Jack Fersko, co-chair of the firm’s Real Estate Department, will be a panelist for a program on “The Impacts of the Coronavirus Pandemic on Real Estate Contracts: Frustration of Purpose, Impossibility, Impracticability and Force Majeure,” to be presented via Zoom webinar on Thursday, July 9, 2020 from 1:00pm – 2:00pm. 

The webinar is being hosted by the American College of Real Estate Lawyers (ACREL) exclusively for ACREL Fellows and their colleagues and clients.  The program will examine why COVID-19, unlike any other recent pandemic, has shaken our society to its core. The disruptions to legal relations, particularly landlord-tenant, purchase and sale, mortgage financing, and construction contracts, have been profound. Whether the traditional theories for excusing contract performance can be applied to determine liability as we are constrained by and respond to this malevolent force is not clear. As the pandemic evolves, so might new theories for assigning and adjusting risks. 

As an ACREL Fellow, Mr. Fersko has held numerous leadership roles.  He is currently Chair of the Programs Committee and the Energy Subcommittee of Land Use and Environmental Committee.  His practice reflects his extensive experience as a commercial real estate and general business lawyer. His legal services emphasize industrial and commercial real estate activities, with a particular focus on industrial leasing, project financing, sustainable development and alternative energy initiatives, urban redevelopment, and the impact of environmental laws on commercial real estate transactions, including the acquisition and redevelopment of environmentally contaminated sites.