Brett E. Cohen, Attorney

Real Estate partner, Brett Cohen was born in 1958 in Brooklyn, New York. He received his Bachelor of Science degree, double majoring in Industrial and Labor Relations and Economics, from Cornell University in 1979 and his Juris Doctor and Masters in Business Administration (J.D./M.B.A.) from the University of California in Los Angeles in 1985.

In 1985 he was admitted to the California State Bar and associated with Wyman, Bautzer, Kuchel & Silbert, and remained there until the formation of the Firm.

Cohen is a partner in the real estate department and prides himself in developing creative solutions to difficult financing issues. His practice principally focuses on real property secured and asset-based financing and loan workouts, representing lenders, borrowers, developers and joint venture partners; acquisitions and disposition and leasing of real property; urban in-fill and single family residential developments; partnership, limited liability company and corporate organizational matters.

Among many other sophisticated transactions he represented a developer in connection with the acquisition and development financing for a master-planned community in the City of Palmdale, consisting of more than 11,000 acres and approximately 7,200 housing units; represented the developer in connection with the construction financing for multiple condominium towers in Las Vegas, Nevada; represented the limited partners and tenants at the regional produce market facility in downtown Los Angeles in connection with the refinance and organizational restructure of the market; represented a borrower with respect to a $90 million loan workout with a prominent life insurance company; represented an east coast bank in connection with the workout of a multi-million dollar, multi-state loan, involving eleven different hotel properties, including advising the client on complex "one form of action," deed-in-lieu of foreclosure and title issues; represented a borrower, the owner of a luxury hotel in the City of Huntington Beach, involved in a workout of a $55,000,000 construction loan from a foreign bank, which loan workout involved concurrent negotiations with the City of Huntington Beach and the Redevelopment Agency of the City of Huntington Beach with respect to the exchange of tax credits and the issuance of a City bond relating to the workout transaction; represented a lender in connection with financing for the processing and development of a luxury residential community in Los Angeles County near the City of Calabasas; represented borrower in connection with the financing of the construction of a regional hospital and adjacent medical office building in Westlake Village.

Cohen is also very active in the community, providing lead counsel (pro bono) and support to the Saint John's Health Center Foundation and the John Wayne Cancer Institute at Saint John's Health Center for charitable gifts of real property.  Brett also volunteers for the Westside Food Bank, serving on multiple Westside school boards as well as commissioner of YMCA youth basketball, as a coach in Little League Baseball and Youth League Basketball. He is also active in the Cornell and UCLA Alumni Associations as well as the Citizens' Oversight Committee for the Beverly Hills Unified School District.

Cohen resides in Beverly Hills with his wife Kelly and sons, Brandon and Cody.

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