Lawrence R. Jensen & Associates
Comprehensive real property and business legal services. We strive to strike a perfect balance between the attention to detail that will let you rest easy and the efficiency that will keep you coming back as a repeat client.
Firm Overview
Lawrence R. Jensen has been practicing business and real estate law in the San Francisco Bay Area since graduating cum laude from Santa Clara University School of Law in 1987. After practicing for seven years at two prominent San Jose business and real estate firms, Larry struck out on his own in 1994, seeking a better, more personalized way of serving his clients' legal
needs.
AREAS OF PRACTICE
BUSINESS, including:
Buy-sell agreements
Bills of lading, shipping/cargo contracts
Contracts (manufacturing, distribution, commercial, retail)
Confidentiality, employment, non-compete and non-solicitation agreements
Joint venture agreements
Promissory notes and security agreements
Warranties, releases, indemnification agreements
Corporate, limited liability company (LLC), partnership formation, operations, dissolution
Non-public securities offerings and sales
Purchase and sale of business, including due diligence
REAL ESTATE, including:
Agricultural leases
Brokerage contracts (authorization to sell, broker-licensee)
Commercial leases, including industrial, office, retail, shopping center
Easements
Grant deeds, promissory notes, deeds of trust, escrow instructions
Ground leases
Options to purchase
Purchase and sale agreements
Residential leases
Title insurance
DISPUTE RESOLUTION, including:
Arbitration
Boundary, encroachment, title and ownership disputes
Breach of contract, warranty
Breach of fiduciary duty
Breach of lease
Broker commission disputes
Collections (commercial only)
Condemnation (eminent domain), inverse condemnation
Construction delay, non-performance, defects
Damage to real property
Enforcement of judgment
Environmental (contamination, remediation, contribution)
Eviction (unlawful detainer) for commercial landlords and tenants, residential landlords
Fraud and non-disclosure
Mechanic's liens, stop notices, construction bonds
Mediation
Partition; partition by sale
Preferential transfers
Professional errors & omissions - malpractice (DRE licensees, engineers, architects, inspectors, escrow agents)
Real property tax reassessment challenges
Restraining orders, injunctions, writs of attachment
Specific performance
Trespass and nuisance
Main Office
Attorneys at Law
95 S. Market Street, Suite 550
San Jose CA 95113
Phone
408-899-2510
Fax
408-899-2403
Fees
Free Initial Consultation?
First half hour free upon request.
Hourly Rates
$400, may be discounted for non-profits; associate rate is $225..
Office Information
Office Hours
11:00 a.m to 6:30 p.m. Weekdays
Office Manager
Kathryn Funk
Emergency After Hours
No
Commercial Real Estate
Lawrence R Jensen & Associates focuses on real estate and business disputes, business entity formation, negotiating and drafting legal instruments such as leases and purchase and sale agreements, and counseling buyers, sellers, landlords and tenants.
Lawrence Jensen has represented buyer and sellers of strip malls, warehouse and manufacturing buildings, hotels, office buildings, and more. He has also handled the sale of a mutual water company! He has vast experience with commercial and residential leases, both litigating them and drafting/negotiating them. He knows how to counsel buyers of commercial real estate, including what "due diligence" to consider doing, and helps negotiate the best title insurance policy coverage for buyers. He also handles for sale by owner residential transactions, assisting sellers with compliance with all disclosure obligations, and counseling buyers on what investigations to do, how to interpret disclosures and inspections report, and more. He has litigated dozens of non-disclosure cases, and lots of mechanic's lien claims, boundary and title disputes, unlawful detainers (evictions), broker commission claims and more.
Business
Our business practice is focused on privately held small and medium sized businesses, from creation through on-going counseling, through dissolution. We form entities the right way and get new businesses off on a solid legal foundation.
Lawrence Jensen has formed dozens of corporations and limited liability companies. He doesn't use a "cookie-cutter" approach, instead striving to make the formational documents actually work for the owners. He understands the need to comply with securities laws and attends to the full panoply of formational matters, including IRS matters such as obtaining an EIN and filing "Subchapter S" elections. He also counsels buyers and sellers of "business opportunities," such as restaurants, being educated both in the business and commercial lease aspects of these transactions. He has drafted and litigated numerous types of business contracts, including consulting contracts, buy-sell agreements, retail contracts, distribution contracts, and manufacturing contracts. He also counsels management in employment law compliance matters.
