George Lefcoe

Ervin and Florine Yoder Chair in Real Estate Law

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glefcoe@law.usc.edu
Phone: (213) 740-0148
Fax: (213) 740-5502
Room: 306C

Professor Lefcoe joined the USC Law faculty in 1962. An expert in real estate finance and land use planning, he holds the Ervin and Florine Yoder Chair in Real Estate Law. For the past 14 years, he has directed the USC Traveling Land Use Seminar, which has visited many of the major cities of the world.

He is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Dartmouth College and holds an LL.B. from Yale Law School, where he was a member of Order of the Coif and served as comment editor of the Yale Law Journal. His most recent publications include, Real Estate Transactions (5th ed. 2006), “The Regulation of Superstores: The Legality of Zoning Ordinances Emerging from the Skirmishes between Wal-Mart and the United Food and Commercial Workers Union” (Arkansas Law Review, fall 2006), and “Property Condition Disclosure Forms: How Realtors Eased the Transition from Caveat Emptor to ‘Seller Tell All’” (Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Journal, summer 2004).

Professor Lefcoe is a land use planning and real estate finance consultant, having worked with federal, state and local governments, and with firms and foundations in the U.S., the United Kingdom and Japan. He has served on many state and local government commissions, including the Regional Planning Commission of Los Angeles County and the City of Los Angeles Planning Commission.

Works in Progress

• “How ‘Spec’ Condo and Tract Home Buyers Helped Sink Our Housing and Finance Markets: Should the Alienability of Their Interest be Restrained by Law?” University of Southern California Legal Studies Research Paper No. 09-33 (Working Paper Series) Date Posted: August 10, 2009; Last Revised: August 10, 2009. - (SSRN)
• “Jeff Benedict’s ‘The Little Pink House:’ The Back Story of the Kelo Case and the Little White Lies Told About It.” USC Law Legal Studies Paper No. 9-32 (Working Paper Series) Date Posted: August 10, 2009; Last Revised: August 10, 2009. - (SSRN)

Books

• Real Estate Transactions, Finance, and Development, 6th ed. (LexisNexis, 2009).
• Real Estate Transactions, 5th ed. (LexisNexis, 2005).
• Real Estate Transactions, 4th ed. (LEXIS Law Publishing, 2003).
• Real Estate Transactions, 3d ed. Teacher's Edition (LEXIS Law Publishing, 2000).
• Real Estate Transactions, 3d ed. (LEXIS Law Publishing, 1999).
• Real Estate Transactions, 2d ed. (Michie Co., 1997).
• Planning and Affordable Housing: Lessons for the UK from the USA (London, England: RTPI Services, Ltd., 1994).
• The Impact of Planning Policies on Housing Affordability (The Joseph Rowntree Foundation, U.K., 1993).
• Real Estate Transactions (Michie Co., 1993).
• Urban Land Policy for the 1980s: The Message for State and Local Governments (ed.) (Lexington Books, 1983).
• Land Policy and Housing Development: Proceedings of a Conference (ed.) (Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, 1981).
• Respective Roles of State and Local Governments in Land Policy and Taxation (ed.) (Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, 1980).
• Federally Assisted Housing and Community Acceptance: A Developer's Handbook (with E.E. Haworth) (Associated Homebuilders of the Greater Eastbay, Inc., 1979).
• Land Development in Crowded Places: Lessons from Abroad (Conservation Foundation, 1979).
• Local Governments' Decisions and the Local Tax Base (ed.) (Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, 1979).
• Proposition 13: A First Anniversary Assessment (ed.) (Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, 1979).
• Tax Policies to Achieve Land Use (ed.) (Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, 1978).
• When Governments Become Land Developers: Notes on the Public-Sector Experience in the Netherlands & California (Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, 1978).
• The Highest and Best Use of Land (National Endowment of the Humanities, Bicentennial Anthology, 1975).
• American Land Law: Cases & Materials (Michie Co., 1974).
• Design Review Boards: The Law and a Model Ordinance (American Institute of Architects, 1974).
• An Introduction to American Land Law (Bobbs-Merrill, 1974).
• Land Development Law: Cases and Materials, 2d ed. (Bobbs-Merrill, 1974).
• Land Finance Law: Materials and Cases (Bobbs-Merrill, 1969).
• Land Development Law: Cases and Materials (Bobbs-Merrill, 1966).
• The Legitimation and Allocation of Property (edited with M. Levine) (USC Law School, 1964).

