HARVEST - Key Persons
Brandt is a hands-on deal attorney who guides clients through a variety of complex real estate transactions. Understanding that no two clients and no two deals are ever the same, he leverages over a decade of experience as an attorney, broker, and investor to bring a practical, business-oriented approach to helping clients execute transactions in multifaceted, rapidly changing environments.
Brandt represents REITs, privately held companies, family offices, and high-net-worth individuals in a wide variety of commercial real estate matters, from purchase and sale transactions, leases, syndications, joint ventures, and debt financings to construction and design agreements and matters related to property and asset management. He also advises clients in connection with the resolution of disputes, especially in the landlord/tenant, construction, and partnership contexts.
Prior to joining Harvest as the founder of its Boston office, Brandt practiced at the law firms of Dain Torpy, Elkins Kalt, and Goodwin Procter. He attended UCLA Law School where he was a Peter Bren Distinguished Fellow in Entrepreneurial Real Estate, the president of the Real Estate Law Association, and a co-chair of the Skid Row Housing Clinic. Prior to law school, Brandt was a real estate agent at A.C. Lawrence & Co. and attended Yale University where he captained the varsity football team.
Job Titles:
- Senior Counsel / San Diego
With formative professional experience in both transactional and litigation work, Cheryl brings a competitive edge to each deal she handles. Unlike most transactional attorneys, Cheryl honed her legal skills as a litigator at a top law firm in New York City, gaining unique experience for the demanding world of commercial real estate.
Focused and persevering, Cheryl represents developers, property owners, homebuilders, businesses, and institutional investors in complex transactional real estate and corporate matters. Her practice concentrates on retail, office, and industrial leasing, as well as purchase and sale transactions, debt and equity financing, construction, and development. Having represented both institutional landlords and sophisticated tenants in leasing for mixed-use retail space, Cheryl has an in-depth understanding of both sides of a commercial lease transaction.
Prior to joining Harvest, Cheryl was an associate at Crosbie Gliner Schiffman Southard & Swanson LLP (CGS3) and at the Law Offices of Robert P. Friedman in Bel Air, California. Earlier in her career, she was an associate with Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP in New York City, litigating high-profile commercial cases in various areas of law including real estate, contracts, securities, products liability, antitrust, defamation, civil RICO, and conspiracy claims.
An adept and versatile lawyer, David is passionate about helping institutional owners, operators, and developers capitalize on opportunities. He continues to be the go-to lawyer for several of Southern California's leading real estate companies due to his ability to solve problems, maximize negotiating leverage, build momentum, grow relationships, and timely close transactions.
David's practice focuses on purchase and sale, debt and equity financing, development, construction, and leasing transactions. With experience that spans all asset classes and property types, he has successfully shepherded numerous major projects to completion with a total aggregate consideration of over $1 billion in development projects and over $5 billion in real property acquisition and disposition work. David has achieved great success for both landlords and tenants with the completion of lease transactions covering millions of square feet. He also advises his clients on day-to-day operational matters and property management issues.
After beginning his legal career as a tax associate at Deloitte, David joined the real estate department of Allen Matkins. He later became a partner at Elkins Kalt Weintraub Reuben Gartside LLP and Crosbie Gliner Schiffman Southard & Swanson LLP (CGS3) before co-founding Harvest. David gives seminars to real estate professionals and graduate students on a variety of legal issues and has lectured on real estate law topics at USC, UCLA, and Loyola Marymount University.
David is a pragmatic, business-minded lawyer and savvy dealmaker. He assists clients in a variety of matters involving real estate development, acquisition, construction, financing, land banking, and joint venture transactions.
David has significant experience with all asset classes, including multifamily, single-family rental pools, hotels and resorts, industrial, and office properties. In every transaction, David becomes embedded in his clients' business, gains an understanding of their appetite for risk, and remains mindful of their issues of particular concern.
David's clients include national and regional developers, REITs, institutional investors, public and private companies, and high-net-worth individuals. He has specialized experience representing companies in the acquisition, management, financing, and leasing of hotels and other hospitality products. With the hospitality industry's particular nuances - employees, insurance, food and liquor licensing, and more - David works closely with his clients to negotiate franchise and management agreements with all the major hotel brands and operators.
Prior to joining Harvest, David practiced law at Milbank and Elkins Kalt.
