Julia R. Sugden B.A., LLB

Bio

Most of Julia Sugden's work begins with a piece of land and a client deciding what to do with it, whether that is buying, selling, developing, or borrowing against it. She comes in early, while the purchase is still being negotiated, and stays with the deal through to closing.

Julia acts on the purchase and sale of commercial land, both developed sites and raw land, and on the development that follows, whether that means building from scratch or reworking an existing structure. She arranges acquisition and development financing for borrowers, and she negotiates commercial leases for landlords and for tenants. She advises on a deal from end to end, from the initial due diligence and assessment of whether it is commercially viable, through to resolving the issues that arise before closing.

Her clients are commercial developers, landlords, and tenants. They range from owner-managed businesses to public companies, most of them medium to large and well established, and many come back to her deal after deal.

Julia came to private practice from inside the industry. For five years she was in-house counsel to a regional developer and property manager, advising the business day to day on the same acquisitions, developments, and financings she now handles for clients. She grew up around the work as well, with a father in commercial real estate development.

Having been the client, she understands the position her clients are in, under pressure to get a deal done and answerable for the commercial result as much as the legal one. She reads a transaction the way a business owner would, weighing the legal risk against what the deal is meant to achieve, and keeps that objective in view throughout.

That business sense carries into her financing work. Lending has grown harder as banks have turned more cautious, and it is where she has to be most resourceful. The value of a commercial property doesn't always fit a lender's standard model, and a good part of her job is building the alternative arguments that bring the lender around. She also guides clients through the financing, setting out why a borrower's arrangements have to be structured as they are, and why the timelines run as long as they do.

With clients, Julia is collaborative but candid. She starts from what they want and is straight with them when the deal cannot deliver it, raising a problem early rather than letting it surface late. She responds quickly, stays close to the detail, and does some of her most valuable work in the negotiation itself, drafting and holding out for the terms that protect her client without losing sight of getting the deal done.

With opposing counsel she stays measured and professional. She is more interested in clearing the obstacles to a deal than in winning every point, and keeps the negotiation moving toward a close her client is happy with.