Thomas R. Sestanovich is a partner in ECJ’s Real Estate Department, where he represents a broad spectrum of clients—ranging from single-asset real estate developers, multi-member partnerships and other entities to lending institutions and insurance companies.
Mr. Sestanovich’s practice is focused primarily on commercial real estate sales, acquisitions, securitized financings, and negotiating and documenting leases for office, retail and industrial properties. He is currently responsible for a national portfolio of properties in excess of 18 million square feet, and serves as outside general counsel to some of California’s largest privately-held developers, as well as representing KB Management Co., Inc., Manulife Real Estate, John Hancock (U.S.A.), and Genworth Financial. Mr. Sestanovich also works on real estate-related disputes in litigation, arbitration and mediation, and as a consultant on environmental issues.
Honors include inclusion in Southern California Super Lawyers from 2007 – 2009, as published by Law & Politics; Best Lawyers in America and Top Lawyers in America, 2007-2009; and The Los Angeles Times, Leading Lawyers in Southern California, 2008. In September 2008, Mr. Sestanovich handled the acquisition and financing of a portfolio of industrial buildings in Chino, California for John Hancock (U.S.A.), one of the largest commercial real estate transactions consummated during the later part of that year; in 2004, he handled the lease termination agreement and re-leasing of the 200,000 square foot Century City Doctors Hospital, one of the largest commercial leasing transactions in Southern California that year (Los Angeles Business Journal (LABJ) and Daily Journal, 2004); and in September 1999, he handled one of the largest sales of industrial buildings consummated that year for ARKA Properties Group, Inc., et al. (LABJ, 1999).
As a lifelong Southern California resident, Mr. Sestanovich earned his undergraduate degree (Bachelor of Arts, English) and Juris Doctorate (including the William F. Murray Scholarship and a clerkship for the Honorable John Code Mowbray, Chief Justice of the Nevada Supreme Court) from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). After being admitted to the California Bar in 1988, Mr. Sestanovich worked, first, as an Associate at Allen Matkins Leck Gamble & Mallory, before joining Resch Polster in 1994, where he continued to focus on commercial real estate. In 1996, he helped found MDFS in Century City, and in 2009, Mr. Sestanovich, and certain of his MDFS attorneys and staff, joined Ervin Cohen & Jessup in Beverly Hills, California.