What experience or education distinguishes your lawyers from others?
Lawrence Jensen has a unique perspective because he both negotiates and drafts business and real estate contracts, on the one hand, and also litigates business and real estate disputes, on the other. By doing both, he understands what the real issues are likely to be when drafting a contract and pays special attention to those issues. Practicing since 1987, he has a vast base of knowledge and experience he can draw upon to address issues that overlap, such as LLC ownership and management issues affecting LLC's that hold real estate assets. Or potential non-compliance with lease obligations as a result of entity ownership changes. After all, owning and managing investment property is a business, too! And businesses need advice with commercial leases as well as regarding corporate law compliance. Wouldn't you rather have someone negotiate your lease or purchase contract that has been in court enforcing them, too?
Lawrence R. Jensen
Admitted to practice in California on
December 11, 1987, California State Bar Number 132330. Established
solo-practice in 1994, after seven years of practice at two prominent
real estate and business oriented law firms. My practice emphasizes
representation of small and medium sized businesses, non-profits, and
fiduciaries, including start-ups, landlords, real estate brokers,
commercial tenants, trustees, contractors, and others in real estate
and business transactions and litigation. I especially enjoy forming
corporations and limited liability companies, and representing parties
to real estate or business purchase and sale agreements or parties to
leases. I have had a lot of experience in handling boundary and title
disputes, mechanic's liens, non-disclosure, broker-commission disputes,
and in contract and lease litigation matters.
Areas of Practice
- Broker & Transaction Litigation
- Business & Commercial Law
- Business Organizations
- Buying & Selling
- Commercial Real Estate
- Condemnation
- Condominiums & Cooperatives
- Construction Contracts
- Construction Defects
- Construction Law
- Construction Liens
- Contracts
- Conveyancing
- Eminent Domain
- Homeowners' Associations
- Land Contracts
- Landlord/Tenant
- Mechanics' Liens
- Property Taxes
- Real Estate Law
- Real Estate Loans
- Renting & Leasing
- Residential Real Estate
- Title Insurance
- Title Litigation
Litigation Percentage
- 50% of Practice Devoted to Litigation
Bar Admissions
- California, 1987
- U.S. District Court Northern District of California, 1987
- U.S. Court of Appeals 9th Circuit, 1991
Education
- Santa Clara University School of Law, Santa Clara, California,
1987
Juris Doctor
Honors: Cum Laude
Honors: Winner, Leo A. Huard Intramural Moot Court Competition - University of California at Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, California,
1984
Bachelor of Arts
Honors: With Honors
Major:
Psychology
Published Works
- Complying with Fair Housing Laws: Tips for Avoiding Prosecution, Apartment Management Magazine, April, 2000
- Focus on Construction Law: Contractors Find Clarity for Contracts in MW Erectors, San Francisco Daily Journal, July 21, 2005
Classes/Seminars Taught
- Teacher, Eviction Law, Neighborhood Revitalization Program, City of San Jose
Professional Associations and Memberships
- State Bar of California, Real Estate Law Section
- State Bar of California, Business Law Section
- Santa Clara County Bar Association
- Santa Clara County Association of Realtors
- Tri-County Apartment Association
- California Apartment Association
- City of San Jose,
1998
- Present
Independent Contractor
Past Employment Positions
- Liccardo, Rossi, Sturges & McNeil,
1992
-
1994 - Hallgrimson, McNichols, McCann & Inderbitzen,
1987
-
1992
Birth Information
- 1959, Oakland, C
Lawrence R. Jensen
Marie K. Gribble
Graduated from Santa Clara University School of Law in 2013. Admitted to practice in December 2013. Employed as judicial clerk for Hon. Socrates Manoukian, Judge of the Santa Clara County Superior Court. Hired by Lawrence R. Jensen & Associates June of 2015. Practice focused on real estate litigation.
Lawrence R. Jensen
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