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Brent R. Somers

Summary:

• Formerly, Vice President and Asset Management Counsel for Crescent Real Estate Equities, Ltd. (Fort Worth, Texas), a publicly-traded REIT which owned and operated a large national portfolio of Class “A” office and retail properties.
• Formerly, General Counsel for Senterra Real Estate Group, L.L.C., a property management and leasing firm responsible for the office/retail complex known as “Greenway Plaza” (Houston, Texas) comprised of over 4.2 million square feet.
• Formerly, General Counsel for Standard Management Company (Los Angeles, California), a privately-owned real estate company in the business of buying, selling, managing, leasing and developing a mixed national portfolio of retail malls, apartments, office buildings and industrial facilities.
• Worked and trained as a commercial real estate attorney during stints with law firms in Century City and Beverly Hills, California.
• Holds Juris Doctor, University of Texas School of Law; B.S., Agronomy, Texas A&M University (summa cum laude).
• Admitted to practice in Texas (active) and California (inactive).

Full Bio:

Brent Somers is a business-oriented executive attorney with over 26 years experience in commercial real estate transactions, negotiations and documentation, including acquisitions and dispositions, financing, leasing, operations, telecom and collections management.

Prior to joining Phillips & Reiter, PLLC, Brent served as Vice President and Asset Management Counsel for Crescent Real Estate Equities, Ltd. in Fort Worth, Texas. In this capacity, he managed and delivered a broad array of operational, leasing and legal services furnished to Crescent’s portfolio of Class A office properties located in Texas, Colorado, Florida, Washington, Georgia, Arizona and California.

Brent graduated summa cum laude in 1978 from Texas A&M University, with a B.S. in Agronomy. After receiving his J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law in 1981, Brent moved to Los Angeles, California to work first for Greenberg, Glusker, Fields, Claman & Machtinger in Century City and then later for Rifkind, Sterling & Levin in Beverly Hills. At both firms, he focused on commercial real estate transactions of all kinds.

Brent next served several years as General Counsel for Standard Management Company, a company headquartered in Los Angeles which owned and managed a large and diverse real estate portfolio spread across the nation, including shopping centers, office buildings, industrial facilities, apartment complexes and mobile home parks.

In early 1990, Brent completed a two-year certificate program in Hazardous and Toxic Materials Control and Management at the University of California, Los Angeles. Later that year, he left Standard for private practice representing three commercial real estate companies in Los Angeles before loading up a backpack and heading off for distant lands. After a couple years traversing through southern Africa, China, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Thailand and Japan, Brent returned to Texas with his new Canadian wife, whom he had met on the roof of a bus en route to Kashmir.

From September 1995 until his appointment at Crescent, Brent served as General Counsel for Senterra Real Estate Group, L.L.C., the property management company that leased and managed Greenway Plaza in Houston, Texas for many years. He was serving in this capacity when Crescent purchased Greenway Plaza in October 1996, which led to his joining Crescent in early 1998 as Crescent’s first Regional Counsel in Houston. Also in 1998, Brent completed comprehensive mediation training at Sam Houston State University.

Brent was promoted to Asset Management Counsel for Crescent’s entire portfolio in July 1999, at which time he was transferred to the home office in Fort Worth. In October 2000, Brent was promoted once again to become Vice President and Asset Management Counsel.

After getting laid-off at Crescent in March 2007, Brent took his wife and teenage son on an 82-day backpacking trip across 20 countries in Europe, from Ireland and Scotland to St. Petersburg, and from Denmark to Prague and Switzerland.

Brent serves on the board of Junior Achievement of Chisholm Trail; as Vice President of Membership for his church choir; and as the Charter Organization Representative and Assistant Scoutmaster for his son’s Boy Scout troop. In addition, he enjoys world travel, gardening, music and reading.


Phone Number: 817.806.4500
Email:  bsomers@outsourcegc.com

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