David Tabibian

As a partner in Glaser Weil's real estate department, Tabibian provides counsel and legal representation to his clients in virtually every aspect of the industry from inception to finalizing deals. He has successfully handled and closed more than $4 billion worth of real estate transactions across the country.

"A big part of what I do is not just practice law," he said. "I do deal-making with these business-focused transactions. I'm an investor myself, and I bring that mindset to my clients."

Since June 2008, he has been one of the lead real estate attorneys representing Woodbridge Group of Cos. LLC as a debtor in possession under a Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

"I'm not a bankruptcy specialist," he said, "but as far as real estate portfolios go, this was near the top."

Woodbridge filed for bankruptcy protection in December 2017 as a result of a massive, multi-year $1.3 billion Ponzi scheme by owner Robert Shapiro and two others. "The scale of the fraud sent shockwaves throughout L.A. when he got caught," Tabibian said. "It was one of the largest collection of residential real estate owned by one company in the county."

The portfolio included the historic Owlwood mansion in Holmby Hills valued at more than $100 million.

Tabibian worked with bankruptcy lawyers at Klee, Tuchin, Bogdanoff & Stern LLP and outside consultants to facilitate the sale of the estate's assets and its exit from bankruptcy, which was successfully accomplished in February 2019. He helped draft and oversee the recordation of deeds on over 200 properties in 16 states--all on a single day.

"Every broker in town was interested," Tabibian said. "We put everything on individual sale to maximize returns and to avoid impacting the market negatively. We knew we were working on a sad story of what individual investors thought they were putting money into, so that we could get the best result for them. The complexities were huge. We're out of bankruptcy now, but there are still a ton of properties we're working on selling."

Tabibian said his firm was able to manage the scale of the transactions. "We have the resources to handle any deal. It's nice to work on a very profound portfolio."

Show business was the focus of a deal in which Tabibian was lead counsel for The Hollywood Pantages Theatre and the Nederlander Organization in the negotiation and execution of a complex license agreement with CIM Group. The outcome will bring Broadway productions to the Dolby Theatre beginning in 2020.

"Very exciting--not the kind of deal you see very often," he said. "This is the most beautiful and historic theater in Los Angeles, and it needed to expand on their footprint. It made sense to do a joint venture with Dolby."

Tabibian keeps an eye on the significance of his projects.

"Pantages will be huge for the city, because demand for live entertainment is on the increase," he said. "We're becoming more New York. There are apartments with doormen, an explosion of art galleries. The main reason I'm so passionate about real estate is because of how transformative this industry can be on a block, a neighborhood or an entire city."

-- John Roemer