Michael E. Scheinberg joined the firm in 1989 and is a partner in the firm’s real estate department.

Mr. Scheinberg’s practice focuses on commercial real estate transactions, including private equity, restructurings, development, loan origination and workouts, joint ventures, acquisitions and dispositions as well as leasing.

Jay Newman joined The Athens Group in 2000 as Chief Operating Officer where he focuses on the company’s financial affairs and development opportunities. He has more than 32 years of experience in commercial real estate including development along with entitlements and design, acquisitions, joint ventures, finance and dispositions. Jay is primarily responsible for managing the acquisition and financing of many of The Athens Group's projects including the raising of equity capital. In addition, Jay was primarily responsible for the development and financing of the mixed-use Montage Beverly Hills in California and the acquisition, re-entitlement and redesign of the West Hollywood mixed-use Edition project and is currently engaged in the planning and entitlement for the re-development of the Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica.

In 1993, Jay was one of the founding members of the national real estate law firm of Pircher, Nichols & Meeks based in Los Angeles where he was a managing partner and a real estate transactional attorney. In 1995, he joined Highridge Partners in Los Angeles as Senior Vice President of the Summit Commercial Properties Division, where he focused on the purchasing, repositioning, leasing, management and sale of shopping centers and office buildings on both a one-off and portfolio basis. Jay was one of the founders of Lend Lease Development (US) in 1996, where he focused on the development of resorts (including The Ritz-Carlton in Half Moon Bay, California), shopping centers and office buildings. As Senior Vice President of Lend Lease Real Estate Investments, Inc., and a member of the Lend Lease Lodging Group, he focused on the development of new hotels and resorts throughout the United States and was primarily responsible for the creation of the Resort Development Program.

Jay received his undergraduate degree in applied economics (summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa) from the University of California at Berkeley in 1978, and his MBA and Juris Doctorate degree from Stanford University in 1982. He is a guest lecturer at the UCLA School of Public Policy and Planning and a frequent speaker at ULI, Meet the Money, Bisnow, the Southern California Development Forum and CLE International. Jay sits on the Board of Directors and Executive Committee for the Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce, the Board of Directors of the Beverly Hills Conference and Visitors Bureau, and the Board of Directors of Beverly Hills Rotary. Jay is also actively involved in Imagine LA. Jay and his family reside in Los Angeles, California.

Michael Homeier practices in the area of general business, corporate, transactional, and business financing law. With nearly 25 years' experience in the corporate and business transactional field, both as in-house corporate counsel and with private law firms, Michael's practice emphasizes the drafting, negotiation, and review of contracts, including commercial contracts, financing agreements, factoring packages, intellectual property licensing agreements, new media, technology, and commercial contracts, and entertainment industry agreements for both production houses and industry professionals. An integral part of Michael's practice includes a comprehensive ""entity practice"" involved with the formation, maintenance, and dissolution of corporations and limited liability companies, both in the for-profit and non-profit sector.

Prior to his co-founding of Homeier & Law, P.C., Michael practiced business, contract, corporate, and securities law both as in-house counsel for large public companies (including Countrywide and Herbalife) and private enterprises, and in association or as of-counsel to prominent Los Angeles law firms such as Ball Hunt Hart Brown & Baerwitz (now part of Carlsmith Ball) and Wasserman Comden & Casselman. In the past, Michael has also garnered invaluable experience on the opposite end of the ""size spectrum,"" working with a sole practitioner in a combined business and civil litigation practice assisting small- and medium-sized clients, where Michael authored and then argued two published, precedent-setting appeals cases, Matthews v. Regents of the University of California (34 Cal. App. 4th 598) concerning workplace sexual harassment, and Jenkins v. Inglewood Unified School District (34 Cal. App. 4th 1388) regarding breach of a school district employment contract.

In addition to numerous engagements as a university law professor, Michael also actively participates in public speaking engagements, both in the business financing and business law arenas, and as an inspirational speaker to teenaged and young adult cancer survivors on post-treatment life success.

Michael received his J.D. from University of Southern California and his B.A. from The University of California, Los Angeles. Michael is a member of the State Bar of California.

Rich Brand is the firm’s San Francisco Managing Partner and head of the Sports practice group. He focuses on sports law, real estate and corporate transactions, e-commerce, hospitality and leisure, and partnership and corporate law.

Rich is recognized as a leading sports attorney by Chambers USA and Legal 500 and as a leading real estate attorney by Best Lawyers. As noted by Chambers USA, “he is highly regarded for his expertise in representing both sellers and purchasers of sports teams” and “he brings tons of experience, and good business sense to the deal table.”

Rich speaks extensively on many aspects of sports, real estate and hospitality law at major industry conferences. He is frequently featured on the Yes Network’s Forbes SportsMoney sports talk show and has appeared on CNN, Fox Sports and other national video/television/radio programs. Rich is also an adjunct professor at Stanford Law School and UC Berkeley School of Law, where he leads seminars on sports law transactions. Rich regularly guest lectures at prominent undergraduate and graduate Sports Administration programs.

