Morgan Miller Blair

Marilyn Morris brings over 20 years of counseling, negotiating, problem solving and pre-litigation experience to real estate clients and clients with real estate and business needs.

Marilyn’s practice emphasizes general real estate, and development and land use issues. She can prepare, negotiate, field problems and give sound advice on purchases and sales, title and easements, land use, lending documents, deeds of trusts, foreclosures, and commercial leases, including retail and office uses. She has represented owners and developers of commercial office and shopping center properties; mortgage brokers; title insurance and escrow companies, and institutional lenders. Having once had significant experience in litigation with a winning record, Marilyn is uniquely capable of pre-litigation dispute resolution. Additionally, she is called on to act as general outside “corporate counsel” to business owners and management advising on a wide range of general business and real estate issues including general contract, employment concerns, investigation and defense of discrimination and sexual harassment claims, and litigation management.

Marilyn’s experience includes the following representative matters:

• Successful resolution of multiple types of title and contract disputes that threatened to delay development projects
• Successful representation of a large group of developer creditors in resolving disputed claims, including full paybacks with interest, in massive PG&E bankruptcy
• Successful defense of shopping center owners in various commercial lease disputes and in an unusual free speech issue involving street performers
• Innovative approaches to successful resolution of real estate disputes involving large tracts of property
• Resolution of unusual dispute between developer and timeshare owners relating to payment of monthly dues
• Successful acquisitions and sales of real estate, including raw land
• Negotiations on title, easements and liens with title insurers in real estate transactions.

Marilyn’s former and current clients include real estate developers, shopping center owners, title insurance and escrow companies, lenders and other businesses with general business and real estate legal needs.

Marilyn has been recognized as a Northern California “Super Lawyer” in the Law & Politics magazine surveys for 2004, 2005 and 2006.  She is recognized as a woman of distinction in the legal category by the East Bay Business Times in 2006.

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