Paul I. Meyer retired from the partnership in November 2004. Paul has served as a member of the firm's global Executive Committee and as Chairman of its global Real Estate Department. He was a member of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers and has repeatedly been listed among the nation's leading real estate lawyers in The Best Lawyers in America.
In his real estate practice, Paul handled the development, financing and leasing of major office, commercial, industrial, shopping center, hotel, sports, entertainment and residential properties. Many of those projects involved unique applications of California redevelopment law and finance. Paul has also represented several of San Diego's leading financial institutions in matters involving new loans, loan workouts, foreclosures and related activities. He has taught and published extensively in the areas of secured real estate finance and foreclosure remedies.
In downtown San Diego, Paul served as counsel for many of the principal high-rise and urban transit projects developed over the past decade, including the 26-block San Diego Padres major league ballpark project and related hotel, office, retail and residential projects, the 9-block Santa Fe Depot mixed-use project, the One America Plaza mixed-use project, the San Diego Police Headquarters Building and the Metropolitan Transit Tower and Campanile.
Elsewhere in California and beyond, Paul's principal real estate projects included the Staples Center sports arena in downtown Los Angeles (where the LA Lakers, LA Clippers and LA Kings play professional basketball and hockey), other sports stadium work for the San Diego Padres (including the joint development of a spring training facility with the Seattle Mariners in Arizona), several entertainment studio development or expansion projects (in Los Angeles), the redevelopment and adaptive reuse of the Sacramento Army Depot (for a computer manufacturer) and the development of a number of "new town" residential communities (in California and Arizona).
Before entering into private practice in 1973, Paul served on active duty for three years as a Captain in the United States Marine Corps Reserve, and worked for the San Francisco Neighborhood Legal Assistance Foundation. Among his civic activities, Paul served as a member of the Board of Overseers for the University of California at San Diego, as a Trustee of the San Diego Foundation, as a Trustee of the San Diego Charitable Real Estate Foundation and as a member of the National Council of the American Jewish Committee. He has also served as President of the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, President of the La Jolla Chamber Music Society and President of the San Diego Chapter of the American Jewish Committee.