Three Coblentz Attorneys Take Prestigious “Lawyer of the Year” Honors from Best Lawyers

Dec. 7, 2009 - PRLog -- Contacts:                                                                
Melinda Hepp / Traci Stuart            
Blattel Communications            
415.397.4811      
melinda@blattel.com / traci@blattel.com      

Mee Mee Wong
Coblentz, Patch, Duffy & Bass LLP
415.391.4800
mwong@coblentzlaw.com


THREE COBLENTZ ATTORNEYS TAKE PRESTIGIOUS “LAWYER OF THE YEAR” HONORS FROM BEST LAWYERS

COBLENTZ IS ONLY SAN FRANCISCO LAW FIRM WITH THREE “LAWYERS OF THE YEAR”

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 7, 2009 – Best Lawyers, the oldest and most respected peer-review publication in the legal profession, has named Coblentz, Patch, Duffy & Bass LLP Partners William K. Coblentz, Pamela Duffy and William T. Hutton “Lawyers of the Year” for 2010.  The “Lawyer of the Year” honors, introduced in the Bay Area this year, recognize a single lawyer in 16 high-profile legal specialties.  

William Coblentz has been named San Francisco’s Land Use & Zoning Lawyer of the Year.  Duffy is recognized as Real Estate Lawyer of the Year, the only woman to be recognized in California and one of five women nationally in the field of Real Estate. Hutton is the Bay Area’s Tax Lawyer of the Year.  Coblentz is the only firm to see three attorneys named to Best Lawyers’ San Francisco 2010 “Lawyers of the Year” list, which includes only 16 lawyers/practice areas.

“We are extremely proud to see Bill, Pam and Bill receive this remarkable distinction,” says Coblentz, Patch, Duffy & Bass Managing Partner Jeffrey Knowles.  “Recognition as the leading attorney in a practice area is an incredible accomplishment, particularly in a dynamic market like San Francisco, where the legal community is among the strongest in the nation and competition is fierce.  Through our leadership role in some of the largest, most challenging projects in California – a role that spans 100 years and both development and conservation projects, Coblentz’s team has truly earned this honor.”

“We continue to believe – as we have believed for more than 25 years – that recognition by one’s peers is the most meaningful form of praise in the legal profession,” adds Steven Naifeh, Managing Editor of Best Lawyers.  “We would like to congratulate Bill, Pamela and Bill on this achievement.”

The senior partner, Coblentz has more than 50 years of experience counseling and advocating for real estate developers, owners and tenants, representing individuals, businesses and public entities in real estate development projects, assisting in obtaining approvals from administrative and elective bodies, and counseling on a wide range of issues, including regulatory and environmental matters.  Clients have included long-established national developers and retailers, newspapers, foundations, business owners, professionals and celebrities.  Coblentz has been honored as a Best Lawyer since 1983.

A Real Estate & Land Use partner, Duffy focuses on commercial real estate, land use and development, with an emphasis on large public and private entity transactions.  She has played a pivotal role in some of the largest commercial and residential development projects in the Bay Area, including the San Francisco 49ers Stadium, AT&T Park for the San Francisco Giants, the Westfield San Francisco Center, Farallon Capital Partners' (formerly Catellus Development Corporation) 300-acre Mission Bay redevelopment, and eBay’s campus expansion project in San Jose.  She has been recognized by Best Lawyers since 1995.

Hutton is a nationally recognized expert in tax and nonprofit law.  He advises nonprofit organizations, businesses and individuals on a wide range of tax and corporate legal issues, with special expertise in the tax and financial aspects of land preservation.  He provides tax advice to both national conservation organizations and regional land trusts, and counsels individuals and corporations on the income and estate tax consequences of conservation transactions.  A frequent speaker at major national tax conferences, Hutton has taught summer courses to Internal Revenue Service, Justice Department and Treasury attorneys at the national office of the IRS.  He has been listed in Best Lawyers since 1987.

About Best Lawyers

Best Lawyers compiles its lists of outstanding attorneys by conducting exhaustive peer-review surveys in which thousands of leading lawyers confidentially evaluate their professional peers.  The current, 16th edition of The Best Lawyers in America (2010), is based on more than 2.8 million detailed evaluations of lawyers by other lawyers.  The lawyers being honored as “Lawyers of the Year” have received particularly high ratings in our surveys by earning a high level of respect among their peers for their abilities, professionalism, and integrity.

About Coblentz, Patch, Duffy & Bass LLP

Established more than 100 years ago, Coblentz, Patch, Duffy & Bass LLP is a premier provider of innovative, results-oriented legal services focused on the following practice and industry areas: real estate and land use; litigation; corporate, business and intellectual property; estate planning and tax; exempt organizations and charitable planning; and renewable energy and green business.  The firm’s recent successes include the new California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, for which it served as lead counsel, and recognition of Partners Pamela Duffy and Douglas Sands as Dealmakers of the Year for securing a redevelopment agreement to transform parts of the City's historic Presidio into a mixed-use community and national park.  Coblentz, Patch, Duffy & Bass is certified as a green business by the Bay Area Green Business Program.  For more information: www.coblentzlaw.com