Erinn M. Contreras

Contreras is the leader of Sheppard Mullin’s construction and multifamily housing teams. Her clients—primarily the owners and developers of large multifamily, commercial, mixed-use and data center projects—rely on her to provide legal and business advice at all stages of their projects including the front end drafting and negotiation of construction and design agreements; the issues that often arise during the course of construction; and subsequent litigation.

She is heading the formation of her firm’s new data center industry team, based on growing client needs as companies outsource their data operations to third party providers. And she is a fellow of the Construction Lawyers Society of America and a co-chair of Sheppard Mullin’s San Francisco Women Lawyers Group.

“Business picked up during the shelter in place period,” Contreras said, due to clients’ increased need for counsel amid confusing and contradictory public health orders. “At first, residential projects were allowed to continue. Then the orders were modified in the Bay Area to allow only projects that had an affordable component. Essential infrastructure projects like roads and bridges were also allowed, along with buildings that provide essential services like hospitals. The rules were ever-changing.”

She is counsel to Austin, Texas-based Digital Realty Trust Inc., a global data center real estate investment trust valued at more than $54 billion, where she handles litigation and disputes related to construction and product defects, design issues, real estate and vendor and customer agreements.

“The amount of data out there needing to be stowed is growing exponentially,” she said. “It’s an industry where heating and cooling and humidity control are extremely important.”

Contreras is counsel to Essex Property Trust and its subsidiaries and affiliates, a $19 billion multifamily REIT, where she handles a variety of matters. They include negotiating and drafting construction and design agreements for new projects, providing advice related to ongoing construction and risk management issues and litigation

She is lead counsel in contract warranty litigation involving extensive design and construction defect issues at one of Essex’ San Francisco properties. “This was a large-scale water intrusion defect case,” she said. The matter resolved following a settlement with the project’s general contractor for an undisclosed sum. “We worked closely with our experts and with the contractor’s general counsel and a mediator,” Contreras said, noting that due to the pandemic much of the negotiating took place via Zoom. Essex Portfolio LP v. Suffolk Construction Co. Inc., CGC-19-575609 (S.F. Super. Ct., filed April 30, 2019).

“I always attempt to resolve or mediate cases when possible,” she said. “In this one we adapted to serve our client in a different format. I think some aspects of the remote ways of doing business will continue, though for depositions I think it’s important to be able to be in the room, to read the body language.”

— John Roemer