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Law360 (April 15, 2020, 11:24 AM EDT) --
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| John Bain |
Today's perspective comes from Dallas-based John Bain, a partner at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP specializing in real estate transactions.
What challenges has the pandemic created in your specific area of work?
Generally, the real estate and hospitality sectors are facing widespread uncertainty as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Virtually every participant in the real estate space is working to understand the likely impact on pending transactions, ongoing existing arrangements (e.g., leases), and long-term asset performance.
For those transactions that can move forward, there is a push to close them as quickly as possible. This effort has been complicated by social distancing practices and shelter-in-place orders. Routine tasks such as recording documents and forming new entities are challenging due to county recording office closures and personnel ramp-downs at secretary of state offices.
Even signing, witnessing and notarizing recordable documents is challenging when people are not going into their offices. Fortunately, I've found that professionals are responding creatively to these challenges and getting the remaining healthy deals across the finish line.
How are you and your family adapting at home?
We have done our best to embrace the positive aspects of the situation. I have enjoyed spending more time with the family — I hope they feel the same way!
Our sons (2 and 5) miss their friends, but our schools and playgroups have done a great job of setting up streaming video options to keep everyone in contact. We have spent a lot of our free time engaging in socially distant activities like exploring state parks and doing backyard workouts. Our hope is to keep ourselves and our children mentally and physically engaged.
What is the most creative or productive response to the crisis you've witnessed so far?
I have been incredibly impressed by how well our team has adapted to working from home. We have stayed in constant contact to ensure that we maintain a high level of client service.
But the most creative responses I have seen generally relate to keeping our spirits high and generating a sense of connectedness. This has involved everything from sharing our work-from-home pictures and adventures to setting up virtual office happy hours.
The opinions expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organization, its clients, or Portfolio Media Inc., or any of its or their respective affiliates. This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal advice.
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