Exceptionally meticulous and thorough, Eoin (pronounced "Owen") is a creative thinker known for his conscientious approach to the practice of real estate law and exceptional technical knowledge. His broad-based experience includes representing publicly traded REITs, large developers, and smaller property owners for over 15 years in a wide array of real estate transactions. Eoin prides himself on his straightforward approach to transactions and bringing to bear his intimate market knowledge to help his clients achieve their short-term and long-term objectives.
Eoin's expertise includes negotiating and documenting complex purchase and sale agreements and leases covering all asset types. He also advises clients on day-to-day real estate management issues. His leasing experience is extensive, having acted as lead leasing counsel for several high-profile institutional landlord clients in the western United States. Eoin has also represented retail and office tenants and purchasers and sellers of commercial real property in California and beyond.
In addition to his transactional experience, Eoin has extensive land use expertise. He has appeared before various public bodies and agencies on a range of issues, including advocating for legislative changes, processing of permits, and successfully resolving housing/rent control issues. Eoin has also counseled clients on land use regulations; he has spearheaded extensive due diligence investigations, devised creative strategies for obtaining local entitlements, and navigated compliance with a variety of complex local and state laws.
A native of Ireland, Eoin embarked on his career stateside after being awarded a prestigious scholarship to extern at the Federal District Court for the Central District of California. Prior to founding Harvest, Eoin was a partner at Crosbie Gliner Schiffman Southard & Swanson LLP (CGS3) where he focused on commercial real estate transactions and land use matters. Before that, he was a member of the real estate group at Allen Matkins' Century City office and spent over four years with Santa Monica-based Harding Larmore Kutcher & Kozal, LLP.
Fernando specializes in real estate matters with broad expertise working on large transactions across the country and across the asset spectrum. Having previously served as the General Counsel of a large real estate company, he understands the client perspective and brings a well-grounded, business-minded approach to the practice of law.
Fernando represents public real estate investment trusts, private equity funds, institutional investors, and entrepreneurial developers in the acquisition, development, financing, leasing, management, and disposition of commercial real estate assets. He handles a large volume of leasing matters and landlord/tenant disputes. Fernando also possesses a unique expertise in workout deals with extensive experience negotiating and documenting thousands of workout transactions and navigating the resolution of distressed real estate loans through the judicial process.
Prior to founding Harvest, Fernando practiced law at Allen Matkins Leck Gamble Mallory & Natsis LLP and Crosbie Gliner Schiffman Southard & Swanson LLP (CGS3) and was the General Counsel of Trigild. He is recognized as one of California's leading real estate attorneys, having received dozens of accolades for his work and community leadership.
Job Titles:
- Partner & General Counsel / San Diego
A dedicated and reliable paralegal, Jennifer excels at maximizing her team's productivity. Known for her eye for detail and organizational skills, she is always prepared to assist in any of the wide variety of real estate matters handled by the Harvest litigation team.
As a litigation paralegal, Jennifer makes sure Harvest attorneys and clients are on track to achieving a satisfying outcome in the litigation process. Her diverse law background gives her a unique ability to adapt to different practice areas quickly and effectively. With over a decade of experience, Jennifer understands what is needed in each phase of litigation - from pre-litigation to trial to appeal - in various state and federal courts, whether the case is simple or complex.
Prior to joining Harvest, Jennifer was a litigation paralegal at Crosbie Gliner Schiffman Southard & Swanson (CGS3), Higgs Fletcher & Mack, and Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein in San Francisco. Jennifer stays active in the professional legal community and has served as a board member and executive committee member of the San Diego Paralegal Association.
Education
B.A., Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley
Concentrating on complex commercial litigation and internal investigations, Julie represents a variety of clients across an array of businesses, including the commercial real estate, life sciences, and healthcare industries. She regularly represents commercial real estate landlords in a variety of real estate-related disputes and advises real estate owners, lenders, and court-appointed receivers in connection with workouts, bankruptcies, and other high-stakes disposition strategies.
Prior to joining Harvest, Julie practiced at Norton Rose Fulbright where she focused on class action litigation for unfair competition and false advertising claims and defended major retail clients in Proposition 65 actions. She was also a member of the Business Litigation & Dispute Resolution practice team at Foley & Lardner LLP. There she represented former stockholders of a company in an earnout dispute, assisted with the due diligence in the purchase of a professional sports team, litigated a variety of business disputes, and was active in the firm's pro bono efforts, including successfully trying two cases as lead trial counsel. Early in her career, she served as a legal intern for the Boston Red Sox.
