Bill Durgin

Email: bill.durgin@doblawyers.com
Phone: (925) 322-6138

Bill Durgin’s practice focuses principally on representing clients in real estate related matters. Using his prior experience as general counsel and corporate officer with closely held companies, Bill also advises clients on general business matters and transactions.

Bill’s transactional experience includes the acquisition, disposition, leasing, financing and management of real estate assets.  He has broad based experience in advising owners and investors in all asset classes, including Class A office, industrial and retail uses. Bill also acts as an outside real estate advisor to corporate clients on all matters concerning the efficient use and management of space, including leasing, subleasing, estoppel and subordination review.

Bill advises clients, individuals and families in connection with other more specialized real estate matters, including the formation of limited liability companies, tax deferred exchanges, tenancy-in-common agreements and family partnerships.

Prior to co-founding Durgin Otterson Bruzzone, Bill served as the general counsel and COO of a high net worth family office advising on all matters concerning the management of the family’s numerous employees, contractors and real estate holdings.

A licensed real estate broker, Bill earlier was president and general counsel with a regional brokerage firm specializing in representing large national companies in connection with the expansion of their national real estate portfolios and on management issues relating to their assets.  Based on this experience, commercial real estate advisors frequently refer clients to Bill for high quality, efficient, practical and time-sensitive service. 

Following law school, Bill was a partner at Crosby, Heafey, Roach & May, which later merged with Reed Smith to become one of the world’s largest law firms. Bill is an honors graduate of Santa Clara University School of Law and College of the Holy Cross.

David Otterson

David Otterson is a seasoned corporate, securities and intellectual property lawyer handling complex business matters, both domestically and internationally, on behalf of public and private companies.   

David advises Boards of Directors and senior management of his clients with respect to corporate strategy and governance, and has broad experience with legal issues affecting all aspects of a company’s operations, including start-up and venture capital issues, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, strategic alliances, ’33 and ’34 Act SEC filings, corporate finance, corporate restructurings and other commercial transactions, including the formation and operation of  off-shore captive insurance companies.

In addition to his corporate and securities practice, David has significant experience in negotiating and closing technology-related transactions, including development, licensing, product distribution and joint marketing deals on four continents, in a variety of industries and with respect to many different technologies.

David was a partner at and Executive Committee member of Crosby, Heafey, Roach & May, which later merged with Reed Smith. Relocating to North Carolina in 1997, David became a partner at Helms Mulliss & Wicker (now McGuire Woods) and later at Smith Moore Leatherwood (now Fox Rothschild), where he was a member of the Management Committee and managing partner of the Raleigh office.  David returned to the Bay Area in 2015 and co-founded Durgin Otterson Bruzzone LLP.   

Licensed to practice both in California and North Carolina, David is a member of the American Bar Association and the California and North Carolina Bar Associations.  David has served on a number of nonprofit boards.  He has been recognized by Chambers and Partners, USA as a leading practitioner in  Mergers & Acquisitions and has been rated by Martindale Hubble with an “AV Preeminent” rating. 

David is a contributing author on two books on corporate and commercial law, and has been a frequent speaker on these topics.  David served as an editor of the law review at the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco and received his undergraduate degree from California State University, Chico. 

Rick Bruzzone

Email: rick.bruzzone@doblawyers.com
Phone: (925) 322-6142

Rick is a senior attorney with substantial experience in all aspects of commercial real estate, including development, financing, sales, acquisitions and exchanges, dispositions, leasing, and property management. 

Rick’s practice emphasizes commercial leasing and property acquisition and disposition, including all phases of office, retail, commercial, and industrial lease transactions, originations, leasehold financings, transfers and subleases, renegotiations, "workouts" and enforcement actions. 

Rick has significant experience:

  • developing lease documentation for numerous office buildings and shopping centers,

  • handling complex lease negotiations for landlords and tenants in a vast array of settings, including build-to-suits, sale-leasebacks, lease-equity and lease-purchase arrangements, and hotel, office and retail ground leases

  • renegotiating and restructuring anchor tenant leases in the context of expansion, renovation and redevelopment of projects

  • analyzing and enforcing rights and obligations under existing leases.  

Rick also has more than 40 years of land use and development experience, both as a lawyer and as a principal. His expertise includes land use entitlement; subdivision improvement agreements; reciprocal easement agreements and owners’ association documents; option agreements for acquisition and assembly of land; architectural, engineering, construction and other service agreements relating to land development, and; acquisition, due diligence and hazardous waste assessment issues.

Rick has also served as outside general counsel to several companies with significant real estate portfolios, including his family’s real estate company.

Rick has been a program lecturer for the International Council of Shopping Centers and a number of different industry associations.  Rick has been named as a Northern California Super Lawyer for numerous years. 

A graduate of Stanford University, Rick was awarded an MBA and a law degree from the University of Santa Clara.