Drinker Biddle Adds Real Estate Partners To Its San Francisco Office

Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP today welcomes two new West Coast partners to its national real estate practice:  Donald D. Archer and Sara Hansen Wilson.  The pair, formerly with DLA Piper US LLP, are joining Drinker Biddle’s growing San Francisco office. 

 “We are thrilled to have lawyers of the caliber of Don and Sara join us,” said Drinker Biddle Chairman Alfred W. Putnam, Jr.  “Their addition to our San Francisco office is a key part of our strategy in expanding and diversifying our West Coast presence beyond our significant litigation, products liability, and labor and employment practices.” 

 Drinker Biddle’s real estate practice now counts more than 60 lawyers nationwide, including the recent addition of several new lawyers in the firm’s Wilmington, Del., office.  In addition, there are currently nearly 40 lawyers in the Bay Area, a number that Regional Partner in Charge Steven Selna is expecting to increase. 

 “Our San Francisco office has been growing here since 2002, when we combined with Preuss Shanagher,” said Selna.  “Our lawyers have deep roots in the Bay Area and Drinker Biddle offers them a significant national platform to serve clients both locally, in California and across the country.” 

Archer’s practice covers a broad range of real estate and transactional matters.  His real estate practice encompasses the development, purchase and sale, and management of commercial, retail and multifamily projects, as well as the representation of landlords and tenants in retail and commercial office leasing matters.  Archer also has represented companies in a wide variety of transactional matters, including mergers and acquisitions, software and intellectual property licensing, and magazine, book and web publishing.  He practiced for more than 20 years at Steinhart & Falconer LLP, joining DLA Piper five years ago.  He earned his J.D. from Yale Law School and received an A.B. from the University of Chicago, with general and special honors, Phi Beta Kappa. 

Wilson focuses her practice almost exclusively on real estate transactions and retail leasing, representing landlords and tenants in regional shopping centers, a variety of clients in the purchase and sale of property, and borrowers and lenders in loan transactions that are secured by real estate.  She earned her J.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law, where she was Order of the Coif.  She received her bachelor’s degree from Williams College, cum laude, with honors in economics.