Overview
Robert Friedman is a real estate and business law attorney with more than 40 years of experience, primarily advising commercial developers, property owners, and tenants in a variety of transactional matters. His clients also include wealthy individuals, families, trusts, and small and midsize businesses.
With a practice spanning entity formation, acquisition, development, joint venture documentation, financing, and sales, he manages all aspects of legal work on behalf of clients, including strategy, negotiation, and documentation of agreements involving a wide variety of corporate and real estate transactions. He is experienced in handling real estate deals involving public-private partnerships.
Robert is known for his efficiency in handling large and complex transactions. His notable work includes representing a promote partner in connection with the sale by an existing equity partner of partnership interests in nine shopping centers. The total value of assets included in the complex transaction involving multiple partners and lenders was nearly $500 million. In another matter, he represented a joint venture in a $46 million, 75-year ground lease for the ownership and development of a shopping center adjacent to the expansion of a Los Angeles housing project. He negotiated the ground lease and disposition and development agreement, the joint venture agreement with an equity partner, and new markets tax credit financing in the complex matter involving a public-private partnership.
Experience
Represented Primestor Development on its construction loans on the retail and market-rate housing project components, which total up to $140 million borrowed. The transactions' complexities included not only a challenging lending market but also Primestor's decision to use modular construction, which compelled it to replace a modular manufacturer in China with one in Mexico to mitigate tariff risks less than 30 days before year-end. Ultimately, the parties worked collaboratively and closed after business hours on New Year's Eve.
Completed the division of family assets involving a drop-and-swap 1031 tax-free exchange of three Beverly Hills medical office buildings worth more than $400 million, saving the parties more than $50 million in taxes and completing the generational separation of an inherited estate.
Represented a garment manufacturer and distributor in the acquisition of a tenant-in-common interest in real property improved with a recently constructed 700,000-square-foot warehouse from some of the partners in the then-existing owner who desired to sell. The new co-owners obtained a new loan, and, concurrently, an affiliate of one of the co-owners agreed to assign its lease, with a 10-year term plus multiple options, to an affiliate of the client for use in its expanding business. The transaction closed successfully less than 30 days after Carlton Fields was retained.
Represented client in connection with acquisition of Chula Vista Center in Chula Vista, California, for $86 million, including joint venture funding by affiliated real estate fund and bridge loan to reposition the property from an insurance company.
Represented client in connection with acquisition of Hilltop Shopping Plaza in Richmond, California, for $36.5 million, including joint venture funding by affiliated real estate fund and bridge loan to reposition the property from an insurance company.
Represented client in connection with acquisition of Esplanade Shopping Center in Oxnard, California, for $90 million. Deal structured as a tenancy in common with two third parties (one as a 1031 exchange upleg) as well as a bridge loan from an insurance company.
Represented client in connection with the financing of a transaction involving a long-term ground lease from Los Angeles County for a mixed-use development, which will include retail stores, affordable homes for seniors, a Metro training facility, and access to public transit and other transportation amenities to serve a historically marginalized and underserved neighborhood.
Represented purchaser of shopping center in Torrance, California, for $40 million, utilizing reverse exchange and involving tenants-in-common ownership as part of replacement property closing.
Represented equity partner in connection with the acquisition of $24.5 million partnership interest with concurrent refinancing to restructure loan secured by $46.5 million marina property in Orange County.
Represented seller of spec residence in Los Angeles' Pacific Palisades neighborhood for $83 million. The deal was the largest residential sale in Los Angeles County through July 31, 2021, and the highest price per square foot ever for a residence in Pacific Palisades.
Represented purchaser of two mixed-use properties in Austin, Texas, both with joint venture equity, co-equity, and debt financing, for affiliates of same client. The purchase prices were $32 million and $24 million.
Represented purchaser of shopping center in Los Angeles' Panorama City neighborhood, including joint venture equity and debt financing, with purchase price of $98 million.
Represented seller of a rental house for $29 million followed by a deferred exchange of the proceeds and the acquisition of two companion apartment buildings with a total of 268 units for $71.5 million.
News & Insights
News
Publications
Recognition
Honors & Recognitions
Private Equity and M&A Business Visionaries, LA Times (2026)
Commercial Real Estate Business Visionaries, LA Times (2025–2026)
Legal Business Visionaries, LA Times (2025–2026)
Top Real Estate and Development Lawyers, Daily Journal (2025–2026)
No aspect of this advertisement has been approved by the highest court of any state. See Awards Methodology.
Professional & Community Involvement
Professional & Community Involvement
Robert is an active member of the American Bar Association, the State Bar of California, the Los Angeles County Bar Association, and the Beverly Hills Bar Association. He serves as president of the board of trustees of Turning Point School in Culver City, California.
Beyond the Bio
At Georgetown University Law Center, Robert served as editor of the American Criminal Law Review.
Related Capabilities
Bar Admissions
Education
J.D., cum laude, Georgetown University Law Center
B.A., with honors, University of California, Berkeley