Mr. Robert Sonnenblick, Principal of Sonnenblick, LLC, is a graduate of the Wharton School of Finance of the University of Pennsylvania with more than 30 years of experience in various aspects of real estate and real estate finance. From 1981 to 1991 Mr. Sonnenblick was the driving force and power behind Sonnenblick-Goldman Corporation of California. Mr. Sonnenblick completed over $1.5 Billion of commercial real estate transactions on the West Coast and as a result is regarded as one of the West Coast’s leaders in the field of commercial real estate. Among the more notable projects for which Mr. Sonnenblick personally structured the financing for are The Beaudry Center, Los Angeles, California ($197 million), the Ritz Carlton Hotel, Pasadena, California ($97 million), One Waterfront Plaza, Honolulu, Hawaii ($100 million), and the Los Angeles World Trade Center, Los Angeles, California ($55 million).

In 1991 Mr. Sonnenblick was appointed Director of Development for the New Jersey and L.A. MetroMalls, with the responsibility for oversight and direction of the design, financing and leasing programs for two proposed $250 million enclosed regional malls totaling 1.2 million Sq. Ft. each. Mr. Sonnenblick personally oversaw more than 1 million Sq. Ft. of leases in connection with this position as well as arranging the necessary debt and equity financing. The New Jersey project opened to one of the strongest starts in the history of the United States mall industry. In addition, Mr. Sonnenblick was an original development partner of the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel. This 360-room, $90 million hotel was recently sold for $125 million.

Prior to forming Sonnenblick Development, LLC, Mr. Sonnenblick was the senior partner in a Los Angeles-based real estate development firm (Sonnenblick Del Rio Development) which specialized in public-private partnerships, specifically the development of four major government-leased office buildings throughout the Los Angeles basin. During this tenure, Mr. Sonnenblick successfully developed nearly 1 million square feet of government leased buildings, occupied by such tenants as U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services and Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services.

Mr. Sonnenblick is a frequent speaker at various real estate-related functions, such as those hosted by Deloitte Touche, ICSC, Value Retail News, Crittenden, USC, UCLA Real Estate Program, IMN Real Estate Conferences and the Institute for International Research, The Opal Group, iGlobal Forum Group, Globe Street/Realshare Conferences and Bloomberg Conferences.

Mr. Sonnenblick is a member of the Advisory Board of the Golf Development Institute, a member of the Board of Real Estate Council of the Century City Chamber of Commerce and is a published author on subjects ranging from architecture to general real estate market conditions. In addition to Mr. Sonnenblick’s expertise in development, finance, joint ventures and equity structuring, Mr. Sonnenblick has also been certified as an expert in the area of real estate bankruptcy/foreclosure. Mr. Sonnenblick is a qualified expert witness in the area of Commercial Real Estate Finance and Interest Rates for the United States Federal Court System in numerous jurisdictions.

Maki Nakamura Bara, President & Co-Founder of The Chartres Lodging Group, LLC and Chairman of the Board for affiliated management company, Sightline Hospitality, is a leading expert in investing in and repositioning urban hotels and resorts. Since the formation of Chartres Lodging in 2002, she has acquired and repositioned approximately $5 billion of lodging assets in the U.S. and Japan and completed more than $1 billion in the redevelopment of these assets. In recognition of her extensive experience in the lodging sector, particularly in acquisitions, asset management, development management and her role in the growth of the two companies, Ms. Nakamura Bara was recognized as the top "40 Under 40" by M&A Advisor, received the ''Best Executive" Stevie Award for Women in Business, was named a "Woman of Influence” in commercial real estate by Real Estate Southern California magazine, was a three-time honoree of Bisnow’s Power Women LA and recently honored as one of Hotel Management’s 2021 Influential Women in Hospitality. She is also a frequent speaker at various industry conferences. Ms. Nakamura Bara’s previous experience includes participating in the formation and growth of the lodging activities of Lend Lease Real Estate and Strategic Hotel Capital. She has also worked at Oxford Capital Partners, Inc. and PricewaterhouseCoopers in the hospitality consulting division. Ms. Nakamura Bara is a graduate of UCLA and is fluent in spoken Japanese.

As President and Principal at Kor, Brian De Lowe leads corporate strategy and the sourcing and execution of real estate acquisitions. Brian is also President and Co-Founder of Proper Hospitality. Since 2004, Brian has successfully closed over $1 billion of acquisitions and dispositions of multifamily and hospitality real estate assets. Prior to re-joining Kor, Brian was the Vice President of Business Development for Viceroy Hotel Group, where he oversaw the company’s acquisitions and business development activity in the Americas. He previously served as Development Director at both Viceroy and Kor, leading the acquisition, development and redevelopment of real estate assets in the U.S. and Latin America. Brian started his career in the Debt & Structured Finance group of Buchanan Street Partners. He is a graduate of the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business, where he graduated magna cum laude.