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Weintraub Tobin Announces Founding Partnership with the Newly Launched Southern California Builders Exchange

Published: March 18, 2026

Weintraub Tobin is proud to announce its role as a founding partner of the newly launched Southern California Builders Exchange (SoCal BX), an expansion of the Golden State Builders Exchange Network. The Network represents more than 18,300 commercial construction–related companies across California and now extends its reach through SoCal BRX to serve members in Imperial, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties.

As a founding partner, Weintraub Tobin joins SoCal BX in its mission to strengthen and support the commercial construction community throughout Southern California. SoCal BX provides one of the most extensive online plan room services in the state; delivers advocacy for the industry at the local, regional, and state levels; and offers a wide range of networking and business development opportunities. The organization further supports its members by providing essential educational resources and safety training, and by partnering with the Construction Industry Education Foundation to prepare and inspire the next generation of professionals in the built environment.

Weintraub Tobin’s engagement with the Builders Exchange community spans many years. Within the Sacramento Regional Builders Exchange (SRBX), Shareholders Jessica Robison and Daniel Steinberg served on the SRBX Legal Committee (now a part of the broader Government Affairs and Political Action Committee). Jessica also served on the SRBX Women in Construction Conference Planning Committee and is now a founding board member of SoCal BX. The firm’s Construction team is excited to expand its support of the Builders Exchange mission—not only within the Sacramento region, but now across Southern California.

Tenant’s Overlooked Risk: Landlord Default

Published: February 5, 2026

by Mark E. Ellinghouse
Real Estate Legal Updates

In the balance of power between landlords and tenants, the risk of default is usually higher for the tenant. While many landlords have accrued wealth and invested in low-risk assets, many tenants are embarking on a new business venture with the hopes of starting the next billion-dollar enterprise. Conventional wisdom holds that 9 out of every 10 of these ventures will fail. Commercial leases reflect this imbalance, providing a laundry-list of protections for the landlord to address a potential tenant default without giving as much attention to the risk of a landlord default.

CRE Alert: California Case Law Changes Requirements for Three-Day Notices

Published: July 18, 2025

by Alison E. Geddes
Real Estate Legal Updates

The recent California appellate court decision Eshagian v. Cepeda has added a new requirement to the already detailed rules surrounding Three-Day Notices—documents landlords must serve before initiating eviction proceedings. In order to obtain a judgment evicting a tenant, California laws must be strictly followed. This new requirement adds another procedural trap for the unwary that may hinder a landlord’s ability to take back its space if it is not adequately addressed.

State of the CRE Market: Industrial Sector Remains Strong Amid General Volatility

Published: June 24, 2025

by Mark E. Ellinghouse
Real Estate Legal Updates

In the NBC Show “30 Rock,” Tina Fey’s character, Liz Lemon, remarks to her boss Jack Donaghy (played by Alec Baldwin), “What a week, huh?” He promptly replies, “Lemon, it’s Wednesday.” This sentiment summarizes the mood of a lot of us lately, as current events seem to be throwing new twists and turns at a breakneck pace. In just half a year, we’ve seen multiple armed conflicts, international trade wars, persistent inflation, political assassinations, confrontational protests and riots, and devastating natural disasters. These incidents have led to significant volatility in the stock market and a general feeling of uncertainty among consumers both domestically and abroad.

California Cracks Down on Contractor Licensing Violations

Published: February 26, 2025

by Dustin Amrein
Real Estate Legal Updates

The California Contractors State License Board (CSLB) has long warned against the dangers of “renting” a qualifier—where a licensed individual allows their name and license to be used by a construction company without actually overseeing its operations. This practice has not only led to a rise in consumer complaints but has also drawn increased scrutiny from regulators.

With recent amendments to the law, California has strengthened its enforcement tools, redefining what it means to supervise a contracting business, imposing new restrictions on subcontracting, and extending the statute of limitations for licensing violations. Contractors and construction business owners must be aware of these changes, as failure to comply can result in severe penalties, including license revocation, fines, and even criminal charges.

Mitigating Losses When Disaster Strikes: How Casualty Provisions Help Protect Tenants and Landlords 

Published: February 13, 2025

by Mark E. Ellinghouse
Real Estate Legal Updates

It has now been just over a month since multiple wildfires erupted throughout the Greater Los Angeles area, bringing widespread devastation to the highly populated area in an event that could end up being the costliest disaster in U.S. history. For Californians, it was yet another example of the growing threat of fire destruction throughout the State. Almost all of us seem to know someone who has directly suffered damage from fires – one of our partners lost her home in the Palisades fire – and we will all bear the cost, from higher insurance premiums, increased construction costs for material shortages and/or new fire-safe building materials, and growing frustration at our apparent inability to properly confront the recurring danger. New approaches are needed to contain the spread of fire risk (pun intended).

Commercial Property Owners, Brokers and Property Managers Beware: California’s Commercial Tenant Protection Act Goes Into Effect January 1st!

Published: December 19, 2024

by Alison E. Geddes
Real Estate Legal Updates

California law has long treated commercial and residential tenancies differently. Consumer protection-focused regulations enacted to protect residential tenants were legally considered inapplicable to business tenants which were considered to have a higher level of sophistication.  This is all about to change in California. As we prepare to usher in 2025, commercial property owners, brokers and property managers must familiarize themselves with new California legislation which significantly changes laws pertaining to small businesses leasing commercial property. 

The Post-Halloween Scare: The Office Submarket

Published: November 12, 2024

by Mark E. Ellinghouse
Real Estate Legal Updates

Though Halloween has come and gone, a real-life scare continues to linger: the office sector of commercial real estate. Office has been the slowest sector to recover from COVID, as companies wrestle with remote/hybrid work policies in determining their future office needs. While some businesses have relinquished their office space completely or downsized to maximize the efficiency of square footage in highly amenitized buildings, others are making efforts to bring their staff back in and negotiating the inevitable reluctance from employees who got comfortable working in their loungewear. The future of office is uncertain, to say the least.

CRE Update: Pending Legislation Could Cause Significant Disruption to Commercial Real Estate Sector

Published: August 20, 2024

by Alison E. Geddes
Real Estate Legal Updates

It is rare for the commercial real estate industry to be the target of legislative reform.  Even for a progressive state like California, real estate-focused initiatives tend to focus on promoting housing policies, residential tenant rights, and environmental protections.  This year, however, there are three pending bills which could significantly disrupt the commercial real estate sector, potentially causing substantial increase in operating costs that will either undermine already-thin margins for landlords and owners or place more stress on tenants through passed through expenses.  The three bills, each of which has passed its house of origin (either the Assembly or Senate), are summarized below.  We encourage all of our clients to contact their state legislators to provide feedback regarding the dangers of these initiatives, which we will continue to monitor through the remainder of the legislative session.