Law Department - Contracts and Real Estate

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	The Contracts and Real Estate Division provides counseling services to City agencies and officials on transactional matters. Division attorneys evaluate and approve City agreements, leases, business documents, and contracts totaling over $9 billion annually. They also structure, negotiate, and draft complex agreements entered into by City agencies. Business and land use restrictions and considerations that do not apply to the private sector can make their work even more complex – for example, the need to award, within certain limits, contracts to the lowest bidder to protect the public interest. Division lawyers are highly trained in regulations and statutes applicable to municipal contracts and real property transactions as well as administration, budget, and public policy concerns and general commercial law.

	What New Attorneys Do Contracts and Real Estate division attorneys counsel City agencies and officials on transactional matters. Division lawyers are highly trained in statutes and regulations applicable to municipal contracts and real property transactions as well as administration, budget, and public policy concerns and general commercial law. A primary responsibility of division attorneys is to review and approve various City agreements and real estate documents for legal sufficiency and compliance with governing statutes and regulations. New attorneys participate in this review and advise agencies on the processes that must be followed to enter into such agreements. New attorneys also assist in drafting various documents that originate in the division and comment on drafts of documents, such as procurement Requests for Proposals, created by other agencies. Finally, the division acts as transactional counsel on special projects at the request of the Mayor’s Oﬃce and city agencies. In doing so, division attorneys structure, negotiate, and draft complex agreements. New attorneys are often asked to conduct legal research and analysis in connection with these agreements.

	View the Law Department's Annual Reports for More Information about the Contracts and Real Estate Division