Live Interactive Webinars

Mr. Kent is a Professional Surveyor with Schneider Geomatics in Indianapolis where, after 37 years, he transitioned in 2020 to part-time status and formed Meridian Land Consulting to provide training, consulting and expert witness services. He was Chair of the ALTA/NSPS Workgroup responsible for the ALTA/NSPS Standards from 1995 to 2021 and has been conferred a lifetime honorary membership in ALTA. Mr. Kent has presented programs on boundaries, survey standards, easements and rights of way, legal descriptions, title, risk management, safety, leadership, and other topics multiple times in each of the 50 states. He has served on the Indiana Board of Registration for Professional Surveyors since 2004.

Mr. Gregory is a professor emeritus of civil engineering technology and former department head at Purdue University Northwest in Hammond, Indiana. He is registered as a professional surveyor in Indiana and Illinois and consults as a project surveyor at Abonmarche through their Hobart, Indiana, office. Mr. Gregory has presented numerous seminars on various land surveying topics to professional land surveyors, surveying technicians, attorneys, title company officials, and real estate professionals through various settings. He is a member of the Indiana Society of Professional Land Surveyors (ISPLS), the Illinois Professional Land Surveyors Association (IPLSA), and the National Society of Professional Surveyors (NSPS). Mr. Gregory previously served on the ISPLS Board of Directors and is a past society president. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of NSPS and chairs the NSPS Education Committee. Mr. Gregory and his wife, Jen, previously co-pastored a church congregation in Grove City, Ohio for two and a half years.

Cecily Barclay advises clients on land use and entitlements, real estate acquisition and development, and local government law matters. She assists with land use application processing, drafting and negotiating purchase and sale agreements, and negotiating and securing the approval of development agreements. She also handles general plan amendments, annexations, initiatives and referendums, and tentative and final subdivision maps. Ms. Barclay’s projects include redevelopment of land for market rate and affordable housing, life science campuses, hotels and resorts, and transit-oriented mixed-use development projects. She has significant experience in processing entitlements for redevelopment and expansion of regional retail centers, resort hotels, entertainment centers, biotech/R&D campuses, large mixed-use master-planned communities, and multifaceted reuse of former military facilities and other infill development sites. Her work involves advising on land use initiatives, negotiating school fee mitigation agreements, preparing conservation easements to mitigate for loss of biological resources, and drafting affordable housing programs, Williamson Act contracts, and related issues pertaining to agricultural properties. Ms. Barclay works with local agencies on drafting ordinances relating to updating general plans and housing elements, planned development zoning, specific plans, mitigation fees, affordable housing, and growth management. She focuses on how agencies and developers can apply state housing laws, particularly antiNIMBY (Housing Accountability Act) and density bonus laws. Ms. Barclay is a lead author of Curtin’s California Land Use & Planning Law, a publication summarizing the major provisions of California’s land use and planning laws. She also co-authored Development by Agreement, an ABA publication providing a national analysis of laws and practices concerning various forms of development agreements. Ms. Barclay regularly speaks and writes on topics involving land use and local government law, including programs and articles for the American Bar Association, American Planning Association, Urban Land Institute, and other state and national associations and conferences.

Ms. Graham has practiced law in the area of real estate transactions and litigation for over 30 years, and has served as a mediator for over 15 years. Her law practice focuses on transactional real estate law and civil appeals. Ms. Graham’s mediation practice emphasizes business and real estate matters. She has also mediated personal injury, unlawful detainer and civil harassment disputes. Ms. Graham is an author of a chapter of the CEB treatise Neighbor Disputes: Law and Litigation, which she continues to update annually. She also edits chapters CEB’s California Easements and Boundaries: Law and Litigation. Ms. Graham has been a panelist at various California State Bar and local bar events on the topics of easements, neighbor disputes, contract issues, elimination of bias and advanced negotiation skills. Ms. Graham has a background in title insurance and liability insurance. She litigated an insurance bad faith matter which ultimately went to the California Supreme Court. She served as a mediator for the Los Angeles Superior Court Alternative Dispute Resolution Panel, serving on both its pro bono and pay panels during which time she mediated contract, business, real estate, unlawful detainer, personal injury and civil harassment matters, as well as private mediations. Ms. Graham has served as a member of the Executive Committee of the California State Bar Real Property Section and as a member of the Board of Trustees of Santa Monica Bar Association. She is an active member of the Los Angeles County Bar Association Small Firms and Solo Section and presently serves on its executive committee. Ms. Graham trained as a mediator with the Strauss Institute for Dispute Resolution of Pepperdine University School of Law. She holds a B.A. degree in English from UCLA and a J.D. degree from Loyola Law School.

