Tuija Catalano

Partner

PUBLICATIONS

LAND USE, PLANNING AND ZONING LAW

Ms. Catalano has worked on a variety of land use and due diligence matters on behalf of real estate developers, property owners and lenders since 2003, and has represented clients at the Planning Commission, Board of Supervisors, Historic Preservation Commission, Board of Appeals, and other boards and commissions.  Ms. Catalano is experienced in a variety of permitting and entitlement matters for residential, office, hotel, retail, school,  and other projects, including among others, high-rise new construction projects in the Rincon Hill area, office-to-residential conversion projects in Downtown area, gas station-to-residential conversion projects, and historic preservation entitlement projects.  Ms. Catalano is also experienced in California Environmental Quality Act practice and compliance.

TRANSACTIONAL LAW

Prior to rejoining the firm in 2015, Ms. Catalano spent slightly more than 3 years in Finland, working for Roschier, Attorneys Ltd., one of the largest law firms in Finland, focusing on real estate asset and portfolio acquisitions and divestments and other transactional real estate matters while assisting Finnish, Nordic and European institutional investors, real estate funds, developers and corporations.  Ms. Catalano also worked as an in-house counsel for Technopolis Plc., a listed Finnish real estate company with property ownerships in several Nordic and Baltic countries, handling real property acquisitions and divestments and supporting the company’s business units, including daily commercial leasing operations.

Ms. Catalano is fluent in Finnish.

EDUCATION

  • B.A., 1998   San Francisco State University (magna cum laude; International Relations)
  • J.D., 2003   Golden Gate University (honors)
  • LL.M., 2015   University of Helsinki, Finland (Master’s Degree in International Business Law; with thesis on representation and warranty insurance as a risk management and allocation tool in M & A Transactions and Agreements)
  • Judicial Extern, Honorable Saundra Brown Armstrong, United States District Court, Northern District of California

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

  • Member, State Bar of California
  • Mayor, City of Clayton, December 2018 – December 2019
  • Council Member, City of Clayton, December 2016 – December 2020
  • Board Member, East Contra Costa County Habitat Conservancy Board, December 2018 – December 2020
  • Committee Member, California League of Cities, Transportation, Communication and Public Works Policy Committee, December 2018 – December 2019
  • Planning Commissioner, City of Clayton, July 2006 – June 2011, and July 2015 – November 2016
  • Member, Commercial Real Estate for Women (CREW), San Francisco Chapter
  • Member, Urban Land Institute