With a passion for solving complex real estate issues, Diane is driven to find innovative, efficient and community-centered legal solutions for her clients.
Overview
Diane strives to build strong, healthy communities by helping clients buy, sell, lease, develop and redevelop properties, which, in turn, brings housing, employment, commerce, energy, entertainment and many more assets to communities.
She helps clients identify practical solutions to the complex and novel legal problems that they face in real estate transactions. Diane regularly assists clients with real estate acquisitions, dispositions, commercial leasing, and mortgage lending. Her practice includes real estate development, construction finance, and a growing focus on the affordable housing industry, nonprofit entities, municipal zoning and subdivision law, as well as shared equity models of real estate ownership, including common-interest communities and ground leasing.
Diane's practice is rooted in her background and commitment to public health and community development. Before practicing law, she studied at Tulane University's Celia Scott Weatherhead School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine and worked with the Minnesota Department of Health. During law school, Diane worked with the Minnesota Department of Transportation and the Center for Indian Country Development at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
In addition to her real estate practice, Diane represents clients in family law matters with the firm's Deinard Legal Clinic, a medical-legal partnership with the University of Minnesota Community-University Health Care Center serving low-income clinic patients.
Outside of work, Diane enjoys canoeing Minnesota's lakes and rivers, reading, cooking, and exploring new places with her wife and daughter.
Experience
- Counsels property owners, developers, investors and real estate developers in the purchase, sale and financing of commercial properties nationwide.
- Represents a large national bank in financing new construction and rehabilitation projects nationwide. These projects involve low-income housing tax credits, municipal bonds, rental subsidies, public-agency grants and conventional loan financing.
- Counsels a community land trust and community-based nonprofits on the development of shared equity homeownership opportunities for missing middle housing in Minneapolis and St. Paul.
- Represents a company in the "eatertainment" industry in numerous acquisitions and financings related to its multi-regional market expansion of indoor/outdoor food and entertainment complexes, including navigating local development approvals and incentives.
- Represents commercial landlords in negotiating, drafting and modifying leases, including lease workouts and buyouts during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Works with local government authorities in Minnesota to obtain zoning approvals for clients, including conditional use permits and variances.
- Represents homebuilders in the acquisition of land, the development of single-family homes, townhomes and condominiums, as well as the formation of homeowner associations.
- Assists clients with the purchase and sale of contaminated industrial properties, including allocating post-closing obligations to remediate environmental contamination and obtaining liability assurances for brownfield redevelopment.
News & Insights
News
Publications
Co-author, "Fostering Client Altrusim & the Common Good in the Practice of Law: Learning from Emerging Movements in Business & Economics," 44 Mitchell Hamline Law Review 1, 2018
Co-author, "A Call to Cultivate the Public Interest: Beyond Pro Bono," 51 Washington University Journal of Law & Pol'y 95, 2016
"Property Law: The Crossroads of Capacity and Livability: A Green Light to Neighborhood Opposition as a Factual Basis for Denying Conditional Use Permits," 42 Mitchell Hamline Law Review, 2016
Speaking Engagements
Co-Presenter, "2023 Mid-Year Case Law Update," Real Property Section, Minnesota State Bar Association, April 2023
Recognitions
Recognitions
Recognized on the Minnesota Super Lawyers Rising Stars list, 2026
Named to the Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch® in America list, 2026-2027
Minnesota Rising Young Professionals, Finance & Commerce, 2024
Recognized for pro bono work by the Minnesota Supreme Court and Minnesota State Bar Association, 2020
Student Award of Merit, Mitchell Hamline Alumni Association, 2017
Outstanding Service Award, Minnesota Justice Foundation, 2016
Professional & Civic Activities
Professional & Civic Activities
Minnesota Lavender Bar Association
Minnesota State Bar Association, Real Property Section
Hope Community, Inc., Board Member
Practices & Industries
Admissions
- Minnesota, 2017
Education
Mitchell Hamline School of Law, J.D., summa cum laude, 2017
Tulane University, B.S. Public Health, B.A. History, magna cum laude, 2011
Clerkships
- Honorable Justice Margaret Chutich of the Minnesota Supreme Court
