Experienced Legal Services to the LGBT Community

Other bloggers from time to time hawk their products, so I figured I'd do a marketing post for the type of legal work that I can provide to members of the LGBT community who want an experienced, openly gay lawyer. Therefore, here's a run down of what types of work my practice includes. Anyone interested in legal services can e-mail me directly or via the firm website at http://www.hamarlaw.com/. Here's the summary of services:

Residential Real Estate: The firm routinely provides residential real estate services that have included:
· settlement services for hundreds of residential real estate transactions
· document preparation involved, but not been limited to, the preparation of documents ranging from residential purchase agreements, mortgage loan packages, deeds and deeds of trust, leases
· lease preparation and landlord/tenant advise
· boundary line agreements and assorted easement agreements
· document preparation services to local title insurance settlement agencies.

Commercial Real Estate: In the area of commercial real estate transactions, the firm handles:
· large numbers of commercial loan transactions secured by real estate holdings
· restructuring problem loans
· commercial real estate acquisitions and sales, ranging in size from single convenience stores to multiple television stations
· condominium law matters
· tax-exempt financing for the acquisition and construction of manufacturing facilities, solid waste disposal facilities
· tax-exempt and low income housing tax credit financing for multifamily housing facilities and elderly housing projects.

Corporate and Business Transactions: The firm has 30 years of experience in performing legal services for banking, commercial and corporate practice transactions, and has a recognized specialty practice in taxable and tax-exempt bond finance work. Among the areas where clients are provided experienced assistance are:
· Formation and administration of corporations and limited liability companies
· General and limited partnership formation and administration
· Business acquisitions and sales, including stock sales and asset sales
· Commercial real estate transactions, including acreage acquisition and subdivision matters
· Complex business finance transactions
· Low income housing tax credit financing under Section 42 IRC
· Tax exempt bond finance for manufacturing, air cargo and qualified housing projects

Estate Planning and Non-Traditional Family Law: The likewise has experience in assisting clients in preparing estate planning and related documents. In light of Virginia's "Marriage Amendment," there are some basic documents and steps that every unmarried couple, same-sex couple or not, should have prepared and duly signed. These include, but are not limited to:
· Wills - A will specifies how you wish your property to be distributed upon your death. In a will, you designate the person you wish to handle your estate -- your spouse, partner or another individual.
· Trust Agreements - A properly established and funded trust avoids publicly probating assets owned by the trust at the time of one’s death and is more difficult to challenge in court than a will. In addition, a trust can provide beneficiaries with creditor protection in certain circumstances.
· Medical Power of Attorney - A medical power of attorney allows one’s spouse, partner or other party to make medical decisions on one’s behalf in the event one is not able to do so due to in-competency or other incapacity. Properly drafted, a health care power of attorney can also ensure hospital visitation rights to the designated attorney-in-fact.
· Advanced Medical Directive - § 54.1-2983 of the Virginia Code provides that any mentally competent adult may, at any time, make a written advance directive (i) authorizing the providing, withholding or withdrawal of life-prolonging procedures in the event such person should have a terminal condition, and (ii) appointing an agent to make health care decisions for the declarant under the circumstances stated in the advance directive if the declarant should be determined to be incapable of making an informed decision.
· General/Business Power of Attorney - This form of power of attorney allows a member of either an unmarried couple or a same-sex couple to authorize their partner to handle their financial affairs in the event of disability or unavailability.

Firm experience in providing legal services concerning unmarried and gay relationship issues, also includes:
· property co-ownership and/or co-tenancy agreements
· equity sharing agreements
· the formation of contract based domestic partnerships and dissolution of the same
· parenting agreements and powers of attorney concerning non-adoptive minor children.

Gay Lawyers Come Out as Clients Demand More Diversity

Via the Washington Blade, I found this business news story in the Chicago Tribune (http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-070607gay-lawyers-story,0,5667399.story?coll=chi-bizfront-hed)Gay. Would that there were progressive firms like some of the ones named in the article in this area. I guess we simply do not have any "elite firms" in the area:

"Today, elite law firms are behaving as good elites should," says Keith Wetmore, 50, a gay lawyer who is chairman of the San Francisco-based firm Morrison & Foerster LLP. "They've become culturally sensitive."The number of openly gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered lawyers increased by more than 50 percent from 2002 to 2006, according to the National Association for Law Placement.

The Washington-based nonprofit group compiles an annual directory of data from about 700 large U.S. law firms. They reported 1,733 openly gay lawyers in 2006, up from about 1,100 four years earlier. Openly gay lawyers represent 1.8 percent of associates and 1.1 percent of partners.

The increase is driven partly by corporate clients, says Jeff Morof, managing partner of Bryan Cave's Chicago office. More than a dozen have asked the firm for a commitment to diversity, which Bryan Cave defines as hiring without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, age, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability."

In the last few years, clients are paying a lot more attention to diversity," says Morof, 52, who has recruited gays and lesbians since 1999 for Bryan Cave, which has 735 lawyers. "We couldn't afford to go on doing business as usual."Many Fortune 500 companies now demand diversity. In 2003, Sara Lee Corp., of Downers Grove, Illinois, began tracking its law firms' hiring and promotion of women and minorities. General Counsel Roderick Palmore wrote a statement encouraging all U.S. law firms and corporate counsel to commit to diversity.

That "call to action" has been signed by more than 90 companies, including New York-based Verizon Communications Inc., the second-biggest U.S. phone company, and Bentonville, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer.

Part of this area's problem is (1) a lack of large Fortune 500 companies based in the area, (2) the presence of Christianist like Pat Robertson and the kool-aid drinkers at Regent University, and (3) the homophobic military leadership in the area. Of course, it's a vicious cycle - the absence of diversity discourages progressive companies from moving to the area. Hopefully, HRBOR's creation and future efforts will help to better market the area.