Paul LeBlanc focuses his practice on real estate, finance, and energy and infrastructure matters. He advises owners, developers, investors, lenders, and energy companies on the real property side of complex projects, including acquisitions and dispositions, ground leases and site control, commercial leasing, secured lending, and easements and rights-of-way. His work spans traditional commercial real estate and energy-related development, including nuclear, power generation, pipelines, and data center infrastructure. He represents clients on both sides of these transactions, including:
- Buyers and sellers in acquisitions and dispositions of raw land and improved commercial properties
- Landlords and tenants in commercial leasing and ground lease transactions
- Lenders and borrowers in construction and other commercial lending, including workouts and foreclosures and sourcing local counsel support across the U.S.
- Institutional investors, developers, and other entities in real estate development ventures, including multifamily, mixed-use, industrial, and data center projects
- Energy and infrastructure companies, including nuclear and power-generation developers, in site acquisitions, ground leases, easements, and rights-of-way
- Pipeline, utility, and telecommunications companies (as part of a legal team), as well as landowners, in easement negotiations and eminent domain matters
- Oil and gas operators and contractors in real estate and commercial matters
Paul’s real estate and energy practices complement each other. He regularly handles the title, survey, easement, mineral, and access issues that determine whether an energy or infrastructure project can be built and financed. Earlier in his career, he spent several years exclusively representing lenders in real estate and non-real estate lending transactions, which helps him advise institutional and non-institutional lenders and borrowers alike. He also draws on his time as a litigation associate to analyze legal and client issues and anticipate problems before they arise.
Representative Experience
Any result the lawyer or law firm may have achieved on behalf of clients in other matters does not necessarily indicate similar results can be obtained for other clients.
Real Estate
- Represent real estate owners, developers, investors, and institutional purchasers and sellers in acquisitions and dispositions of raw land and improved commercial properties throughout the United States, with transaction values frequently ranging from $3 million to $100 million and at times exceeding $500 million.
- Represent institutional real estate investors in complex sale-leaseback and ground lease transactions involving the acquisition, financing, development, leasing, and operation of commercial and entertainment properties. Recent work included an approximately $60 million Texas acquisition and ground lease transaction involving municipal and economic development agreements, construction escrows, complex title and survey matters, lender collateral arrangements, and negotiated step-in, cure, redevelopment, and other property rights.
- Represent investors and developers in portfolio and multi-property acquisitions and dispositions throughout the United States, including transactions involving dozens of properties across multiple jurisdictions.
- Represent developers and property owners in land acquisitions and dispositions for commercial, mixed-use, industrial, multifamily, senior living, and other development projects.
- Represent clients in real estate matters involving data centers and related infrastructure, including land acquisitions and site and ground lease arrangements for power-generation and other infrastructure supporting data center developments.
- Advise purchasers, sellers, landlords, tenants, and investors on title, survey, easement, access, restrictive covenant, and other real property diligence matters, and coordinate with national title companies on closing and title insurance requirements.
- Represent landlords and tenants in commercial leasing transactions involving office, retail, industrial, healthcare, restaurant, and other commercial properties throughout the United States, including ground leases, lease amendments and renewals, lease restructurings, and commercial evictions.
Finance
- Represent borrowers and lenders in commercial lending transactions throughout the United States, including construction loans, acquisition and development loans, real estate-secured loans, and other secured commercial credit facilities, with loan amounts generally ranging from $5 million to more than $100 million.
- Represent real estate developers and institutional investors in negotiating construction financing for large-scale development projects, including loan agreements, promissory notes, deeds of trust and mortgages, completion and non-recourse guaranties, environmental indemnities, project-document assignments, and related collateral documents. Recent matters include construction financing for major commercial, industrial, and multifamily development projects.
- Advise borrowers, lenders, and institutional real estate investors on structuring real estate collateral involving multiple financing and ownership interests, including fee and leasehold estates, deeds of trust and mortgages, assignments of leases and rents, guaranties, and interrelated third-party collateral arrangements.
- Represent lenders in loan amendments, collateral substitutions, partial releases, and other modifications to existing credit facilities, including transactions requiring coordinated substitutions of real estate collateral and preservation of lien priority.