Articles and Book Chapters

• “Redevelopment Takings After Kelo: What’s Blight Got to Do With It?” 17 Southern California Review of Law & Social Justice 803 (2008). [Reprinted in 2009 Zoning and Planning Law Handbook (ThomsonReuters/West Publishing.] - (Hein)
• “After Kelo, Curbing Opportunishtic TIF-Driven Economic Development: Forgoing Ineffectual Blight Tests; Empowering Property Owners and School Districts.” 83 Tulane Law Review 1 (2008). - (Hein)
• “Should CEQA Require Local Governments to Analyze the Impacts of Development Displaced by Restrictive Land Use Planning?” 33 Ecology Law Quarterly 1015 (2006). - (Hein)
• “The Regulation of Superstores: The Legality of Zoning Ordinances Emerging from the Skirmishes Between Wal-Mart and the United Food and Commercial Workers Union.” 58 Arkansas Law Review 833 (2006). - (Hein)
• “Property Condition Disclosure Forms: How Realtors Eased the Transition from Caveat Emptor to ‘Seller Tell All’.” 39 ABA’s Real Property, Probate and Trust Journal 193 (2004). - (Hein)
• "Yield Maintenance and Defeasance: Two Distinct Paths to Commercial Mortgage Prepayment." (with R. Jeffrey Smith). In Commercial Real Estate Financing: What Borrowers and Lenders Need to Know Now, 2002 (Joshua Stein, ed.) (Practising Law Institute, 2002).
• "Finding the Blight That's Right for California Redevelopment Law." 52 Hastings Law Journal 991 (2001). [Reprinted in Real Estate Research Brief, 2001.] - (Hein)
• "Yield Maintenance and Defeasance: Two Distinct Paths to Commercial Mortgage Prepayment." 28 Real Estate Law Journal 202 (Winter 2000). [Reprinted in 29 Real Estate Review 24 (Winter 2000).]
• "Prepayment Disincentives in Securitized Commercial Loans." 13 Probate and Property 6 (September/October 1999).
• "Prepayment Disincentives in Securitized Commercial Loans." In Commercial Real Estate Financing (Joshua Stein, chair) (Practising Law Institute, 1999). - (Hein)
• "Transactions Dealing with Regulatory Risk in Development Land." 28 Real Estate Review 12 (Spring 1998).
• "How Buyers and Sellers of Development Land Deal with Regulatory Risk." 32 Real Property, Probate and Trust Journal 301 (Summer 1997). - (Hein)
• "Construction and Development Law: Construction Contracts and Commercial Leases." Ch. 97 in Thompson on Real Property (Michie Co., 1994; Supp., 1995).
• "Conveyancing Procedures." Ch. 94 in Thompson on Real Property (Michie Co., 1994; Supp., 1995).
• "Financing Public-Private Agreements Through Tax Increments." Ch. 98 in Thompson on Real Property (Michie Co., 1994; Supp., 1995).
• "Mechanics Liens." Ch. 102 in Thompson on Real Property (Michie Co., 1994; Supp., 1995).
• "Obtaining Land and Rights for Development." Ch. 85 in Thompson on Real Property (Michie Co., 1994; Supp., 1995).
• "The Promissory Note in Real Estate Transactions." Ch. 104 in Thompson on Real Property (Michie Co., 1994; Supp., 1995).
• "Real Estate Brokers." Ch. 95 in Thompson on Real Property (Michie Co., 1994; Supp., 1995).
• "Special Problems of Real Property Ownership" (with David A. Thomas). Ch. 12 in Thompson on Real Property (Michie Co., 1994; Supp., 1995).

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