Julie is admitted to practice in California, Massachusetts, and before multiple United States District Courts, including the Northern, Central, and Southern Districts of California, and the District of Massachusetts.
Lee is a talented and conscientious attorney who leverages a broad base of experience in various aspects of real estate law to help clients anticipate and address potential issues before they arise. Lee uses his unique ability to break down and explain complex legal topics to help clients understand their options, make informed decisions, and achieve optimal results.
Lee advises clients - including public entities, private landowners, and brokers - with respect to leases and purchase and sale agreements, as well as complex covenants, conditions, and restrictions (CC&Rs), easements, licenses, loan documents, settlements and other agreements pertaining to real property. In addition to his transactional experience, Lee has broad expertise in land use and environmental law, and he has helped guide development projects of all sizes through complex entitlement processes throughout Southern California.
Prior to joining Harvest, Lee was an associate at Crosbie Gliner Schiffman Southard & Swanson LLP (CGS3) where he advised clients on all aspects of commercial real estate law. Lee gained experience advising municipalities and other public entities with Los Angeles-based Richards, Watson & Gershon, and built his land use expertise at Harding Larmore Kutcher & Kozal in Santa Monica. He also gained in-house experience as a staff attorney for the California Association of Realtors, a statewide trade association for real estate professionals.
Lee's writing on land use and real estate-related topics has appeared in publications including the California Real Property Journal, Multi-Housing News, the Daily Journal, and the Environmental Law Reporter.
Job Titles:
- Counsel
- Director of Operations
- Counsel & Director of Operations / New York
Maeve is a versatile and creative attorney who is guided by her positivity and pragmatism. With significant experience working client-side at a real estate investment and management company, Maeve is mindful of the business and financial points that are important to clients when working with their lawyers.
As Counsel, Maeve's practice is focused on commercial leasing, acquisitions, dispositions, development, and related real estate transactions in all asset classes including office, industrial, retail, and mixed-use assets.
As Director of Operations of Harvest, Maeve oversees the day-to-day operations of Harvest. She combines her knowledge of the practice of law, her understanding of the client perspective, and her talent for strategic thinking to ensure that the firm is well positioned to deliver exceptional service to its clients. From implementing cutting-edge technology platforms to building performance management tools, Maeve's insight and initiative are invaluable to her clients and her team.
Maeve refined her commercial real estate expertise in-house at Paramount Group, Inc., a large publicly traded real estate investment trust headquartered in New York City. In her time at Paramount, she gained key experience in asset management, leasing, acquisitions, redevelopment, and financing of Class A office buildings in some of the most dynamic markets in the country. Maeve started her legal career at law firms in New Jersey and New York at Duane Morris, LLP, Entwistle & Cappucci LLP and Miller Mitchell, P.C. Maeve has also worked as a real estate agent at Prominent Properties Sotheby's International Realty and Compass Real Estate in Montclair, New Jersey.
Education
LL.B (Ling. Germ), University of Dublin, Trinity College School of Law
Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg, School of Law, Germany
Michael is known for his commitment to creating pragmatic strategies to lead his clients to success. As former in-house counsel, he combines his business acumen and legal skill set to help his clients achieve their business objectives and to close transactions timely and effectively. Michael brings his passion and commitment to excellence and problem-solving to every deal, providing his clients with the highest level of service.
For over a decade, Michael has counseled clients in connection with a full panoply of substantial commercial real estate transactions, including acquisition, development, leasing, and disposition of vacant land, retail, office, and industrial projects. Michael regularly represents some of the nation's most recognized developers, users, landlords, and tenants, and has been the trusted real estate lawyer for one of the world's largest retailers and a U.S. based mining company with holdings worldwide.
Prior to joining Harvest, Michael was a partner at Crosbie Gliner Schiffman Southard & Swanson LLP (CGS3) and a shareholder with Gresham Savage's transaction group. Before entering into private practice, he learned the tenant side of deals as a senior in-house counsel at a well-known national restaurant company and the landlord side of deals as in-house counsel at a full-service real estate development firm. Michael is also a licensed real estate broker in California.
