A shareholder in the firm, Elizabeth White ("Liz") represents developers, landowners, lenders and community associations in a wide array of commercial transactions and land use matters such as land acquisition, financing, zoning and land use, property management, community development authorities (CDA's), formation and operation of private governance structures such as community associations, leasing, sales, marketing, project registrations and regulatory compliance.
Liz began her career assisting developers, institutional lenders and retailers in drafting and negotiating commercial leases, commercial real estate financing transactions, restructuring commercial loans, and the creation and registration of condominiums and master planned communities (residential and mixed use). During the late 1980's Liz worked closely with Best Products Corporation (a publically traded retailer with mall jewelry stores and general merchandise showrooms nationwide) assisting Best's in-house counsel and real estate team in negotiating leases and land acquisitions for store sites nationwide. She also traveled extensively with Best's site locating team meeting with local government personnel to secure economic incentives and development approvals.
In the economic downturn of the early 1990's, lenders and developers of distressed projects turned to Liz to help turn around, work-out and restructure distressed mixed-use projects, condominiums and planned communities.
Today, she is counsel to national, regional and local developers, lenders, management companies, local governing bodies and community associations. Locally, Liz has assisted with the development, operation and management of master planned residential, mixed use, resort, commercial and "New Urbanism" communities such as Kingsmill on the James (an Anheuser-Busch resort community in Williamsburg, Virginia), NewTown (a large scale mixed-use New Urbanism Community in Williamsburg, Virginia), Villages of Kiln Creek (a large scale mixed-use, golf-centric community in Newport News and York County, Virginia), Stonehouse Preservation (a large scale, conservation themed community in Williamsburg, Virginia), HarborView (a large scale mixed-use, golf-centric community in Suffolk, Virginia) and Warrington Hall (a large scale mixed-use community in Chesapeake, Virginia). She is currently assisting with the development of sustainable communities which integrate and promote the use of alternative energy and similar conservation aspects.
Liz has earned a reputation as the "city attorney for private cities" (i.e. large scale and resort communities many of which have more than 10,000 members). As counsel to common interest communities (both owner and developer controlled), Liz serves communities with a wide variety of amenities, number of units, and organizational structures. She is well known for her unique and progressive approach which emphasizes providing practical business solutions to her community association clients while promoting sound policies and practices to effectively minimize conflict and maximize long term community vitality.
Always out front, Liz has been recognized by her peers as an emerging leader within the legal community and recently chosen by the Community Associations Institute to be a member of its College of Community Association Lawyers. She was named to Virginia Business magazine's "Legal Elite", Inside Business's "Top 40 Under 40" for business people in Southeastern Virginia, and one of the "Influential Women of Virginia" by Virginia Lawyers Media. She has been honored by numerous municipalities and organizations such as the Community Associations Institute for her efforts and commitment to educating citizens about planned communities, common interest communities and community associations. She is a sought after speaker on a local and national level.
Liz leads the firms' nationwide Community Association Industry Team, a multi-specialty group comprised of attorneys within the firm who either dedicate a significant portion of their law practice to advising clients on common interest community matters or who practice within other specialty areas (such as hospitality and tourism, labor and employment, land-use and zoning, environmental compliance, trademark and insurance) which are of interest to the developers, community associations, management companies and lenders for common interest communities. Liz teaches the law school course "Community Association Law" at the College of William & Mary Law School, which is the first course on the topic of community association law taught in a Virginia law school and one of only a few taught nationwide.