This year marks the 50th anniversary of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) U.S. Law Conference. The conference provides retail real estate legal professionals the opportunity to gain industry-specific knowledge and insight from leading authorities and network with industry peers. The conference is October 14th - 16th and features various sessions and workshops for the retail and real estate legal community. 

Real Estate attorney, David Rabinowitz is co-chair of the ICSC 2020 Conference. Several other Goulston & Storrs attorneys are speaking during the conference.

Workshop: Breaking Up is Hard to Do — Successfully Managing Your Joint Venture Through Market Cycles (and Unprecedented Global Pandemics)
Date & Time: Thursday, October 15, 11:00am - 12:15pm
G&S Speaker: Martin Fantozzi
The facilitators of this session include a transactional attorney who has regularly counselled participants in forming joint ventures and a litigator who has represented developers and investors when things have not gone as planned. They will lead an interactive discussion and offer insights on how parties can minimize the potential for future disputes, and litigation, to arise during the negotiation of the joint venture agreement. Additional topics include exit strategies, major decision clauses, transfer rights and other provisions in joint venture agreements that are critical in navigating the venture through the ups and downs of market cycles.

Session: Turn, Turn, Turn — There is a Reason and a Time to Every Repurpose of a Shopping Center
Date & Time: Thursday, October 15, 12:30pm - 1:45pm
G&S Speaker: Melissa Rivers
Using hypothetical scenarios, this session will consider the challenges of revitalizing a shopping center.  The speakers will discuss changes of tenant mix and uses and identify the concerns of both developers and tenants when an overhaul is being proposed.

Seminar: Covid-19 from a Transactional Perspective: When Force Majeure Proves Inferior — Lessons from a Pandemic That Burned through Contract Boilerplate
Date & Time: Thursday, October 15, 2:30pm - 3:45pm
G&S Speaker: Derek Domian
Once contract boilerplate — rarely negotiated and almost never invoked — by April 2020, the force majeure clauses found in leases were thrust to the center of the retail universe. The questions abounded: Did they cover a novel viral outbreak? If so, what relief did they offer? If not, what other relief might landlords and tenants grab onto in the COVID-19 maelstrom?

This seminar will be presented from a transactional perspective, covering the hard lessons learned from the pandemic, from the limitations of force majeure boilerplate to drafting tips for today’s force majeure clauses to the role the common law doctrines of “impossibility” and “frustration of purpose” play, and don’t play, in unprecedented times.

Workshop: It's 2020, How Exclusive Are We? — Navigating Exclusive Use Restrictions
Date & Time: Friday, October 16, 11:00am - 12:15pm
G&S Speaker: Cristina Addy
This workshop will focus on the dos and don’ts of negotiating exclusive uses in retail leases and what to do when they go too far — balancing the competing interests of landlords and tenants to the benefit of both parties.