Representative Experience

• Represented a real estate developer in obtaining a settlement in excess of $15 million on the eve of trial in a dispute with his partner and a major luxury resort operator over the ownership and redevelopment of the former Hotel Twin Dolphin in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.
• In a civil rights case against the Redevelopment Agency of the City of Carson and the city’s former mayor, we obtained a jury verdict of over a million dollars. The jury found that the agency rejected our client’s redevelopment project because he refused to pay a bribe.
• In ground lease interpretation litigation against the City of Redondo Beach, we obtained a settlement that resulted in resolution of nearly all disputed issues in favor of our client, the operator of a large marina in Redondo Beach Harbor.
• In a series of lawsuits by citizens groups opposing development of a big-box retail store in the City of La Habra, we obtained a settlement of the first round of litigation and then a judgment, affirmed on appeal, in our client’s favor, on the second round of litigation, after one of the settling objectors reneged on the first settlement.
• During litigation controlled and financed by a neighboring property owner, we successfully defended in the trial court, and in the court of appeal, the approval by the City of El Segundo of a million square-foot, mixed-use development.
• Successfully defended in the Superior Court and on appeal, against a challenge, on CEQA and zoning grounds, to the approval of a variance by the City of Los Angeles that allowed our client’s commercial development in a residential neighborhood.
• Successfully defended in the Superior Court and on appeal against a challenge, on CEQA and zoning grounds, to the approval by the California Coastal Commission of a coastal development permit for our client’s mixed-use development.
• Provided litigation counseling and assistance to a developer with regard to CEQA and land use challenges to approval of, and with regard to, eminent domain issues that arose in property acquisition for a major mixed-use redevelopment project at Hollywood and Vine.  The challenges to the project approval and to the use of eminent domain were all either defeated or settled.
• In a dispute with the City of Indio, with regard to a water project’s fees that would have severely impacted our clients’ undeveloped land, we filed judicial challenges to the project that resulted in a settlement granting significant development rights to our clients.
• In an action brought by the City of Culver City seeking to terminate oil and gas leases burdening a city park, we successfully resisted the oil company’s motion for summary judgment on grounds that induced the oil company to settle on a basis favorable to the city.
• In a dispute between neighbors concerning the use of a residential property for commercial filming, we used litigation and the threat of litigation to effectively end the commercial use of our client’s neighbor’s property.
• Represented San Vicente-Montana Association in a challenge to the environmental review of an office and retail development in West Los Angeles. The litigation resulted in an unpublished U.S. Court of Appeals decision in our client’s favor.
• Represented petitioners in a case against the City of Los Angeles in a challenge to the environmental review of the master plan for the redevelopment of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Pacific Palisades. After entry of a Superior Court judgment in our client’s favor, the litigation was settled.
• Worked with a municipal client to reclaim areas used for private oil production and develop those areas into parkland using a combination of state, federal, local and private funding. Our work included successful litigation against the oil production operator and mineral rights owner.
• Successfully prosecuted a federal court action under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act challenging project denial on behalf of a private high school.  In settlement of the case, the city authorized single-family residential development of the original proposed school site.  We handled the processing of the approvals for the residential development as well as the authorizations needed to relocate the high school to the Ambassador College campus in Pasadena. 

For more information, please contact Garrett L. Hanken.