Oregon Legal Research Blog
We get questions about commercial leases mostly from attorneys, but occasionally from property owners, real estate investors, and small businesses.
Here is some research advice:
1) As of today, there is no Oregon legal treatise written specifically on commercial leases. There are separate real estate and Oregon business treatises that will address the subject to varying degrees. Many of these materials are in print and in the OSB BarBooks database, both of which you may find in many (but not all) Oregon law libraries.
2) There have been a few Continuing Legal Education (CLE) course books printed, but none that I’ve seen in the past several years by the Oregon State Bar, Oregon Law Institute, or the Multnomah Bar Association. Non-Oregon publisher CLE vendors do present programs on commercial leases.
In order to find past programs, use the OSB MCLE Database. You can search the keywords commercial lease. You can also limit by city if you get too many hits. Portland is a good limiter that doesn’t limit too much (sometimes a good thing – sometimes not), but CLE programs are given in other cities.
3) It looks as though the OSB is scheduling some commercial real estate programs over the next few months. You can find details at their CLE website. If you can’t find what you need, phone them to ask.
4) OSB CLE: “Drafting a Commercial Lease,” March 17, 2000.
5) Oregon Law Institute (OLI), Northwestern School of Law of Lewis & Clark College, Portland, Oregon, also schedules course on commercial leases. There were some back in 2001: “Three Half-Day Programs on Commercial Real Estate Issues”:
May 11, 2001: “Commercial Real Estate from the Ground Up“
June 8, 2001: “Leasing 101: The Fundamentals”
June 8, 2001: “Today’s Hottest Topics in Leasing“
6) Check with large law libraries for commercial real estate treatises (or databases) and for CLE materials from Oregon and non-Oregon CLE vendors. You can search law school library catalogs online. You can search most state law library catalogs online. Several publishers and organizations have print and online commercial lease publications, including but not limited to the following:
7) You will also need to research the specific subject the usual way: statutes, case law, treatises, forms books, and monographs on commercial leases, Oregon case law and statutes, and consultation with Oregon attorneys.