Pam Duffy practices in the areas of commercial real estate, land use, and development, with special expertise in large public and private entity transactions. She has acted as lead counsel for numerous major development projects, including one of the largest rebuilding projects in San Francisco history, the $2.5 billion Sutter Health/California Pacific Medical Center, which includes five campuses and two new hospitals spread across the city. She is currently the lead counsel for the LA Clippers’ new Inglewood, CA arena.
She is renowned for her in-depth understanding of the long-term implications of development requirements and how they affect construction, financing, operation, leasing, and sale of a development project. Pam is unusually skilled at helping clients find elegant solutions to the challenges that arise in the development of complex public/private projects.
Pam is an elected member of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers, the Pacific Council on International Policy, and the International Women’s Forum. She serves on the Board of Directors of the National Advisory Council of the Institute of Governmental Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, and is a member of the Advisory Board of the College of Natural & Social Sciences at California State University, Los Angeles. She has previously served on the boards of public television station KQED, Inc., the Exploratorium, San Francisco Planning and Urban Research (SPUR) and many other organizations from community centers to a modern dance company. Pam is a member of Lambda Alpha International and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area.
She has received numerous state and local honors and recognitions as well as served as a visiting lecturer at many law schools and universities including UCLA, Harvard, MIT, and Yale, and has taught three undergraduate seminars at UC Berkeley.
Pam graduated with honors from California State University, Los Angeles, and earned her law degree, cum laude, from Loyola University, Los Angeles, where she was elected to the St. Thomas More Law Honor Society and served as a Lead Articles Editor of the Loyola Law Review.
California Pacific Medical Center in $2.5 billion 5-campus redevelopment project throughout San Francisco
Los Angeles Clippers and its affiliates in the development of its proposed new arena and associated community facilities in Inglewood
San Francisco 49ers and its affiliates to secure entitlements, lease rights, and financing for the 68,000 seat Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara
5M, a 1.8-million square-foot downtown San Francisco mixed-use project of Forest City and Hearst Corporation
The Exploratorium relocation of its internationally renowned museum of science, art, and human perception, to a nine-acre, 230,000 square-foot campus on the San Francisco waterfront at Piers 15-17
Burlingame Point, a proposed water-oriented, master-planned corporate campus on an 18-acre site along the shores of the San Francisco Bay
Farallon Capital Management’s 300-acre Mission Bay development project in San Francisco, which includes 8 million square feet of commercial uses and 6,000 housing units
Westfield Shopping Center, Forest City Enterprises’ 1.5-million-square-foot historic renovation and new retail and entertainment project in San Francisco
eBay Inc.’s major campus expansion in San Jose
San Francisco Giants and its affiliates in the development of Oracle Park (formerly AT&T Park), the 43,000-seat ballpark in Mission Bay
Pam Duffy is one of the most recognized land use attorneys in San Francisco. Her many accolades include:
— Chambers USA Tier 1 in Real Estate: Land Use and Zoning (2003-2019); National Real Estate Lawyer of the Year (2013, 2012)
— Best Lawyers San Francisco Lawyer of the Year: Real Estate Law (2016, 2010); Litigation – Land Use & Zoning (2014); Land Use & Zoning Law (2011)
— National Law Journal Outstanding Women Lawyers (2015)
— Daily Journal Top 50 Development Lawyers (2014); Top 30 Real Estate Lawyers (2012); Top 100 Lawyers in California (2011, 2010); Top 12 Land-Use Attorney in California (2002)
— San Francisco Business Times Northern California Real Estate Women of Influence, Hall of Fame (2013); 100 Most Influential Women in Bay Area Business (2005-2010); inducted as a Forever Influential Woman (2011)
— California Real Estate Journal Dealmaker of the Year for her work on the Presidio Landmark, conversion of the Public Health Services Hospital in San Francisco to residential uses (2009)
— California Lawyer California Attorney of the Year (CLAY) Award for her work on the Westfield San Francisco Centre (2009)
— GlobeSt.com Northern California Real Estate Women of Influence (2009)
— San Francisco Chronicle Top 25 Lawyers in the San Francisco Bay Area (2003)
In 2003, Pam was recognized as a distinguished alum of Loyola Law School, and in 2014, recognized as one of 50 Inspirational Alumni. In 2017, Pam was recognized as a California State University, Los Angeles, Alumna of the Year. In 2019, Pam was chosen as the “Member of the Year” by the Golden Gate Chapter of Lambda Alpha International, an honorary land economics society.
For over 20 years, Pam has been ranked as one of The Best Lawyers in America by Best Lawyers and has been annually listed as a Super Lawyer in Northern California. She is listed in International Who’s Who of Real Estate Lawyers, Who’s Who Legal: California, and Cambridge Who’s Who Registry among Executive and Professional Women. She holds an AV rating by Martindale-Hubbell and is a member of a select group of women in Martindale-Hubbell’s Bar Register of Preeminent Women Lawyers.
Pam has served as a visiting lecturer at Yale Law School, the Harvard Law School, UCLA Law School, the MIT Graduate School of Urban Planning, Stanford Law School, the Practicing Law Institute, the UC Haas School of Business, the University of Oregon Business School, Southern Methodist University Law School, the Urban Land Institute, the California Building Industry Foundation, and other professional organizations. She recently completed three years of teaching an undergraduate seminar in the UC Berkeley political science department.
