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Mr. Robin is a partner in the Real Estate Department where he represents many real estate investors, developers, and users as well as a number of non-real estate corporate clients and law firms including Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, SIMEON Commercial Properties, Crossbeam Capital Funding, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, Simpson Manufacturing Company, Oracle, Google, Adobe, Philip Morris Corporation, Wilfred Hsu and Group Azure, Ltd., Serramonte Medical Center, H&Q Asia Pacific, Lucas Chang Investments, Jeffrey Chang & Associates, California College of Arts and Crafts, Prana Investment Fund, CSI Capital Management, Gunderson Dettmer, Leland Faust and CSI Investments, Venture Law Group, American College of Ophthalmology, The San Francisco Quaker Meeting House, Mill Valley School District, Charles Schwab and Company, Hamms Building Associates, Frog Design, Vector Capital Corporation, Hoefer Arnett, and Newmark Realty Capital. He also counsels several clients from Asia who invest in the United States as well as advises clients who invest in China.
Prior to joining the Firm, Mr. Robin had served as Associate General Counsel at MetLife where his expertise included property acquisitions, partnership formations, sale-leasebacks, project development, and construction and leasing activities on projects in 13 states including California, Washington, Arizona, Oregon and Colorado. Mr. Robin was an integral member of the team that structured, planned, financed, leased and operated California Plaza, a Community Redevelopment Agency project that covers twelve acres on Bunker Hill in downtown Los Angeles. The development includes two fifty-story office towers, the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, an Intercontinental Hotel, an apartment complex, retail stores, and numerous public amenities. Mr. Robin served as national coordinator for MetLife’s $13 billion loan portfolio and negotiated and closed hundreds of construction and permanent loans, both as borrower and as lender, in amounts ranging from $1 million to more than $250 million.
In September 2000, Mr. Robin was a Member of the California Senate Delegation to Beijing, Shanghai, and Jiangsu Province, China that was led by Senators John Vasconcellos and Debra Bowen. In April 2001, Mr. Robin was a Member of the California Senate Delegation to Tokyo, Shizuoka, Osaka, Kyoto, and Hiroshima, Japan, led by Assemblyman George Nakomo. In October 2002, Mr. Robin was a Member of the California Senate Delegation to Shanghai, Beijing, and the Three Gorges Dam, led by Senator James Brulte, Minority Leader of the Senate, and Robert Hertzberg, Emeritus Speaker of the Assembly. In October 2003, he was a Member of the California Senate Delegation to Hong Kong and Taiwan, led by Senator James Brulte. In November 2004, he was a Member of the California Senate Delegation to Hangzhou, Kumming, Li Jiang, and Shanghai, led by Senators Romero and Torlakson. In September, 2005, he was a Member of the California Senate Delegation to Hong Kong, Dalian, Beijing and Shanghai, led by Senators Romero, Torlakson and Brulte.
In January 2001, he was appointed to serve as an Alternate Member of the Board of Directors of the California Senate International Relations Foundation whose purpose is to further the exchange of economic, educational, technological, and cultural information between foreign countries and Members of the California Legislature.
PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
Mr. Robin is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation. He is also a Fellow of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers and was Editor of its Publications Program for four years. He is a past member of the Executive Committee of the Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section of the American Bar Association where he served as the Finance Officer of this 30,000 person Section from 1998 to 2002 after having served on its Executive Council for eight years.
For many years, Mr. Robin has been named a Super Lawyer in California along with five of his colleagues at Shartsis Friese LLP. He has also been included in the 2006, 2007 and 2008 editions of The Best Lawyers in America.
Mr. Robin performs pro bono real estate services for the San Francisco Jazz Festival and is a member of the Board of the San Francisco Friends School whom he represented in its acquisition of the historic Levi Strauss building in 2005. He is also a member of the Advisory Board of Center of Hope-Haiti which is constructing an orphanage and school in Haiti.
Mr. Robin has participated on educational programs in real estate law for many organizations, including Practicing Law Institute, American Bar Association, California State Bar Real Property Section, Los Angeles County Bar Association, ALI-ABA, International Council of Shopping Centers, American College of Real Estate Lawyers, American Land Title Association, American Bankruptcy Institute, and CLE International. His publications include, Hotel Management Agreements: An Owner’s Perspective and Institutional Investments in Hotels: Partnerships and Joint Ventures, Financing, Development, and Operations of Hotels and Casinos, Practicing Law Institute, l989; Robin and Pollock, Opinion Letters from the Recipients’ Perspective, The Attorney's Opinion Letter in Real Estate Transactions, 4 The ACREL Papers 129 (American Bar Association, 1992); Robin and Lipscomb, Impact of Bankruptcy on Workouts and New Investments, 31 Real Property, Probate and Trust Journal 670 (1997); Robin and Lipscomb, Impact of Bankruptcy on Workouts and New Investments, Single Asset Real Estate Bankruptcies, Current Developments and Legislative Issues (American Bar Association and the American Bankruptcy Institute, 1997).
EDUCATION
Mr. Robin received a B.A. degree from Swarthmore College in 1970 and a J.D. from New York University School of Law in l974, where he was a member of the New York University School of Law Review of Law and Social Change
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