Alert 10.19.26
Indian Gaming and Prediction Markets: Tribal Amici Ask SCOTUS to Step In
Nearly 150 Tribes and tribal organizations warn the Supreme Court that prediction-market sports betting threatens tribal sovereignty and essential revenue.
Allan Van Vliet advises clients on complex commercial transactions at the intersection of real estate, construction, energy and finance. His practice focuses on mega- and giga-scale project development and construction, complex financings and loan workouts, and operational and commercial offtake arrangements for energy, manufacturing and industrial facilities.
Allan represents clients in all phases of the development, purchase, disposition, financing, operation and management of office, industrial, retail, multifamily, hospitality, data center, and agricultural projects and properties. His clients include owners, lenders, lessors, investors, managers and users of all classes and sizes of real estate property, and his work for them ranges from traditional “dirt law,” to complex multitiered financings, to joint venture and corporate governance matters. Allan’s practice includes advising clients who own distressed or non-performing assets on loan workouts, deed-in-lieu and assignment-in-lieu agreements, and foreclosures. Allan is also well-versed in leasing matters, and has guided many commercial clients (both landlords and tenants) through complex lease negotiations and tenant improvement buildouts.
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Clients value Allan’s ability to translate legal analysis into realistic, actionable advice that accounts for both the legal and business context of the project at-hand. He works side by side with clients to identify and navigate risks and opportunities, manage projects and stakeholders, and focus on practical outcomes rather than theoretical ones, leaning on his wide-ranging experience across multiple economic sectors and industries.
As a member of Pillsbury’s Projects team, Allan regularly guides project owners and sponsors through all stages of the project development and construction process, from front-end loading to final acceptance. His experience includes work on megaprojects and gigaprojects, such as advanced nuclear power plants, renewable and conventional energy facilities, data centers, factories, hospitals and multiphase developments. He combines practical knowledge with legal experience to offer his clients realistic, actionable advice on how to mitigate and manage risks and ensure timely project completion.
Allan also represents both Tribal and non-Tribal clients in matters involving federal Native American law. His work in this field includes compliance and transactional advice relating to state and federal gaming and gambling laws, as well as advice and advocacy concerning state regulatory power in Indian Country, and economic partnerships between Tribes and businesses.
Representative Experience
- Advised designer and manufacturer of modular data center infrastructure in connection with $500 million rapid, large-scale deployment for a new data center campus.
- Negotiated design-build and long-lead procurement contract documents for $3 billion advanced small modular reactor (SMR) nuclear power plant development.
- Provided strategic advice to independent power producer in connection with development of fleet of new nuclear energy facilities, and associated commercial arrangements.
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- Advised real estate investment firm on structuring and implementing long-term executive co-investment and profits sharing arrangements.
- Negotiated and facilitated disposition via deed-in-lieu of foreclosure of distressed Class A office property with mortgage and mezzanine financings on behalf of institutional real estate investment firm.
- Represented publicly traded company in $1 billion acquisition and operational turnover of office headquarters building and related infrastructure.
- Advised owner of renewable power facility located on Tribal lands in connection with dispute over state taxing and regulatory authority.
- Advised publicly traded manufacturing client on the construction of new high-technology factory, and in the negotiation and preparation of commercial offtake agreements for manufactured products.
- Advised Clearwater Paper Corporation on real property and land use aspects of $1.06 billion sale of tissue paper production business and facilities.
- Advised major renewable energy producer on the acquisition of nation-wide portfolio of solar and wind generation facilities.
- Negotiated acquisition and turnover of distressed hospital assets out of bankruptcy on behalf of major public university health system.
Professional Highlights
Articles
- “Texas Property Law Complicates Financing and Development,” Law360, Sept. 2, 2025
- “California Enacts Landmark CEQA Reforms to Accelerate Housing and Infrastructure Development,” Client Alert, July 7, 2025
- “Something Biden and Trump Can Agree On? Data Centers, AI and Energy Generation,” Pratt’s Energy Law Report, April 2025
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- “Parking Reform Takes Off on the West Coast,” Republished in The Real Estate Finance Journal, April 2023
- “Adaptive Reuse: Creative Reimagining of Former Office Space to Address Differing Demands,” Republished in The Real Estate Finance Journal, March 2023
- Blog Posts
- “Investing in Data Centers,” Pillsbury’s Gravel2Gavel
- “Sustainable, Versatile and Resilient: How Mass Timber Construction Can Shake Up the Building Industry,” Pillsbury’s Gravel2Gavel
- “Women’s Professional Sports Continues to Grow by Courts (and Rinks) and Bounds,” Pillsbury’s Gravel2Gavel
Education
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J.D., Stanford Law School, 2020
M.S., Stanford University, 2020
School of EarthB.A., Occidental College, 2015
summa cum laude
Admissions
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California
Oregon