Gilda Clift Breland
Gilda Clift Breland brings over 20 years of experience to practicing real estate law, as well as a background in general business law. She is specialized in commercial real estate leasing, acquisitions and dispositions. Throughout her practice, she has represented landlords and tenants in commercial real estate lease transactions and buyers and sellers in real estate acquisitions and dispositions. Prior to joining Foster Advisors, Ms. Clift Breland was a senior counsel, assistant vice president and assistant secretary at Albertsons Companies, the second largest supermarket operator in the United States, where she oversaw real estate-related legal matters affecting the Southern California division, including over 350 grocery store facilities and other commercial properties. Preceding her position with Albertsons Companies, Ms. Clift Breland served as second in command of legal affairs at a leading dental service organization, where she managed, among a variety of complex matters, retail and office lease transactions, mergers and acquisitions, and property management disputes. Prior to that position, she was a shareholder, director and officer of a boutique law firm in Los Angeles, where she represented commercial real estate landlords, tenants, developers, property managers, purchasers, and sellers in all aspects of real estate transactions, and represented business entities and nonprofit organizations in corporate and general business matters.
Ms. Clift Breland currently serves as member of the board of directors of First Place for Youth, a nonprofit organization serving transition-age foster youth. She has previously served on the boards of the following organizations: The John M. Langston Bar Association of Los Angeles, Inc. (of which she served as president in 2011); California Association of Black Lawyers; Black Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles, Inc.; and Black Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles Foundation. She has also served as an officer of Region IX of the National Bar Association, and as a member of the Commercial Leasing & Development Subsection Steering Committee of the Los Angeles County Bar Association Real Property Section.
She is a graduate of the University of Southern California Gould School of Law (J.D., 2003), where she was a participant in the Hale Moot Court Honors Program. She graduated from the University of California at Los Angeles (B.A., Economics-International Area Studies, 1999) with Provost’s Honors and studied business and economics (in Italian) at the University of Bologna in Italy.
Ms. Clift Breland has received numerous honors and recognitions throughout her legal career, including: Distinguished Alumni Recognition Award -- Santa Monica College Foundation, 2012; Outstanding Young Lawyer Award, Real Property Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association, 2011; and the inaugural Excellence in Leadership Award, IMPACT and National Bar Association, 2010, to name a select few.
In her free time, she enjoys bike rides by the beach with her husband and daughter.
Education
University of California at Los Angeles, B.A. 1999
University of Southern California Gould School of Law, J.D. 2003