Valerie Li is a real estate attorney dedicated to providing proactive and strategic counsel to a diverse clientele, including families, business owners, investors, brokerages, property managers, and developers. Her focus is on protecting her clients’ interests and securing their real estate investments. She was recognized as a Super Lawyers Rising Star every year from 2017 to 2022 and 2024.

Prior to starting her own firm, Valerie practiced commercial litigation and real estate law at respected firms in San Francisco and Los Angeles, California. This background equips her with a litigator’s insight for proactively minimizing potential liabilities and effectively resolving disputes, combined with a transactional attorney’s strategic approach to achieving practical and cost-effective solutions. Valerie is a dedicated advocate for her clients, employing both skillful negotiation and, when necessary, aggressive litigation to successfully resolve disputes involving breach of purchase agreements, breach of lease agreements, landlord-tenant disputes, and property ownership disputes. She also provides strategic counsel on a wide range of real estate transactions, including purchase and sale negotiations, lease negotiations, and complex ownership agreements.

Valerie has served on a number of legal organizations, including the California Lawyers Association’s Real Property Law Section (CLA-RPLS), the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of the Greater Bay Area (AABA), and the Asian Pacific American Women Lawyers Alliance (APAWLA), and the Asian Pacific CPA Association.

She graduated from Pepperdine University School of Law with a J.D. and magna cum laude from University of Pittsburgh with a B.A. in Political Science. During law school, she externed for a federal judge of the United States Federal Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California in Los Angeles and served as a research assistant for a leading scholar in dispute resolution at the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution.

While English is Valerie’s first language, she can read, write, and speak fluently in Mandarin Chinese and is passionate about serving the Chinese-speaking community. 

Sample Transactional Matters

  • Negotiated and drafted comprehensive legal documentation for the purchases and sales of diverse commercial and investment properties, as well as vacant land, with a focus on maximizing client returns while mitigating potential liabilities associated with property condition, title issues, and contractual obligations.
  • Negotiated commercial lease agreements on behalf of franchisees, ensuring favorable terms and minimizing potential future liabilities related to lease obligations and property use, thereby protecting their business investments.
  • Negotiated commercial lease agreements on behalf of property owners against retail, office, and industrial warehouse tenants, ensuring strong landlord protections and minimizing potential risks associated with tenant defaults, property damage, and lease compliance to safeguard the owner’s asset value and income stream.
  • Negotiated and drafted all necessary legal documents, including notices and disclosures, for private residential sales transactions, ensuring full compliance with legal requirements and proactively minimizing the risk of future disputes and liabilities for both buyers and sellers.
  • Resolved complex title issues for development companies, clearing obstacles to development and ensuring the security and marketability of their real estate investments, thereby facilitating project advancement and protecting their financial interests.
  • Drafted comprehensive co-ownership and partition agreements for business partners and family members, proactively establishing clear ownership rights and responsibilities to minimize the potential for future disputes.
  • Drafted and negotiated comprehensive construction documents for builders and investors, proactively addressing potential risks related to project scope, payment terms, delays, and liability allocation to protect their interests and ensure successful project completion.

Sample Litigation Matters

  • Defended residential developer against a homeowners’ association’s challenge, countering illegal stop work orders and alleged violations of CC&Rs and local building regulations to protect the developer’s project timeline and investment.
  • Represented buyers in a complex purchase dispute against a Beverly Hills luxury residential developer, advocating for the buyers’ interests and seeking to secure their investment in the high-value property.
  • Represented a commercial seller in an action for rescission against a commercial buyer, effectively addressing claims of misrepresentation, concealment, and breach of contract to safeguard the seller’s assets.
  • Defended the managing member of a family-run real estate company against allegations of fraud and mismanagement, strategically protecting the personal and business assets of the client.
  • Defended a residential developer against a homeowners’ association’s challenge to CC&Rs and allegations of abuse of power, safeguarding the developer’s rights and project viability.
  • Defended the owner of an anchor store in a shopping center against alleged violations of a reciprocal easement declaration and local ordinances, strategically mitigating potential financial and operational liabilities.
  • Represented property owners in numerous partition actions throughout Los Angeles County, strategically guiding clients through complex co-ownership disputes to achieve equitable resolutions and protect their individual property interests.
  • Represented homeowners in numerous quiet title actions based on adverse possession, prescriptive easement, and implied easement in Los Angeles County, to safeguard their property rights.

Speaking Engagements

  • “Maximizing Real Estate Security: A Panel Discussion on Title Insurance, Estate Planning, and Litigation,” West San Gabriel Valley Realtors Association (July 2023)
  • “Seller and Agent Disclosures,” Keller Williams Signature, City of Industry (May 2024)
  • “Landlord and Property Manager’s Guide to Premises Liability,” West San Gabriel Valley Realtors Association, Property Management Summit, San Gabriel, CA (May 2024)
  • “House Hack,” Asian Real Estate Association of America, Greater Los Angeles, Super Summit, SoFi Stadium (August 2024)
  • “Residential Purchase Agreements,” Keller Williams Signature, City of Industry, CA (September 2024)
  • “Common Homeowner Questions,” Chou Team/KW Executive and Blue Financial Group, Brea, CA (October 2024)
  • “Ins-N-Outs of Tenant & Housing Provider Issues,” netwrk/eXp Realty, Arcadia, CA (November 2024)