News & Insights

CGS3 Law Firm Profiled in Daily Journal

In the summer of 2013, a group of five San Diego-based big law partners decided to strike out together and hang a shingle, hoping to run their real estate firm differently.

“We said, ‘Let’s take away what we think is the original sin of origination credit, and let’s get back to a model that is truly reflective of a partnership’ … where everybody was truly an equal partner and everything was a collaborative effort,” said Sean W. Southard, a partner at Crosbie Gliner Schiffman Southard & Swanson LLP.

He and his partners set out to create a boutique “that compensated not based on formulas or metrics but on core values.”

“Obviously, we need to bill hours to make money, but at the end of the day, we also want our lawyers being fully engaged in the community, doing business development, doing mentorship,” Southard continued. “So, we tied our compensation to try to incentivize those types of behavior. … So, we’re not incentivized financially to hoard work or put our favorite team on it. We’re incentivized to really get the deal done on the client’s timeline.”

Home today for 24 attorneys, Crosbie Gliner Schiffman Southard & Swanson LLP remains headquartered in San Diego but also operates a Los Angeles office headed by partner David A. Swartz, who joined the boutique in 2016.

“Most real estate law firms tend to be what I would call, ‘Eat what you kill’ for the equity partners,” Swartz explained. “What these guys decided is, ‘You know what? I think we all work better as a team. Let’s all pool our clients.’”

Swartz said that approach promotes teamwork.

“That’s what I think I love the most about this place,” he said. “Everybody works together towards a common goal. Our system is not set up to have conflicts between partners, and a lot of other firms are set up that way.”

Southard said everything the firm does these days touches commercial real estate.

“We deal with all assets, all transaction types within the life cycle of real estate,” he explained. “That’s everything from entity formation, acquisitions, dispositions, developments, leasing, litigation, construction, financing, refinancing, landlord-tenant disputes, operational stuff – all of it.”

Southard noted that much of his practice focuses specifically on leasing, including office, industrial and life science facilities.

“Most recently, I’ve done a lot of retail leasing … with very sophisticated luxury brands that are doing incredible build outs of stores and luxury destination-type shopping centers,” he said. “And that’s been a lot of fun.”

In the past year, Southard said he’s negotiated deals with Gucci, Fendi, Ferragamo, Cartier, Dolce & Gabbana and Prada for more than 100,000 square feet of luxury retail space at several tourist destination shopping centers in Hawaii and Texas.

“I’ve been doing retail since I first started practicing, and what I love about it is it’s palpable,” Southard explained. “Everybody knows retail. It’s something people can readily relate to and identify with. When you tell them, ‘Hey, I’m working on a Gucci deal or I’m working on a Viari deal or a restaurant deal,’ they connect with it, and I love that.”

Southard and Swartz focus their individual practices these days on transactional real estate work, but both started out as litigators.

“I quickly realized that I don’t have the personality to be a litigator,” Southard recalled. “It’s just too acrimonious for me.”

Swartz spent roughly four years tackling real estate litigation early in his career.

“While I did not enjoy one minute of it, it definitely set me up with a base of knowledge many real estate attorneys probably don’t have,” Swartz explained. “When I look at a contract, I will try and look at the other side – the downside – and give clients different advice based on that. So, I like to think of that as an advantage I got from a not-so-fun experience for four years of practice… I like doing deals rather than arguing about them.”

Solana Beach attorney Eric B. Shwisberg, who is a principal at ReyLenn Properties LLC, was opposite Southard on a real estate matter years ago and described him as very professional.

“He was a really good lawyer, and a good guy,” Shwisberg said. “His overall demeanor and approach: If you disagree on something, ‘Hey, let’s see if we can find a middle ground, how we can work something out where the risk is managed on both sides.”‘

Shwisberg was so impressed by Southard he later decided to hire Crosbie Gliner Schiffman Southard & Swanson LLP.

“They’ve advised our development company on different matters over the years,” Shwisberg explained. “What I like about him and their lawyers and his firm is they have a very practical approach to the legal business. … They concentrate on the important aspects of getting a transaction done as opposed to – this is my term – being a ‘comma hunter.’ You get these lawyers who focus on things that frankly don’t matter, and in my opinion, Sean and his group focus on the things that actually do matter.”

The full article was published in The Daily Journal (subscription only).