- Represent lenders in workouts, distressed credit matters, and Texas deed of trust foreclosure proceedings.
Energy & Natural Resources
- Represent a large public university system in Texas in connection with advanced nuclear reactor development projects, including ground leases, project development arrangements, risk allocation, site control, decommissioning requirements, financial assurance arrangements, and related real estate matters.
- Advise energy and infrastructure companies in connection with site acquisitions, ground leases, facility leases, easements, rights-of-way, and related development matters in Texas and throughout the United States.
- Represent energy infrastructure developers in ground lease and site-control arrangements for distributed power-generation projects serving large industrial and data center loads, including matters involving generation facilities, fuel and water infrastructure, utility and communications easements, interconnection rights, and related project infrastructure.
- As part of a team, advise midstream pipeline companies on the acquisition of easements and rights-of-way for interstate and intrastate pipeline projects, including easement negotiations and eminent domain matters in Texas, Oklahoma, and other jurisdictions.
- Represent utility and telecommunications companies in the negotiation and documentation of easements, rights-of-way, and related land agreements for infrastructure projects.
- Represent landowners in pipeline easement and eminent domain matters, including evaluation and negotiation of easement terms, route and operational restrictions, compensation, and impacts on existing and future uses of the property.
- Advise clients on title, survey, and real property matters affecting energy and infrastructure projects, including easements, rights-of-way, pipeline interests, and oil, gas, and other mineral interests.
- As part of a team, represented the acquirer of a historic silver mine in Texas in connection with real estate due diligence, title, easement, mineral, and infrastructure matters.
- Represent oil and gas and other energy-industry clients in connection with real estate and commercial matters, including site acquisitions, leasing, development, and infrastructure arrangements.
- Represent oil and gas operators and contractors in connection with construction disputes and lien claims.
Honors & Awards
- Recognized in Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in America (BL Rankings) in Banking & Finance Law (2023-Present) and Real Estate Law (2021-Present)
- Selected to Texas Super Lawyers: Rising Stars (Thomson Reuters), 2018, 2022-Present
Professional & Civic Engagement
- CCIM Houston / Gulf Coast Chapter – Member (2026 to present)
- British American Business Council (BABC) Texas – Non-Executive Board Member (2026 to present), Events Committee Member (2026 to present)
- Association of International Energy Negotiators (AIEN) – Member (2026 to present)
- Autism Dad's Social Club of Houston – Member (2024 to present); Advisory Board Member (2026 to present)
- Literacy Now (Board Chair, 2017-2023; Board of Directors, 2013-Present; Executive Committee, 2015-Present; Volunteer Elementary School Mentor, 2013-2014)
- Houston Bar Association (2011 to present)
- Greater Houston Partnership (Real Estate Committee, 2022-2023)
- Houston Young Lawyers Association (Board of Directors, 2013-2017; Leadership Academy Committee Co-Chair, 2015-2017; Leadership Academy, 2012-2013)
Thought Leadership
Presentations
- Speaker, "Real Estate Law: Things I Wish I’d Known Sooner re: Real Estate Transactions and Representing Landlords and Tenants," National Business Institute (NBI) seminar, September 16, 2025
- Speaker, "Real Estate Documents: 55 Red Flags You Can’t Afford to Miss," National Business Institute (NBI) Seminar, July 17, 2025
Publications
- Author, "From Surviving to Coping to Thriving: Parenting a Child with ASD/Autism – Understanding PDA and its Intersection with Autism," LinkedIn, April 21, 2026
- Author, “Nvidia to Build Two New Texas Factories,” April 16, 2025
- Author, “Ongoing Data Center Development Amid Tariff Uncertainty,” April 4, 2025
- Author, “Texas Data Centers Powering AI,” April 1, 2025
- Author, "From Surviving to Coping to Thriving: Parenting a Child with ASD/Autism – Debunking 7 Common Myths," LinkedIn, January 29, 2025
- Author, "From Surviving to Coping to Thriving: Parenting a Child with ASD/Autism – Important Terminology," LinkedIn, December 2, 2024
- Author "From Surviving to Coping to Thriving: Parenting a Child with ASD/Autism – My Daughter’s 5 Signposts (Pre-diagnosis)," LinkedIn, November 1, 2024
