Christine Graff Speaks at PLI’s Negotiating Commercial Leases 2014

Winston & Strawn partner Christine Graff spoke at PLI’s Negotiating Commercial Leases 2014 on November 17 in Chicago. This program examined how to negotiate commercial leases, which can be a primary business asset, but can contain landmines of liability.

Ms. Graff presented “Negotiating Today’s Tenant Options,” which discussed:

• Fixed versus Floating Expansion Spaces; Setting the Triggers, Delivery Windows and Response Times
• Fixed Rental Rate versus Then-Current Market Rent; When Should Landlord Have to Re-Offer Declined Right Of First Refusal Space?
• Overlapping and Cascading Options; Creating Multiple Rights -- Structuring Around Other Tenants’ Existing and Future Senior Rights
• “Personal” Options, Minimum Occupancy Requirements and Other Ways to Forfeit a Tenant’s Option
• Calculating Termination and Contraction Fees; Reconfiguring a Multitenant Floor, Who Pays and Who Chooses?

Ms. Graff is a partner concentrating her practice in commercial real estate matters. Ms. Graff has assisted clients throughout the country in a wide range of matters, including commercial property acquisitions and dispositions, tenant-in-common transactions, real estate development, land use and joint venture transactions, project finance, commercial leasing, secured lending, and energy transactions, including solar and wind development projects.