29th Annual Advanced Real Estate Seminar 2025

Webcast:

10 minutes prior to seminar. If you register for a webcast the day of the seminar, your e-mail receipt will include a link to launch the seminar and download the materials.

Telephone:

Online registration ends at 11:59 p.m. the day preceding the seminar
Call (800) 979-8253 to register up to one hour prior to the seminar

Live on Site:

Online registration ends at 11:59 p.m. the day preceding the seminar
Walk-in registration is permitted on a space-available basis

Neighbor Law
John Altmiller, Robert Hawthorne, Jr.

Disputes between neighbors can be particularly challenging for the real estate practitioner. In addition to being emotionally fraught, these cases often involve nuanced—and occasionally contradictory—legal doctrines. This session will look at the many different types of claims that can arise between neighbors in a variety of contexts throughout the Commonwealth, including urban, suburban, and rural settings. The session will discuss many of the issues and claims that arise in neighboring disputes, including adverse possession, encroaching trees and plants, trespass and nuisance, express and implied easements, boundary disputes, division fences, and ejectment

Deeds and Misdeeds—The Intersection of Death, Estate Planning, and Real Estate
Susanna Hickman, Alison Zizzo

This session will provide insight into various real estate issues that can arise during the estate planning process and death. We will cover tips and tricks to avoid sticky situations with real property, including ensuring proper titling, misdeemed property, life estate issues, the power of sale versus the direction to sell, and intestacy. The session will aim to streamline property transfers after death to avoid expensive and time-consuming litigation.

Land Use Litigation from Three Different Perspectives: Land Use Counsel, Litigation Counsel, and the Local Government Attorney
Mary Catherine Gibbs, Curt G. Spear, Jr.,  Matthew A. Westover

In this session we will discuss recurring issues in land use litigation, like standing for plaintiffs and the various challenges brought by parties seeking to overturn local government approvals. Advanced topics will be covered, including the defenses available to localities and land use applicants, as well as ways to prepare a land use application to protect against challenges.

Virginia Ethics for Real Estate Lawyers in 2025
Renu Brennan, Emily Hedrick

This session will address hot topics, including due diligence on clients and matters, cybersecurity, wire fraud, and effective use of AI in your practice. It will review the application of the Virginia Rules of Professional Conduct, Legal Ethics Opinions, and recent disciplinary cases relevant to real estate law.

Mission Accomplished: Transiting the Minefield of Real Property Law and Military Rights and Benefits
Dwain Alexander

This presentation will discuss federal and state laws that attorneys practicing property law need to be aware of in evaluating the process and potential challenges associated in transactions with military personnel. It will provide an overview of the scale of the military presence in Virginia, and the demands on military life on servicemembers; it will review and explain important provisions of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) as it applies to property law; it will identify unique provisions in Virginia law that provide similar protections in addition to the SCRA for the National Guard and Servicemembers; and it will discuss the enforcement of violations of the SCRA.

Laws protecting military personnel have existed since 1918. These laws evolve and adjust with each new conflict to reflect the challenges of providing a ready, able, and focused fighting force to defend the interests of the United States. The laws provide rights and benefits that protect Active Duty personnel, Reservists, National Guard, and in some cases their family members. Collectively these laws address everything from civil service of process to default judgments; interest rates to foreclosures and repossessions; and termination of services for both personal and professional activities of covered personnel. Because of the size and integrated presence of the military Virginia, these laws present a potential minefield for the unaware practitioner.

Tax Planning for Commercial Real Estate Transactions
Brandon S. Allred, Louis Rogers, L. Scott Seymour

This session will cover various strategies for tax planning and deferral in the context of commercial real estate transactions. Topics to be discussed include the use of UPREIT and IRC Section 721 structures, installment sales, and IRC Section 1031 transactions and Delaware Statutory Trust vehicles to defer tax on the sale of commercial real estate assets and optimizing tax depreciation through cost segregation analysis. The presentation will also include an update on Opportunity Zones and related tax benefits for real estate investment in those areas.