Kratovil Conference on Real Estate Law & Practice

The Kratovil Conference on Real Estate Law & Practice (the "Kratovil") was established in 1994 to honor the memory of Robert Kratovil, the Dean of the Chicago's real estate attorneys who served as Chicago Title's Chief Underwriter before ending his career as a member of The Marshall Law School's Faculty. The Kratovil have been important in the Center's mission of research and scholarship about the field. The Kratovil brings together leading scholars, practitioners and industry professionals to consider cutting-edge issues important to commercial real estate attorneys, their clients and our society.

On Tuesday, September 20, 2011, the Center for Real Estate Law at John Marshall in Chicago held the 12th Kratovil Conference on Real Estate Law & Practice: 40th Anniversary Quiet Revolution in Zoning and Land Use Regulation.  In 1971, the President’s Council on Environmental Quality published The Quiet Revolution in Land Use Control (The Quiet Revolution). The book described in detail the innovative land use laws in nine states around the nation which returned the control of land use to a state or regional level, largely at the expense of local zoning. This constituted the “quiet revolution.” The Kratovil Quiet Revolution Conference brought together national scholars and experts in land use to analyze the lasting land use impact of The Quiet Revolution in several jurisdictions around the country. In the afternoon, experts analyzed the future of land use policy and how this national issue will play out around the country and in the Chicago region.

The 11th Kratovil Conference on Real Estate Law & Practice was held on November 20, 2009.  The topic of the Kratovil was "Water as a Resource:  Impact on Real Estate Ownership, Development, and Land Use Policy."  The conference featured academic speakers Lincoln Davies, assistant professor at University of Utah; Sara Gosman, lecturer at University of Michigan Law School; Julian Juergensmeyer, professor of law at Georgia State University Law; and Praveen Kumar, professor of civil engineering at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The conference also featured an extensive industry and practitioner panel, moderated by conference consultant Virginia Harding, counsel at Gould & Ratner LLP. The conference addressed the relationship between water shortages and the development, use, and ownership of real estate.

Academics presented scholarship on issues such as the Great Lakes Compact, impact fees and land use solution to allocating scarce water, hydrological considerations (such as watershed location) in the allocation of water, smart growth and economic solutions to water allocation. Scholarship from the Kratovil Conference will be memorialized in a winter Symposium Issue of The John Marshall Law Review.  The 11th Kratovil Conference Sponsors were: The Alvin H. Baum Family Fund, Chicago Title Insurance Company, and the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The Reception Sponsor was Sheldon Good & Company, and Supporters included Holland & Knight and Arnstein and Lehr.

In 2007, the topic of the Kratovil was "Commercial Lease Transactions: The Lifeblood of the
Real Estate Industry".  The 2007 Kratovil was based upon the premise that landlords, tenants, lenders and their attorneys are evaluating and negotiating commercial leases from a new perspective. Commercial leases have been described as the lifeblood of the transaction by those that develop, finance, own, lease and occupy office buildings and shopping centers. Without signed leases and the promised income projects do not go forward and existing projects go into default.

Daniel B. Bogart, Donley and Marjorie Bollinger Chair in Real Estate, Land Use and Environmental Law, Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Land Resources, Chapman University School of Law in Orange County, California gave the keynote address which considered Good Faith and Fair Dealing in Commercial Leases. The John Marshall Law Review published Professor Bogart's article "The Right Doctrine in the Wrong Transaction: Good Faith and Fair Dealing in Commercial Leasing" in its 2008 Vol. 41 issue.

Professor Bogart began his career in Atlanta with a practice that specialized in real estate transactions, and his scholarly and teaching interests continue this transactional focus. Professor Bogart served for a number of years as the Editor of the Keeping Current (Property) column in Probate and Property, the bimonthly magazine of the ABA's Section on Real Property, Probate and Trust Law. He is chair-elect of the Real Estate Transactions Section of the American Association of Law Schools.

As Director of the Center for Land Resources at Chapman University, Bogart develops programs that connect land use, environmental law and real estate transactions. He began his teaching career in 1990 at Drake University Law School. He joined the Chapman Law School faculty in 1998. He received his B.A., J.D. and M.A in Economics from Duke University.

Continuing a long standing Kratovil tradition, a panel of practitioners with Victoria "Vickie"S. Berghel, CBL & Associates Properties, Inc (Chattanooga, TN), moderating considered leases and lease transactions from a variety of perspectives. Panel members included Virginia M. Harding, Gould & Ratner LLP, Janet M Johnson, Schiff Hardin, LLP, Ronald R. Pollina, Ph.D., Pollina Corporate Real Estate, Inc. and David Alan Richards, McCarter & English LLP (New York, NY).

The 2007 Kratovil received support from Fidelity National Financial, Chicago Title Insurance Company, the law firms of Quarles & Brady LLP and Schiff Hardin LLP, and from Sheldon Good & Company.

The 2006 Kratovil considered "The Takings Clause Clarified by the U.S. Supreme Court in Lingle v. Chevron: Regulations, Exactions and Eminent Domain." Professor David Callies, holder of the Benjamin A. Kudo Chair (land use law) at the University of Hawaii's Richardson School of Law gave the keynote address. His presentation, "Legitimate State Interest Test and Unconstitutional Conditions after Lingle v. Chevron," provided the basis for discussion by an academic panel and by a panel of practitioners.  The John Marshall Law Reviewpublished Professor Callies article "The Status of Nollan v. California Coastal Commission and Dolan v. City of Tigard after Lingle v. Chevron U.S.A., Inc." in its Winter 2007 Vol 40, No. 2 edition.

Professor Susan Connor (The John Marshall Law School) moderated the academic panel comprised of Professor Richard Epstein (University of Chicago Law), Professor Dale Whitman (University of Missouri - Columbia School of Law) and Professor Richard Green (then associate dean of Graduate Business Programs at George Washington University). Each member of this panel gave a presentation which approached the matter of takings from another perspective.  The John Marshall Law Review published Professor Richard Epstein's article "From Penn Central to Lingle:  The Long Backwards Road" and Professor David Whitman's article "Deconstrucing Lingle:  Implications for Takings Doctrine" in its Winter 2007 Vol 40, No. 2 edition.

The practitioners panel, moderated by Virginia M. Harding (Gould & Ratner LLP), was comprised of Paul Carroll (Gould & Ratner LLP), John Lawlor, (Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP) and Sanford Stein (Drinker Biddle Gardner Carton). Panelists commented on takings and regulatory takings in particular, in light of their experiences as land use attorneys and litigators.

The 2006 Kratovil received support from Bank of America, Fidelity National Financial, the law firms of Drinker Biddle Gardner Carton LLP, Gould & Ratner LLP, Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP, and from the Illinois Association of Realtors and the National Association of Realtors.

For more information about the Center for Real Estate Law, please contact us with a specific question or request information.