Overview

Brent's clients include financial institutions, insurance companies, real estate brokers, developers, hospitals, manufacturers, farmers, municipalities and colleges. Brent's practice focuses primarily in real estate with an emphasis on:

• Commercial Real Estate Transactions: Commercial purchase and sales agreements and transactions for manufacturing facilities, colleges, hospitals, communication towers, restaurants, shopping centers and apartment complexes.
• Landlord-Tenant: Commercial lease negotiations, disputes and evictions.
• Real Estate Development: Land Division Act, Condominium Act, zoning, construction contracts, construction liens, subdivision restrictions and easements.
• Real Estate Finance: Loan documentation, modifications, workouts, deeds-in-lieu of foreclosure, collections, mezzanine loans and bankruptcy remote entities.
• Real Estate Brokerage: Listing agreements, agency disclosures, buyer/broker agreements, Commercial Broker Lien Act and property management agreements.
• Environmental Law: Environmental audits, baseline environmental assessments and due care documentation.

His knowledge of real estate law is well recognized by his peers. Brent was named the 2009 Lansing Lawyer of the Year for Real Estate by Best Lawyers®, has been included in Best Lawyers® of America since 1999 and has an AV Preeminent rating from Martindale-Hubbell. In 2023, he was named a "Go-To Lawyer" in Commercial Real Estate by Michigan Lawyers Weekly.

Holding memberships in the American Bar Association, the State Bar of Michigan and its Real Property Law Section, and the Ingham County Bar Association, Brent is also admitted to practice in the U.S. District Court’s Western and Eastern Districts of Michigan. He is a member of the American Bar Association’s Forum on the Construction Industry and is an associate member of the American Institute of Architects. He has also been a member of various charitable and bank boards in the local community. Brent previously served on the firm's Executive Committee as former Co-Vice President of the firm's Lansing office.

Honors & Recognitions

Affiliations

Memberships & Affiliations

Legal Affiliations:

• American Bar Association
  • Forum on the Construction Industry
• State Bar of Michigan
  • Real Estate Law Section
  • Environmental Law Section
• Ingham County Bar Association

Industry & Professional Associations:

• American Institute of Architects, Associate Member
• Michigan Association of Municipal Attorneys, Member

Experience

Representative Matters

• Assisted trust clients with complex sale of their land contract vendor’s interest in nearly 2000 acres of Michigan farmland to investment firm for $8 million+, where vendee was in default and subject to numerous liens.
• Assisted institutional client with acquisition of out-of-state office building for in excess of $40 million.
• Assisted client with multiple multi-million dollar out-of-state office sublease transactions, requiring landlord and lender consents.
• Assisted client with multiple large out-of-state office lease assignment and assumptions transactions, requiring landlord and lender consents.
• Assisted client with a large office lease buy-out and termination transaction.
• Assisted institutional client with multi-million dollar out-of-state land acquisition for regional branch office development.
• Assisted investors with complex purchase of multi-million dollar loans upon borrower's default.
• Assisted hospital and college with multi-parcel acquisitions for future development.
• Assisted insurance company with significant loan modifications, deeds-in-lieu of foreclosure, and workouts of defaulted loans in commercial loan portfolio.
• Assisted borrower of commercial development in legal action against lender to stop foreclosure due to lenders breach of loan documents and commitment.
• Assisted client with expansion of cosmetology school's operation to new cities in Michigan, Illinois, and Tennessee.
• Assisted client with multi-million dollar acquisition of out-of-state cosmetology school.
• Assisted landowners with sale of thousands of acres of prime agricultural land.
• Assisted clients with appeals of residential and commercial property tax assessments.
• Assisted family farm clients with succession planning to next generation.

News & Events

Speaking Engagements

• Remedies and Lender Liability, In-house educational seminar for commercial real estate lender, June 2010
• Land Division and Related Development Issues, In-house educational seminar for commercial real estate brokerage firm, February 2007

News

• Foster Swift Attorneys Named 2025 Best Lawyers in America, Best Lawyers in America, August 15, 2024
• Foster Swift Attorneys Named 2024 Best Lawyers in America, Best Lawyers in America, August 17, 2023
• Four Lansing Attorneys Named Best Lawyers® 2024 "Lawyer of the Year", Best Lawyers in America, August 17, 2023
• Titus Announced as "Go-To Lawyer" in Commercial Real Estate, Michigan Lawyers Weekly, June 20, 2023
• Foster Swift Attorneys Named 2023 Best Lawyers in America©, Best Lawyers in America, August 18, 2022
• Foster Swift Attorneys Named to 2022 Best Lawyers in America©, August 19, 2021
• Firm Elects EC Members and Practice Leaders in 2021, February 17, 2021