Miller Starr Regalia (MSR), a preeminent California real estate and land use law firm for more than 60 years, announced today that eight of its attorneys were recognized by Best Lawyers in its updated 2025 edition. Lawyers are named to The Best Lawyers in America®, and Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch lists, and received recognition as Lawyer of the Year in Oakland Real Estate Law.
“Each year, we are honored to have so many of our attorneys recognized by Best Lawyers for their unrelenting efforts on behalf of their clients, and the dedication they bring to their work. They make a great contribution to the firm and our reputation as the leading real estate and land use firm in California,” said Ella Gower, Miller Starr Regalia’s managing shareholder. “It is even more meaningful because these awards are given based on voting by our peers.”
Hans Lapping, shareholder and member of the firm’s Executive and Compensation Committees and former Co-Chair of the firm’s Transactional Department has been named “Lawyer of the Year” in Oakland Real Estate Law. He has also been included in the Best Lawyers in America, Real Estate Law, for a fifth year.
In San Francisco, shareholder Dana Kennedy was named 2025 “Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch” in Land Use and Zoning Law and Real Estate Law, an honor she has received for four consecutive years. In Walnut Creek, shareholder Victoria “Tori” Phillips Gyulassy, and senior counsel Yalda Vahdani were both named 2025 “Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch” in Real Estate Law, Tori for the first time, and Yalda for a third year.
The MSR attorneys receiving 2025 Best Lawyers recognition are:
Hans A. Lapping: Real Estate Law and “2025 Lawyer of the Year” in Oakland Real Estate Law designation (recognized 2021 – 2025),
Lance Anderson: Real Estate Law (recognized 2018 – 2025)
Arthur F. Coon: Land Use and Zoning Law (recognized 2012 – 2025)
Bryan W. Wenter: Land Use and Zoning Law, Real Estate Law (recognized 2020 – 2025)
Dana Kennedy: Best Lawyers: Ones To Watch, Land Use and Zoning Law, San Francisco (recognized 2022 – 2025)
Victoria “Tori” Phillips Gyulassy: Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch, Real Estate Law (recognized 2025)
Yalda Vahdani: Best Lawyers: Ones To Watch, Real Estate Law, Walnut Creek (recognized 2023 – 2025)
More about MSR’s Lawyer of the Year honoree:
Lapping is a Martindale AV-rated transactional shareholder, who represents many institutional clients in leasing, buying, and selling real estate. From acquiring raw land for development projects to assisting some of the world’s largest technology companies with office, industrial and research and development leasing to representing national landlords and tenants in retail, office and industrial leases, his representations regularly include negotiating and drafting real estate related contracts, coordinating due diligence, and closing transactions. Lapping is also a fellow in the American College of Real Estate Lawyers. He was previously recognized as the Oakland 2023 Lawyer of the Year in Real Estate Law.
More about MSR’s Ones to Watch honorees:
Kennedy advises real estate developers, investors, and other clients on a wide range of land use matters and real estate transactions, including zoning, planning, and the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Her practice focuses on the processing of entitlements, supervising the preparation and approval of environmental documentation, and negotiating transactional documents associated with land use, project development, and construction, including agreements between private and public entities.
Gyulassy has experience in a variety of commercial real estate matters, representing landlords and tenants in negotiations and drafting of leases, amendments and assignments for office, retail, restaurant, and warehouse space and representing buyers and sellers in the acquisition and disposition of real property.
Vahdani’s experience includes commercial leasing, with an emphasis on retail leasing, as well as real property acquisition and disposition. She also advises franchisors, both established and startup, in developing franchising programs and assists franchisees in negotiating franchise agreements and ongoing legal compliance.
Recognition by Best Lawyers is based entirely on peer review. The methodology is designed to capture, as accurately as possible, the consensus opinion of leading lawyers about the professional abilities of their colleagues within the same geographical region and legal practice area. Nearly 114,000 industry leading lawyers are eligible to vote (from around the world), with over 15 million evaluations on the legal abilities of other lawyers based on their specific practice areas around the world. Lawyers are not required or allowed to pay a fee to be listed; therefore, inclusion in Best Lawyers is considered a singular honor. Corporate Counsel magazine has called Best Lawyers “the most respected referral list of attorneys in practice.”
Miller Starr Regalia
Miller Starr Regalia has had a well-established reputation as a leading real estate law firm for more than sixty-years. For nearly all that time, our firm has written Miller & Starr, California Real Estate 4th, a 12-volume treatise on California real estate law. We call it “the Book.” The Book is the most-widely used and judicially-recognized real estate treatise in California and is cited by practicing attorneys and courts throughout the state. Our firm has experience in all real property matters, including full-service litigation and dispute resolution services, transactions, acquisitions, dispositions, leasing, common interest development, construction, management, title insurance, environmental law, and land use. For more information, visit www.msrlegal.com.
