Unwavering Purpose & Unmatched Experience

General Counsel

The legal needs of our community association clients fluctuate in frequency, scope and complexity.  However, our commitment to providing superior legal and strategic counsel is unwavering.

Our legal team’s experience encompasses a broad spectrum of California community associations including condominiums of all sizes, large master planned communities, mixed-use communities, high rise and mid-rise communities, age-qualified communities and everything in between.   

Examples of general counsel-type services that we provide include (but are certainly not limited to):

• Interpreting and amending governing documents
• Negotiating and drafting contracts
• Drafting easement and license agreements
• Providing written opinions and recommendations
• Attending Board Meetings and Annual Elections
• Advising and assisting with efficient rule and covenant enforcement
• Implementing new and modified local, State and Federal law

Governing Documents

We review, interpret and draft amendments to governing documents including:

• CC&Rs
• By-laws
• Rules and regulations
• Architectural and design guidelines

Our efforts provide you with the tools to efficiently govern your community. We help associations ensure that governing documents align with the needs of the community and stay current with changing laws and trends.

Civil Litigation

We spend time in the boardroom to keep community associations out of the courtroom. But if a case is litigated, Whitney | Petchul provides litigation expertise that comes from many decades of courtroom experience. We pursue and defend actions for a wide range of civil cases, including:

• Architectural disputes
• Violations of governing documents
• Breach of contract
• Breach of fiduciary duty
• Personal injury/property damage
• Election challenges

We also have a record of excellence in overseeing insurance claims, pursuing insurance coverage for our clients and filing necessary appeals.

Alternative Dispute Resolution

We view litigation as a last resort and pride ourselves in finding creative dispute resolutions before costly litigation commences. Oftentimes, we provide confidential, cost-effective and expeditious alternatives to litigation from informal discussion or meetings (IDR) to more structured alternative disputes resolution processes (ADR) such as mediation or arbitration.

Elections

To ensure the integrity of the Board and its decisions, we conduct elections in accordance with your community's governing documents and California law. We prepare and review election documents, conduct election meetings, provide legal guidance to inspectors of election and defend election challenges when they occur. We not only help clients with the typical director elections, but also with member votes on regular and special assessments, capital improvements, and amendments to governing documents. Because we represent many master planned communities, we have a unique breadth of experience with delegate voting as well.

Legal Training & Preparation

Training is a critical component of providing comprehensive, proactive legal services that is often overlooked. Our trainings include:

• Board of director fiduciary duties
• Efficient board meetings
• Architectural committee training
• Legal updates

We regularly provide legal training and ongoing legal updates to our clients to ensure they have the tools and knowledge to meet their fiduciary duties.