Job Titles:
- Senior Counsel / Los Angeles
Stephanie Sweat has established a reputation for helping her clients navigate transactions of all levels of complexity from negotiation and planning through to successful fruition. Her professional service with a personal touch continues to be recognized by her peers in the Southern California legal field.
Stephanie has built relationships with clients across the real estate industry, including investors, landlords, and developers. She understands the importance of listening to her clients to gain an understanding of how to help them accomplish their goals in a timely manner while avoiding potential obstacles. They trust her analysis and advice when evaluating acquisition and development of property across the country, and they appreciate the value she brings to the negotiation of leases, acquisitions, dispositions, joint ventures, and a variety of financing transactions including mezzanine and mortgage loans.
Prior to joining Harvest, Stephanie worked as an associate in the real estate group of Crosbie Gliner Schiffman Southard & Swanson LLP (CGS3) and Shepard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP. Stephanie was also a judicial law clerk for the Supreme Court of Nevada.
Job Titles:
- Chief Financial Officer / San Diego
Steven serves as Harvest's Chief Financial Officer, spearheading the development and execution of strategic financial planning for the firm.
His work focuses specifically on budgeting, planning and the development of key metrics that increase visibility, productivity and profitability through robust financial analysis and insights. Steven's financial reporting and analysis promote Harvest's core values of trust, transparency, honesty and candor by providing the objective information needed to effectively measure progress and success.
Tenacious, pragmatic and thorough, Steven combines visionary enthusiasm with the practical skill and technical savvy earned only through solving real-world challenges. He has extensive experience in commercial real estate asset management, having served as Senior Asset Manager for a nationwide portfolio consisting of over one million square feet of privately held retail and industrial properties. In addition, he has operated and served as a member of the Investment Committee and Head of Acquisitions at several real estate investment firms where he was responsible for sourcing, underwriting and financing investment opportunities in commercial real estate. Steven's vast experience and expertise complement Harvest's exceptional legal services by providing clients with value-added consulting services that support the structuring, strategic planning and execution of their complex real estate transactions.
Education
B.A., Economics, Harvard University
Theresa brings dedication and charisma to every transaction and project she works on. Having been in the real estate industry for over a decade - first as a university guidance counselor and then as a paralegal - Theresa's people-centered approach is an invaluable asset for clients and her legal team alike.
As a transactional paralegal, Theresa assists in a variety of deals with a specific focus on land banking and homebuilding transactions. Her drive for excellence and her ability to interface well with the firm's clients make her a strong member of the legal team. From organizing LLC formations to conducting title review, to organizing closing documents for escrow, Theresa willingly takes on challenges and works collaboratively to meet and exceed expectations.
Prior to joining Harvest, Theresa worked as a commercial real estate paralegal at Crosbie Gliner Schiffman Southard & Swanson LLP (CGS3). Before that, she was a guidance counselor and event planner at the UCLA Ziman Center for Real Estate.
Education
Paralegal Studies Certificate, UCLA
M.A., Guidance Counseling, Loyola Marymount University
B.S., Sociology & Philosophy, University of La Verne
Job Titles:
- Senior Paralegal / San Diego
A legal professional in California and Nevada for over 20 years, Tracy has an extensive background in real estate law and litigation. Her ability to focus on her client's objectives and priorities combined with her depth of knowledge, reliability, and teamwork make her a valuable resource for both her clients and the Harvest team.
Tracy draws from her breadth of transactional experience - which includes supporting attorneys representing the interests of buyers, sellers, lenders, borrowers, tenants, landlords, and developers with all aspects of real property sales and acquisitions, drafting complex loan documents, and forming common interest developments - to anticipate clients' needs and expectations and to personalize services for them accordingly. Through her years supervising teams of paralegals and other staff in class action lawsuits, she developed the technical and organizational skills to manage voluminous files and complex issues.
Before serving clients in the legal field, she served the country as a Korean Language Voice Intercept Operator for U.S. Army Military Intelligence. In the years after graduating from Heritage College, she worked at a handful of law firms, including Bullivant Houser Bailey PC in Las Vegas and Hecht Solberg Robinson Goldberg & Bradley LLP San Diego.
Education
Certified Paralegal Certification, National Association of Legal Assistants (NALA)
Real Estate School of Nevada, Real Estate License
Associate Degree, Paralegal Studies, Heritage College
Korean Language Certificate, Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center, Presidio of Monterey