize basic real estate legal and practice issues for each member jurisdiction, in a common format. The guide would be a useful product for member firms, but could also be distributed as a means to promote all of our firms and Lex Mundi for clients in need of real estate legal advice anywhere in the world. 4
o Teleconferences. We are considering periodic teleconferences to present topics of interest to real estate lawyers in member firms. We are particularly interested in feedback as to whether this would be of interest, and what formats and topics would be of interest. Lex Mundi Resources. Lex Mundi firms commit to provide resources to each other. The Lex Mundi Real Estate Practice Group seeks to make member firms more aware of these resources. Specifically: o Free Advice Policy. Any attorney in the Lex Mundi Real Estate Practice Group may contact any attorney at any other member firm for up to thirty minutes of free advice. o Free Office Policy. Each Lex Mundi firm agrees to make available, within reason, offices, conference rooms, telephones, fax machines and secretarial support to attorneys from other Lex Mundi firms. o Guides to Doing Business. The Lex Mundi website (www.lexmundi.com) contains guides to doing business in many jurisdictions, prepared by member firms. These guides often contain useful summaries of real estate law and practice in those jurisdictions. We look forward to working with all of you in 2004 for a productive and successful year for the Lex Mundi Real Estate Practice Group. 5