About Us

We represent clients across California through our offices in the Oakland/San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles and San Diego. The core of our practice is real estate law, with special strengths in affordable housing, community economic development and redevelopment. The supporting practice areas of land use, tax, and nonprofit and for-profit corporate and employment law round out and enhance our ability to provide comprehensive and great service to our clients.
Our Mission
Goldfarb & Lipman LLP is a collaborative and inclusive law firm that supports our public, nonprofit, and private clients to accomplish positive community impact through affordable housing and community economic development. We strive for a respectful and collegial work environment and find meaning and purpose in our clients’ commitment to create equitable and empowered communities.

Our Focus
We help our clients complete projects on time and on budget, with minimal risk or exposure.

Our Motivation
We share our clients’ passion and commitment toward their work.

Our Services
The strength of our California-based law firm lies in our ability to serve our clients on either discrete tasks or comprehensively. We can step in at one particular stage or guide our clients through the spectrum of services, from conception and feasibility to planning and design; from formation, tax structuring, financing and syndication through construction, rent-up, and continuing operations.

Our Diversity
Diversity is a core value at Goldfarb & Lipman, one that we celebrate and cultivate. The variety of experiences, backgrounds, and perspectives our attorneys and staff bring to the firm produces a creative and dynamic legal team and promotes a commitment to our clients and the populations they serve. The majority of our partners are women and one-third of our partners come from diverse ethnic backgrounds. Our attorneys are active in a range of community and professional organizations reflecting a diversity of viewpoints. Learn more about our support of legal and community organizations on our Community page. Goldfarb & Lipman is a woman-owned enterprise, certified by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC).

Our Credentials
We are one of the leading affordable housing and community economic development law firms in California. Since the firm’s inception in 1971, we have partnered with our clients to develop innovative strategies to adapt to the ever-changing landscape while providing a comprehensive range of standard legal services. Our attorneys are some of the most knowledgeable in the field. Through prior experience as city attorneys, city planners, redevelopment agency staff, HUD counsel, CPAs, and architects, we bring to our clients a deeper understanding of the intersection of the law and their work.

Our Clients

Goldfarb & Lipman represents a diverse client base. We work with newly-formed small community-based nonprofits and experienced for-profit and large regional nonprofits serving urban, rural, coastal, and inland areas. Our public agencies are from the nation’s largest cities and the State’s smaller towns and rural counties.

California Public Agencies
Cities. Counties. Successors to Redevelopment Agencies. Councils. Commissions. Public Housing Authorities. Special Districts.

Affordable Housing Developers
Nonprofit Organizations. Large Corporations. Small Community-Based Development and Social Service Organizations. Cooperatives. Mobile Home Park Owners and Tenants. Entities experienced, with thousands of units. Newly formed, embarking on their first forays into housing.

Nonprofit and For-Profit Entities Corporations
We serve single and multipurpose nonprofit and for-profit corporations of varying size and structure on real estate, tax-exemption, organizational, management, and employment matters.