Lauren Layne is a shareholder at Baker Manock & Jensen, PC, in Fresno, where she chairs the firm’s Business Department and leads the firm’s Water Law and Public Agency practice groups. Her law practice focuses on general water and environmental law, including CEQA and NEPA compliance, and includes various business transactional matters in the areas of water rights, water quality, public agency law, agribusiness, and real property. She also assists clients with land acquisitions and eminent domain proceedings. In addition to representing private farming clients, she serves as general counsel to various irrigation and water districts, flood control districts, and a number of groundwater sustainability agencies. Ms. Layne attended California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, where she majored in Soil Science, and earned her J.D. degree, with distinction, from McGeorge School of Law. She is a native of Porterville and has an agricultural background that includes farming and raising sheep. She was very involved in both 4-H and FFA, is a past 4-H Leader, and received her American FFA Degree. She is currently serving as vice chair of the Dean’s Advisory Council for the Cal Poly College of Agriculture Food and Environmental Sciences and as immediate past president to both the Cal Poly Alumni Association and the McGeorge School of Law Alumni Association. She is the chair of the Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA) State Legislative Committee and serves on the ACWA Legal Affairs Committee. Ms. Layne is co-chair of the Fresno County Bar Association Ag Law Section and is a member of Fresno County Farm Bureau.

Mr. Offord graduated from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 2005. Thereafter, he remained in Santa Barbara to work at a general litigation firm before attending law school at Santa Clara University and earning his J.D. degree in 2009. As a student at Santa Clara, he was named top of his class (receiving the CALI or the Witkin Award) in four of his courses, in addition to graduating on the Dean’s List. Mr. Offord joined the firm in 2009 after clerking for a law practice that primarily focused on real estate litigation and transactions. His experience includes law and motion practice and all stages of civil trials, including serving as lead counsel in many bench and jury trials. He has participated in State and Federal trials. He is heavily involved in the local real estate community, with an active role in several local real estate associations. He has also obtained his Real Estate Broker’s License from the California Department of Real Estate. He is regularly asked to be a speaker for local real estate organizations and brokerages, including SILVAR, Santa Clara County Association of Realtors®, and San Mateo County Association of Realtors®. He has also guest lectured at Menlo College for the Real Estate Law and Introduction to Law courses. In addition, Mr. Offord has been a speaker for both the Santa Clara County and San Mateo County Bar Associations. At Brewer Offord & Pedersen LLP, Mr. Offord works on matters representing real estate professionals and homeowners involved in neighbor and property disputes, as well as on commercial leasing matters and homeowner association issues. 

Pallamary & Associates is owned and operated by Michael J. Pallamary, a professional land surveyor licensed by the State of California. Mr. Pallamary has 42 years experience in the land surveying, land planning, land use consultation and engineering professions. He is a nationally recognized authority on land surveying and local land development regulations. Mr. Pallamary is a founding member of the Land Surveyors Advisory Council on Technical Standards (LSACTS). He writes a regular column for The American Surveyor magazine. He owned and operated Precision Survey & Mapping from 1983 to 1999. Mr. Pallamary has also been the owner and president of Land Survey Service of La Jolla since 1983. He is recognized as the preeminent authority on the redevelopment of property in La Jolla and San Diego’s coastal regions. Mr. Pallamary is also the owner and operator of www.tiepoints.com, the state of California’s premiere Land Surveyor Resource and Research Site. This site is also used as a tool to locate City of San Diego Tie Points. Pallamary & Associates specializes in land use litigation and the processing of complex land use permits, land planning, discretionary permits and coastal development permits issued by the City of San Diego and the California Coastal Commission. The company also provide project management services and land development consultation services for conventional projects and also in connection with insurance matters. As the owner of Land Survey Service of La Jolla, Mr. Pallamary owns the largest private collection of property records and survey maps of La Jolla properties. Mr. Pallamary is also a former member of the City of San Diego’s Board of Zoning Appeals in addition to having spent many years as a member of a variety of planning organizations including a term as the elected chairman of the Clairemont Mesa Planning Group, an elected member of the North Bay Project Area Committee and an appointed member of the Mission Bay Park Committee and Mission Bay Park Planners. In these capacities, he has co-authored the Mission Bay Park Master Plan, the Clairemont Mesa Community Plan and the North Bay Redevelopment Master Plan. Mr. Pallamary is also a co-author of the City of San Diego’s Mapping and Land Title Document Preparation Manual.

Ms. Lathrop is licensed as a professional land surveyor in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland, and as a professional planner in New Jersey. She holds a master’s degree in Environmental Policy and has been involved in surveying since 1974 in projects ranging from construction to boundary to environmental land use disputes. Ms. Lathrop is also a certified floodplain manager through the Association of State Flood Plain Managers (ASFPM) and a Certified Floodplain Surveyor through the New Jersey Society of Professional Land Surveyors. A former adjunct instructor at Mercer County College in New Jersey, she has also taught as part of the team for the licensing exam review course at Drexel University in Pennsylvania. Ms. Lathrop has been teaching seminars for surveyors since 1986 and has been writing articles for surveyors since 1983. She is a contributing editor for The American Surveyor magazine, and she has four articles included in the American Bar Association’s text, Land Surveys: A Guide for Lawyers and Other Professionals. She and Stephen V. Estopinal, PLS, PE co–authored a book titled Professional Surveyors and Real Property Descriptions: Composition, Construction, and Comprehension, published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. in 2011. She is also on the faculty of GeoLearn, a web-based educational provider. Ms. Lathrop is a past president of the New Jersey Society of Professional Land Surveyors and of the National Society of Professional Surveyors, and she has served on the Board of Directors for the American Association for Geodetic Surveying.