Laura Hannusch on Being a Real Estate Attorney Today

Many clients are either stretching to do deals that are outside their comfort zone or entering new areas of the market. “Some of this is driven by the competitiveness of property acquisition right now and over the last several years,” Hannusch explained. “Everybody's looking for a way to differentiate themselves, looking for projects that have complications that they may be able to handle where somebody else can't.”

According to Hannusch, a seller might be facing a large capital gains tax with the sale, for example, and a buyer client who can be creative and come up with a solution to help solve that problem will be much more likely to close the deal.

Hannusch added that she is now much more involved in the inner workings of her clients’ ownership structures than ever before, and while she has benefited from being at a large firm with corporate and tax experts who can lend their expertise, it’s driven her to expand her own knowledge base as well. “Negotiating limited liability company agreements and partnership agreements is not what I would consider typical 'dirt lawyer' work, but it's an integral part of what we do now.”