Both sides of the lease. Sharper advice on yours.
We draft and negotiate commercial leases for landlords and review them for tenants: office, retail, warehouse, mixed-use. Knowing how the other side thinks is exactly what makes the advice useful on yours.
One lease, two chairs.
The same document reads very differently depending on which side of the table you sit on. We've sat on both.
A lease that holds up.
- Drafting from the term sheet forward, so the business deal and the document match
- Negotiation that protects the asset without killing the deal
- Tenant build-out coordination: who builds what, and who pays
- Renewals and amendments as the tenancy evolves
Know what you're signing.
- Review before signature, in plain English, term by term
- Negotiation of the terms that actually bite: guarantees, escalations, exit rights
- First-lease guidance for new businesses signing their first space
- Mid-lease help: renewals, assignment and subletting, what the lease actually requires
The terms that decide disputes.
Commercial leases are long, and most of the length is boilerplate. These six clauses are where the money and the leverage live.
Personal guarantees
Whether the business's lease reaches your personal assets, for how much, and for how long. Often negotiable; rarely negotiated.
Additional rent & CAM
Base rent is the advertised number. Taxes, insurance, and common-area charges are the rest of it, and the definitions decide the total.
Assignment & subletting
What happens to the lease if you sell the business or outgrow the space. The default answer is usually "ask the landlord."
Renewal options
Whether you have a right to stay, at what rent, and what notice the option requires. Missed notice windows forfeit real value.
Build-out & alterations
Who builds the space, who pays for it, and what has to be undone when the lease ends.
Default & cure
What counts as a breach, how much time there is to fix one, and what the other side may do in the meantime.
Leasing questions.
From both chairs.
Should a tenant really have a lawyer read a commercial lease?
We're signing our first business lease. Where do we start?
Do you help mid-lease, not just at signing?
Which side do you represent?
This is general information, not legal advice. Every situation is different. Reach out to discuss yours.
We respond within one business day.
Tell us a few details about your transaction. A member of the team will follow up with next steps.
A lease on the table?
Landlord drafting from a term sheet, or tenant staring at forty pages of someone else's form: send it over and we'll tell you what it says and what to push on.
Send us the lease