Misty Sanford is a partner in the Real Estate Department in Willkie’s Los Angeles office, where she serves as Chair, Real Estate – West Coast. Her sophisticated and broad-based real estate transactional practice involves all aspects of real estate, with an emphasis on public/private partnerships (PPPs), complex mixed-use developments, purchase and sale, finance, joint ventures, environmental issues, land use, leasing and workouts, which allows her to assist with the full lifecycle of real estate assets.

Whether leading transformational real estate transactions or creating innovative diversity programs, Misty is a mover and shaker in real estate law and the legal community. Misty’s work includes representation of some of the world’s leading institutional investors, private equity firms, developers, multinational corporations, REITs, foundations, non-profits and individual entrepreneurs. Clients turn to her with their most complex transactions. She regularly advises clients on the risk allocation and due diligence areas of all types of real property developments and transactions.

Her pro bono practice has included representation of park development, homelessness and affordable housing organizations such as Skid Row Housing Trust, the Downtown Women’s Center, T.R.U.S.T. South LA and the Los Angeles River Revitalization Corporation.

Actively engaged in community affairs, Misty served as a mayoral appointee to the Board of Recreation and Parks Commissioners, which directly oversees operations, programming and maintenance of over 400 parks and 175 recreation centers within the city, and the City of Los Angeles Environmental Affairs Commission. This public service has helped her develop a keen understanding of local government and the planning process.

She is a member of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers, the premier organization of distinguished U.S. real estate lawyers, where she serves as Chair of the Acquisitions Committee. Among her many accolades, Misty has been recognized by Chambers USA, the Latina Lawyers Bar Association, the Los Angeles Business Journal, Ms. JD and the Mexican American Bar Association.

Misty is a founder and former chair of the board of directors of the Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust, a nonprofit that converts blighted parcels of land into neighborhood parks, gardens and community centers. She is also the founder and treasurer of For People of Color, Inc., a nonprofit dedicated to empowering students of color to become attorneys.

Additionally, Misty is a member of the Executive Committee for the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate. The Lusk Center seeks to advance real estate knowledge, inform business practice, and address timely issues that affect the real estate industry, the urban economy, and public policy. 

When: Wednesday, May 24, 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm (PST)

Click Here to Register

FPOC is launching a new webinar series where we interview attorneys, law students, community leaders, and others.

We are proud to announce that Jose Perez, Deputy General Counsel at LatinoJustice PRLDEF will be our first speaker.

Jose Perez served as LatinoJustice PRLDEF’s Legal Director from 2007 – 2021 and has been the lead lawyer in several precedent-setting immigrants’ rights cases: 1) establishing fair housing eviction protections for undocumented rent regulated tenants in NYC. Recalde v. Bae, 2008 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 4397, July 15,2008, 2008 WL 2806577; 2) private landlords are not required to ascertain immigration status of prospective tenants. Bolmer v. Connolly Properties Inc., 09-4541, (3d Circuit 2012); 3) local law enforcement barred from enforcing administrative immigration warrants. Santos v. Frederick County Bd. of Comm’rs, 725 F.3d 451 (4th Cir. 2013); and 4) the Cesar Vargas bar admission case establishing that NY’s Character & Fitness Committee can determine a dacamented law graduate’s bar admission eligibility without any prior enabling state legislation authorizing such professional licensing, and that a dacamented law graduate can fulfill state character and fitness bar admission licensing requirements. In re Vargas, 10 N.Y.S.3d 579 (App. Div. 2015)

Jose who has mentored countless college and law students of color over the past three decades oversees LatinoJustice’s Cesar A. Perales (CAP) Leadership Institute and its many nationally recognized and innovative pre-law pipeline programs while continuing to manage internships and external pro bono relations. He is a 1985 graduate of St. John’s University School of Law where he created the award winning Spanish Street Law community education know your rights program. Jose began his legal career with the Queens County District Attorney’s Office; and has also served in NYCHA’s Anti-Narcotics Strike Force, the Legal Aid Society’s Juvenile Rights and Civil Divisions as a staff and supervising attorney, and as a supervising attorney at Hofstra University Law School Housing Rights and Disability Law clinics. Prior to joining LatinoJustice, he served as an Assistant Attorney General, Deputy Chief, and Acting Bureau Chief of the NYS Attorney General’s Consumer Frauds & Protection Bureau where he helped develop and lead the AG’s Latino immigration services (“notario”) fraud consumer protection initiative. 

When:

Thursday, May 11, 2023, at 12:00 pm (Pacific)

Registration Required:

Click here to register.

When: 

Saturday, May 20, 2023, from 9:00 am to 12:15 pm (Pacific)

Where:

Zoom Webinar

Event Description:

This free virtual conference will teach law students how to succeed in their summer positions. The myriad of summer positions in both the private and public sector will be discussed along with best practices that apply to all legal fields.

Topics will include summer judicial externships, nonprofit internships and clerkships, summer associate positions, and positions with federal, state, or local government entities.

This event is free and open to the public.

Agenda:

I. Welcome & Best Practices: 9:00 am – 9:30 am (Pacific)

• Vilma Palma-Solana, Supervising Deputy Attorney General – Civil Rights Enforcement Section, California Attorney General’s Office

II. Private Sector Panel: 9:30 am – 10:30 am (Pacific)

• Sunita Bali-Williams, Partner, Perkins Coie LLP

• Misty M. Sanford, Partner, Wilkie Farr & Gallagher LLP

• Stephen Abreu, Partner, Sidley Austin LLP

• Jose Luis Lopez, General Counsel, Zeplin, Inc.

III. Break: 10:30 am – 10:45 am (Pacific)

IV. Public and Nonprofit Sectors Panel: 10:45 am to 12:00 pm (Pacific)

• Jose Perez, Deputy General Counsel, LatinoJustice / PRLDEF

• Marisa Hernandez-Stern, Supervising Deputy Attorney General – Worker Rights & Fair Labor Bureau, California Attorney General’s Office

• Matthew Barragan, Assistant United State Attorney, United States Attorney’s Office

• Irina Trasovan, Deputy Attorney General – Civil Rights Enforcement Section, California Attorney General’s Office

• Fabian Renteria Franco, Assistant Public Defender, Federal Public Defender

V. Closing Remarks: 12:00 pm – 12:15 pm (Pacific)

• Anthony Solana, Jr., Founder, For People of Color, Inc.

*All titles and affiliations are for identification purposes only.

FPOC Membership:

Click here to become a member and sign-up to receive FPOC’s announcements.

Questions?

Please contact anthony@fpoc.org.