Business and Corporate Law

• Intellectual Property
  In Boston, intellectual-property law firm Fish & Richardson PC recently signed a lease for 124,000 square feet of space in a new development under construction on the South Boston waterfront, paying about $48 a foot with about $85 a foot in tenant improvements from the landlord, according to a person familiar with the deal -- compared with the roughly $55 a foot the firm is paying now to landlord Equity Office.

Trusts and Estates

• Estate Planning
  A few decades ago, only a handful of people had heard about tenant and buyer representation. If you were looking for space, to renew your lease or for help with corporate real estate planning, chances are you worked with a full service broker or with a building?s leasing agent, both of whom by tradition and by law served the interests of the owner. Today, tenant and buyer representation has grown nationally, as business owners and managers realize the importance of being represented by a firm whose sole allegiance is to them.

Finance Law

• Foreclosure
  The Real Estate Roundtable sees a rising risk of default and foreclosure on an estimated $400 billion in commercial mortgages that come due this year. In recent weeks, a group led by the New York developer William Rudin has pleaded with Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr., Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, and others to have the government include commercial real estate in a new $200 billion program intended to spur lending.