As chair of the Committee on Legal Opinions in Real Estate Transactions of the American Bar Association’s Section on Real Property, Trust and Estate Law, McGuireWoods Richmond partner Charlie Menges initiated and oversaw the inaugural, spring 2016 issue of the committee’s newsletter, Opinions Matters. The newsletter will be published twice annually to update committee members and other bar groups on the latest developments and issues in real estate opinions practice.
In addition to chairing the ABA committee and overseeing its new publication, Menges is a member of the joint drafting committee (with representatives of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers and the American College of Mortgage Attorneys) that has prepared a report on local counsel opinion letter practice, to be published in the Fall 2016 issue of the ABA’s Real Property, Trust and Estate Law Journal. That report was the subject of a May 12 ABA meeting panel presentation that Menges led, called “Local Counsel Opinion Letters: A Revolutionary Supplement to the Real Estate Finance Opinion Report of 2012.” A transcript of the presentation was published in the newsletter.