Real Estate Risk Starts Early—So Should Legal Review

Adam Witt
Partner, Real Estate and Construction

Adam Witt, a partner in the Real Estate and Construction group at Stoel Rives’ San Diego office, shares firsthand insight into the risks of delaying legal involvement in real estate transactions. Drawing from recent client experiences, he explains how waiting too long to bring in counsel can lead to costly and time-consuming fixes that could have been avoided with earlier legal review.

Witt emphasizes the value of proactive collaboration and encourages clients to reach out for early guidance—even if it’s just a quick call. His relationship-driven approach focuses on long-term partnerships rather than maximizing billable hours, with the goal of helping clients make smarter decisions from the outset and avoid preventable legal pitfalls.

Transcript

My name is Adam Witt. I'm a partner in Stoel Rives San Diego office and I am in the real estate and construction group.

I understand that clients like to sometimes wait as long as possible to bring in the lawyers because they feel like they're going to save on costs. But recently I've actually been dealing with a situation, several situations, where they waited too long to bring the lawyers in. They actually went forward with documents without the lawyers and now it's costing maybe twice as much to fix everything and it's taking extra time to do that. So, I always try to work with my clients. I feel like I'm a partner to my clients. So, I'm all about the relationships. I want to build relationships and have long-term relationships with my clients. So, I'm not about maximizing any time that we spend on a deal.

I'm happy to jump in early on. And I recommend to them that they at least bounce ideas off me early on or bounce things off me early on so that I can let them know, hey, you should think about this or you should think about that, and and kind of get everything at least headed in the right direction. So yeah, I always recommend at least a phone call or at least a kind of uh a touch point early on because that can really save a headache down the road of having to fix things or having to redo agreements or try and get things changed. So, yeah, I think it's in everyone interest, even if they may not realize it, to at least reach out early on.