Whether you are an experienced practitioner looking to brush up on other areas of real estate law or a recent law school graduate looking to find out more about real property law, the Virginia State Bar Real Property Section Membership Committee has a presentation for you!
We have put together video productions from highly esteemed members of the Real Property Section to share our knowledge and advice. The membership committee has plans to release more than six presentations a year from “dirt” lawyers who have seen it all.
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Kay Creasman discusses what it’s like to work as a lawyer in the title insurance industry, including helping clients get a title policy, title searches, and title commitments.
Kevin Pogoda discusses the genesis of title insurance and the four basic protections of owner’s title insurance: ownership, liens, access, and marketability.
Creasman and Pogoda discuss how title insurance is different from settlement services and how attorneys structure their practice in the industry to fit their goals and financial interests. The information covered includes different attorney roles and the Virginia statute, Real Estate Settlements Agents (RESA).
John Altmiller provides a brief overview of common real property litigation issues including establishing titles, modifying titles, quiet title actions, partition suits, and adverse possession. Throughout his talk, Altmiller emphasizes the value of collaboration and collegiality.
Michael Derdeyn dives deeper into adverse possession and quiet title actions. He pays special attention to the burden of truth in Virginia. Specifically, the necessity of the counsel’s ability to establish legal title, trace the title, and establish boundaries, among other factors.
Altmiller and Derdeyn discuss some of the practical issues facing lawyers in real estate litigation. A key to success is realizing that clients may not always have the facts about the property. Lawyers must recognize it is essential to do a thorough discovery to trace each title. Secondly, the goal may be simply coming to a resolution on some level. The value of the case for clients may not always be in winning, but rather in having finality.
Paula Caplinger of Chicago Title Insurance in Newport News discusses easements, including definitions, rights of the easements, types of easements, attributes of easements, and how they are terminated.
Jim Windsor of Kaufman & Canoles in Virginia Beach discusses creating easements by prescription, easements by estoppel, the location and scope of easements, and how easements may be terminated. Relevant cases cited.
Paula Caplinger and Jim Windsor discuss easements from a title insurance and title policy point of view, and easement litigation. Discussed are federal lands, islands, railroad tracks, public roads, abandoned roads, and easements as they pertain particularly to commercial title policies. Jim discusses advanced litigation issues, including how to defend an easement by prescription suit and abandonment of an easement (mere non-use is NOT abandonment!). Does tortious interference with an easement exist? Cases cited.
Vanessa Steltenpohl Carter of Woods Rogers Vandeventer Black, PLC provides a quick overview of residential real estate foreclosures in Virginia and discusses the intersection of contract law, federal regulations and statutory requirements for foreclosures.
Ray W. King of Woods Rogers Vandeventer Black PLC discusses commercial real estate foreclosures, including a discussion of the various roles an attorney can serve. Ray talks about the benefits of additional advertisement sources for unique commercial properties and touches commercial foreclosure roadblocks.
Vanessa Steltenpohl Carter and Ray W. King team up to present tips and potential minefields for practitioners of residential and commercial real estate foreclosures in Virginia, including a discussion of superpriority liens, title issues, and the bidding and sale process.
Maxwell H. Wiegard of Miles & Stockbridge addresses how real estate law and environmental law attorneys can identify, assess, and manage environmental risk during the due diligence process of a commercial real estate transaction.
Joe Romero, senior counsel at BAE Systems, discusses factors that attorneys should consider while navigating environmental concerns for commercial property that is currently owned by a client.
Maxwell H. Wiegard and Joe Romero come together to identify helpful tips and potential pitfalls in aspects of real estate law and environmental law. Topics covered include Phase I and II Environmental Site Assessments, communication with regulators, knowledge management, Virginia Department of Environmental Quality comfort letters, and the Virginia Voluntary Remediation Program.
Karen Cohen of Gentry Locke in Richmond explains the basic framework of land use law in Virginia, including the key sources of the law, the path for legislative land use approvals, and common issues that arise in a land use lawyer’s practice.
Karen Cohen of Gentry Locke in Richmond builds on the framework provided in Part 1 to introduce viewers to some key statutes and legal principles involved in litigating challenges to land use decisions.
Karen Cohen of Gentry Locke in Richmond moderates a conversation with John Foote of Walsh, Colucci, Lubeley & Walsh, and Ben Leigh of Troxell Leigh about what it’s like to be a land use lawyer. John and Ben discuss how they got into land use law, provide tips for new practitioners, discuss real-world examples of challenges and successes, and offer encouragement for anyone interested in this fascinating area of law.