315 Montgomery Street
9th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94104

Tel: 415.829.4272
Fax: 415.213-5339
Email: dawson@KBLLawyers.com

Deirdre M. Dawson is a partner with KBL.  Deirdre’s practice focuses on all aspects of the transactional life-cycle of a real estate asset:  purchase and sale agreements, including due diligence, and leases; agreements implementing entitlements and conditions of approval; construction, architect and development agreements; property management agreements; financing; and easements, licenses, CC&Rs and related documents.  Her practice and experience cover a wide-range of asset class including office, retail (from regional malls to community commercial centers), hospitality and recreation, industrial and mixed-use projects.   Real estate owners, investors, tenants, retailers, contractors, architects, civil engineers, developers, managers and lenders are among Deirdre’s clients.   Deirdre has spent most of her career in private practice, but she has spent part of her practice in house and in “secondment” for certain of her clients; she has the background and experience needed to understand what a client wants and expects from its outside counsel.

Deirdre’s representative transactions include:  Represented developers and owners in the ground up development and leasing of regional malls, “big box”, grocery/drug anchored, lifestyle and mixed-use shopping centers; represented national retailers in the acquisition and development of their sites; represented sellers and buyers of office buildings; represented owners and tenants in connection with office leasing; represented real estate advisors in connection with transactions for their institutional clients; represented buyers and sellers of hotel properties; represented both lenders and borrowers in connection with real estate financing; represented parties in the restructuring and refinancing of CMBS debt; represented architects and engineers in connection with code compliance issues and their agreements; represented the lender in the financing of golf courses throughout the United States.  Deirdre has also developed form documents for several of her clients.

Affiliations, Activities and Accomplishments

Deirdre is admitted to practice in California.  She is a member of the State Bar of California (Real Property and Business Law Sections).  She is also a volunteer with Big Brothers Big Sister of the North Bay.

Presentations and Publications

Deirdre regularly speaks as part of best practices seminars held by her clients, with a focus on development-related topics and issues from a transactional point of view.  She has been a frequent speaker at many industry and professional conferences including:

• Speaker, Law Seminars International, “Easements and CC&Rs”
• Speaker, Real Property Law Section Retreat, “The Changing World of Commercial Leasing”
• Speaker, ICSC Law Conference, “The Competing Objectives of Developer and Anchor Retailer in Reciprocal Easement Agreements”
• Speaker, ICSC Law Conference, “Construction and Lease Commencement Issues”
• Speaker, ICSC Law Conference, “Construction Issues in Retail Tenant Leases”
• Speaker, ICSC Law Conference, “Anatomy of a Lease Part II- Construction Provisions”
• Speaker, ICSC Law Conference, “Negotiating Purchase and Sale Agreements from Letter of Intent to Closing”
• Speaker, Georgetown University Law Center, Advanced Commercial Leasing Institute

Admissions

California; U.S. District Court (N.D. Cal.)

Education

J.D. (1986) University of Oregon School of Law
B.A. (1981) University of California at Davis, with honors