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.