According to CGS3 founding partner Sean Southard, Kaplan and Altoon add extensive commercial estate expertise to the firm’s LA-based team. “With in-house and law firm experience, Lee has developed an impressive resume and in-depth knowledge of the complex Southern California real estate landscape over a relatively short period of time,” he said. “Telma is a seasoned expert in supporting real estate transactional lawyers handling complex transactions of all types in the California commercial real estate market. Both are exceptionally talented and further strengthen our ability to provide a best-in-class experience to clients in California and beyond – we are thrilled to have them join our rapidly growing Los Angeles-based team.”
Prior to joining CGS3, Kaplan advised municipalities and other public entities with Los Angeles-based Richards, Watson & Gershon and established a land use practice at Harding Larmore Kutcher & Kozal in Santa Monica. He also has in-house experience working as a staff attorney for the California Association of Realtors, a statewide trade association for real estate professionals. In addition to his extensive general real estate and land use experience, he has broad expertise in environmental law. He is particularly adroit at conducting due diligence and shepherding development projects of all sizes through complex entitlement processes throughout Southern California.
With nearly 20 years of experience as a real estate paralegal, Altoon was most recently a senior real estate paralegal with ExchangeRight Real Estate and has held similar positions with Alliant Asset Management, Bank of America and Allen Matkins. Her broad range of experience includes acquisitions and financing – from in-house to law firm to investment firm positions – for sectors including large scale commercial, multi-family, low-income housing, industrial and retail.
Kaplan holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in politics from New York University and earned his J.D., from the UCLA School of Law. Altoon earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and government from the University of Southern California and her paralegal certificate from UCLA.
About Crosbie Gliner Schiffman Southard & Swanson LLP (CGS3)
CGS3 is a new generation commercial real estate law firm with practice areas covering the full commercial real estate life cycle, including finance, acquisition/disposition, entity formation, tax, development, land use, leasing, distressed asset workouts and dispute resolution. Earning a reputation as one of California’s leading commercial real estate law firms, CGS3 has recruited some of the state’s top real estate attorneys from both large corporate firms and senior in-house positions. CGS3 is located at 12750 High Bluff Drive, Suite 250, San Diego, California 92130 and 10940 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 2200, Los Angeles, California 90024. For more information, visit http://www.cgs3.com.
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