Real Estate Counsel for Commercial Landlords and Tenants
For the Leases That Matter
A commercial lease governs your largest asset or your largest fixed cost for years to come. Whether you own the building or occupy the space, the terms you accept today shape what happens through every market cycle, every operational change, and every conversation about renewal or exit. You need counsel who has sat on both sides of the table and knows which clauses are boilerplate, which are negotiating posture, and which quietly decide the outcome of a dispute down the road.
More About What We Handle
- Lease Drafting and Negotiation: Drafting and negotiating commercial leases across office, retail, industrial, and mixed-use, from letter of intent through execution.
- Build-Out and Tenant Improvement Provisions: Construction allowances, work letters, and delivery condition standards.
- Operating Expenses and CAM Provisions: Operating expense and common area maintenance terms, audit rights, exclusions, and caps.
- Subleasing, Assignment, and Recapture: Transfer provisions, consent standards, and recapture rights that preserve flexibility as conditions change.
- Renewals, Extensions, and Expansions: Options to renew, rights of first offer, and expansion mechanics.
- Lease Disputes and Resolutions: Pre-litigation counseling, lease interpretation issues, and default and cure matters.
- Lease Termination and Surrender: Early termination negotiation, holdover provisions, and surrender documentation.
Our Representative Transactions
Our leasing clients trust us with the documents that govern their largest assets and their most important locations, from single-tenant deals to portfolio rollouts across multiple markets. View a selection of these here.
Learn More❝ The economics, the flexibility, the dispute mechanics, the exit. Our job is to make sure none of it is left to chance. ❞
- Angelique Thomas, Founder, Vellum Law
Frequently Asked Questions
Answers to the questions clients ask most before they engage us.
Does Vellum Law represent both commercial landlords and tenants?
Yes, though never on the same transaction. Many of our leasing clients sit on one side of the table consistently and rely on us as their primary leasing counsel, while others come to us only when they need experienced help on a particular lease. Either way, we know the document inside and out, and that fluency with both perspectives shapes how we negotiate on your behalf.
What types of commercial leases does Vellum Law handle?
We handle commercial leases across office, retail, industrial, and mixed-use property types, including hospitality-adjacent retail and restaurant leasing. Our practice spans the full range of property categories active in our markets, and we bring the same level of scrutiny to a single storefront lease as we do to a multi-floor office lease.
Can Vellum Law handle multi-site commercial leasing portfolios?
Yes. We regularly counsel corporate occupiers and institutional landlords on portfolio leasing across multiple locations, maintaining consistent standards and negotiating posture across every lease in the portfolio, even when different properties come with different market dynamics.
When should I bring a commercial real estate attorney into a lease negotiation?
Before you sign the letter of intent. Many of the most important economic and operational terms in a commercial lease are locked in at the LOI stage, and revisiting them once the lease is drafted is considerably harder than getting them right from the outset.
Does Vellum Law handle commercial lease disputes?
We handle commercial lease disputes and lease interpretation issues on the transactional and pre-litigation side, working to resolve default, cure, and interpretation issues before they escalate. For active litigation, we coordinate with experienced commercial litigation counsel and remain involved as transactional advisors throughout.