This page is dedicated to the life and memory of  Howard N. Ellman

Preceding his retirement in 2020, Howard N. Ellman was a Shareholder in Buchalter’s San Francisco office. Mr. Ellman has practiced law since 1960, and concentrated his practice in the areas of real estate, land use, and environmental regulation. During his career he handled transactions and litigation involving such diverse matters as constitutional rights of property owners and others, property transfers, development, environmental regulation, endangered species, debtor/creditor’s rights, real property security (loan agreements, mortgages, deeds of trust, etc.), development joint ventures, real estate investment entities, water law, conservation easements, and habitat plans.

Mr. Ellman served as lead counsel on numerous high-profile projects. These included representing AT&T in the complex real estate aspects of the telephone divestiture in 11 western states, representing developers of major high-rise office projects, shopping centers, and other similar developments in an urban context from the initial acquisition, through the entitlement process, financing, construction, leasing and sale. He also handled major litigation, including successful defense of a lender in a $250 million lender liability case and presentation of cases in the United States Supreme Court, the California Supreme Court, the United States Court of Appeal for the Ninth Circuit, and the California Courts of Appeal.

A recognized expert in his field, Mr. Ellman spoke and taught extensively on the subject of real estate and land use law. He served as a Visiting Lecturer in Law at Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California at Berkeley; an Adjunct Professor at Stanford School of Law where he taught a seminar on advanced real estate problems, and various advanced real estate and land security courses at Golden Gate University School of Law. He was also a guest lecturer at John Muir College, University of California at San Diego. Mr. Ellman was a lecturer and panelist in continuing legal education programs on real estate, land use, condominium/planned-unit development, and construction financing sponsored by the California Continuing Education of the Bar (CEB), the University of California Extension, American Law Institute/American Bar Association (ALI/ABA) Joint Committee on Legal Education and Practicing Law Institute (PLI). He spoke at many programs offered by business and professional associations. He is a published author having written an historical novel set in the Thirteenth Century.

An active participant in California’s real estate community, Mr. Ellman owned and operated a rice farm in the Sacramento valley for 15 years and was active in water and conservation issues. He was a member of the State Bar of California, the American Bar Association (Real Property, Probate and Trust, Environmental and Agricultural Law sections), the Bar Association of San Francisco, the American College of Real Estate Lawyers, and the Northern California Water Association.