Vivian L. Thoreen
Partner
Vivian Lee Thoreen is the executive partner of Holland & Knight's Los Angeles office and chairs the firm's national Private Wealth Services Dispute Resolution Team. She is a litigator and experienced trial attorney whose practice – both in Superior Court and in the California Courts of Appeal – focuses on complex trust, estate, conservatorship and guardianship matters. She represents individuals, families, charities and financial institutions in cases including will and trust disputes, contested conservatorships and guardianships, breach of fiduciary duty matters, and elder abuse matters. Ms. Thoreen’s experience includes some of the most sensitive and high-profile cases in her field. Whether the matters can be resolved by mediation or require trial, Ms. Thoreen’s clients benefit from her deep personal commitment and nuanced grasp of law and often byzantine facts. https://www.hklaw.com/en/professionals/t/thoreen-vivian-lee
Jennifer Lynn Hernandez
Partner
Jennifer Hernandez has practiced land use and environmental law for more than 30 years, and leads Holland & Knight's West Coast Land Use and Environmental Group. She divides her time between the firm's San Francisco and Los Angeles offices. Ms. Hernandez graduated, with honors, from Harvard University and Stanford Law School, and clerked for Region 20 of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) before beginning her land use and environmental law career. Ms. Hernandez is the only California lawyer ranked by her clients and peers in Chambers USA in the top tier of both land use/zoning and environmental lawyers. In addition, she was recognized as the top environmental litigator of the year in the San Francisco Bay Area by Best Lawyers. Ms. Hernandez received a California Lawyer of the Year award from the State Bar of California for her work on California's largest and most innovative land use and conservation agreement between her private landowner client and five major environmental organizations, including the Sierra Club and Natural Resources Defense Council.
Stacie Nelson
Partner
Stacie Polashuk Nelson is an attorney in Holland & Knight's San Francisco and Los Angeles offices and the Practice Group Leader for the Private Client Dispute Resolution Practice Group. https://www.hklaw.com/en/professionals/n/nelson-stacie-polashuk
Daniel R. Golub
Partner
Daniel R. Golub is a partner in the West Coast Land Use and Environment Group in Holland & Knight's San Francisco office. He focuses his practice on California's cutting-edge laws that aim to promote streamlined approval of housing, including the Housing Accountability Act, SB 35, AB 2162, AB 2011, Density Bonus Law, and Housing Element Law. Mr. Golub has a wealth of experience representing plaintiffs, defendants, and real parties in interest, as well as achieving victories on behalf of developers, nonprofit organizations, and public agencies in the courts and in the permitting and entitlement process. His victories include arguing and briefed the leading published authority on the Housing Accountability Act, and California Renters Legal Advocacy and Education Fund v. City of San Mateo, 68 Cal.App.5th 820 (2021), which established a broad precedent supporting the enforceability and constitutionality of California's housing production laws. Mr. Golub has represented numerous housing developers in invoking cutting-edge California housing production laws through a mix of entitlement and litigation strategies to secure long-delayed project entitlement approvals. He represents project developers as plaintiffs challenging unlawful project denials, as well as representing public agencies and developers as defendants and real parties in interest defending project approvals from attack. Mr. Golub's pro bono practice focuses primarily on representing nonprofit organizations that develop and advocate for affordable and supportive housing, as well as defending affordable and supportive housing projects from challenges by anti-housing advocates. He earned his J.D. with a certificate in environmental law from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, and earned his bachelor's degree from Vassar College. Mr. Golub has been named to "The Best Lawyers in America" guide for Land Use and Zoning Law; "The Legal 500 USA," for Real Estate – Land Use/Zoning; "Chambers USA – America's Leading Business Lawyers guide," for Real Estate: Zoning/Land Use; and to "Northern California Super Lawyers" magazine. He is a frequent speaker at land use and housing law conferences, such as Housing California's annual conference and the Select Conference on Industry Litigation. Mr. Golub has been quoted in such publications as the San Jose Mercury News, the Orange County Register, and the San Francisco Business Times. He serves on the board of the Housing Action Coalition; the advisory boards of the California Housing Defense Fund (formerly California Renters Legal Advocacy & Education Fund); and of Yes In My Backyard Law (YIMBY Law).
David Louis Preiss
Partner
David Preiss is a partner at Holland & Knight LLP in its San Francisco office and a member of the firm’s West Coast Land Use and Environmental Practice Group. His practice focuses on land use, real estate, and surface mining law. Mr. Preiss represents private and public sector clients in a wide range of zoning, subdivision, and other land use permitting, agreements (including development agreements, affordable housing agreements, and PLA’s), CEQA, and regulatory matters for new and existing residential, commercial, industrial, and mixed-use projects and related land use disputes. His real estate practice includes the negotiation and documentation of real property purchase and sales, ground leases, financing, easements, and CC&R’s, as well as complex title matters. Mr. Preiss also concentrates in California surface mining permitting, reclamation, and compliance matters, as well as related operations, acquisition, lease, and royalty agreements. Mr. Preiss joined Holland & Knight in 2010. He previously was a partner and worked at other national and regional law firms in the San Francisco Bay Area. Mr. Preiss also previously served as vice president counsel for a developer of large master planned communities in Northern California. He received his law degree from the University of California Davis School of Law and his bachelor’s degree from Williams College, magna cum laude. Mr. Preiss is a frequent writer and lecturer on land use topics. He is a co-author of “California Subdivision Map Act Practice,” CEB, 1987; “California Easements and Boundaries: Law and Litigation,” CEB, 2008; and “Office Leasing – Drafting and Negotiating the Lease,” CEB, 1996. Mr. Preiss has served as an adjunct professor of land use at the University of California Hastings College of Law. He has been named on multiple occasions to Best Lawyers in America (real estate), Northern California Super Lawyers (land use and zoning), and The Legal 500 USA (Real Estate & Construction; Land Use/Zoning).
