La Cañada Flintridge resident Norma Williams, commercial real estate attorney and founder of Williams & Associates law firm, has been named the Outstanding Real Estate Lawyer by the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Real Property Section.
Chosen for her extensive background in commercial real estate law and her contributions to the commercial real estate legal community, Williams will accept her honor at the 2023 Real Property Installation and Awards Dinner slated for May 23 at the Indigo Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. Williams was 2006-2007 chair of the Real Property Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association and a 2007-2010 trustee of the Association.
“This richly deserved award recognizes Williams’ tireless commitment to her commercial real estate clients in Los Angeles, throughout the state of California and across the country,” said Rachel Sanders, chair of LACBA’s Real Property Section, “all while serving as a leader in educating, mentoring and raising the bar of excellence amongst her legal peers in the commercial real estate industry.”
A prolific contributor to the profession, Williams has maintained a sophisticated transactional commercial real estate law practice in a small-firm environment. She is a frequent speaker and author and has held leadership positions in major local, state and national real estate bar associations.
Williams represents parties in financing, purchase and sale, and leasing transactions. She has worked on transactions involving all California commercial real estate asset classes, including shopping centers, office complexes, land, multi-family housing, industrial facilities, hotels, entertainment venues and mixed-use facilities. She has maintained an institutional-client base involved in high-profile and other transactions, including corporate headquarters; bank branches; acquisitions of initial, largest or iconic assets in geographical regions; portfolio sales of real estate assets; and tax credit financing for school and entertainment complexes, as well as representation in shopping center acquisitions involving major sports and entertainment figures.
She has also represented middle-market companies, entrepreneurs and high-net-worth individuals. Williams practiced in-house with a national bank and with large law firms including Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison, Arter & Hadden and Reed Smith (formerly Crosby, Heafey, Roach & May) and has maintained the same level of transaction sophistication in her private practice.
In addition to having served in the Real Property Section of LACBA, Williams is an active member of the American College of Mortgage Attorneys, where she is currently the California state chair, and of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers, where she is currently on the Member Selection Committee. She has also been selected as a member of the American Law Institute and was an active member of Executive Committee of the Real Property Section of the State Bar of California, participating in continuing legal education and legislative activities.
Williams is a frequent speaker on real estate law topics and has published more than 50 articles and course materials. She chaired a blue-ribbon committee of the California State Bar Real Property Section that re-drafted California’s assignment of rents law (Civil Code Section 2938), a three-year effort that was later used as the model for the national Uniform Assignment of Rents Act. Williams also participated in the drafting of UARA. Since 2015, Williams published an annual article on California legislative developments affecting commercial real estate effective Jan. 1.
Williams’ other honors have included the inaugural “Excellence in Practice” Award from the Solo and Small Firms Section of the California Lawyers Association (2019), “Outstanding Entrepreneur Award” from United States Small Business Administration et al (2016) and selection by Commercial Real Estate Women-Los Angeles as one of its “Women at the Top” (2011).
Williams was the 2020-2022 co-chair of the Program Committee of the Southern California Chapter of Private Directors Association, dedicated to excellence in private company board governance. She became a member of the Board of California Hospital Medical Foundation, a Dignity Health Hospital, in September 2022 and is a current mentor to start-up companies, including those in proptech.
“I am humbled to receive this honor from my peers in the real property section,” said Williams. “It inspires me to work even harder for the profession.”
First published in the May 11 print issue of the Outlook Valley Sun.
