Anita Famili

Anita Sabine is a partner in the firm’s Los Angeles office and leads the firm’s real estate transactions and finance practice and the cannabis and CBD practice. She represents owners, operators, lenders, developers, investors and others in a range of financing, development, leasing and investment-related transactions.

Anita guides real estate investment trusts, national retail grocers, public utilities, and other commercial developers and owners/users in acquiring, entitling, developing, leasing, building, financing, deleveraging and joint-venturing property throughout the United States. Clients turn to her to assemble, lead and manage major real estate transactions as well as coordinate and collaborate with other legal experts, third-party operators, vendors, outside managers, developers and consultants.

Anita is a leader in the cannabis and CBD legal space, having represented professional cannabis businesses for seven years on corporate structuring; joint venture formations; strategic partnership agreements; celebrity licensing deals; financings and equity raises; farm and dispensary acquisitions; development and land use matters; leasing; service agreements; Internet, media, advertising and FDA advisement; and licensing matters.

As part of that, Anita manages Manatt’s cannabis and CBD practice, composed of about 45 attorneys whose traditional practices include real estate, financial services, land use, corporate, tax, entertainment, advertising, intellectual property, litigation, digital media and government. Anita’s clients in the cannabis and CBD industries range from public to private companies. Anita sits on the Legal Advisory Committee of UC Irvine’s Center for the Study of Cannabis, working with university professors and researchers to identify best practices and legally permissible pathways for cannabis research. She has been a guest lecturer at the UC Irvine School of Law Cannabis and the Law class. She is a frequent panelist and speaker at cannabis and CBD conferences.

Anita has extensive experience in secured and unsecured financings (including multistate, syndicated, construction, bridge and mezzanine loans), leveraged acquisitions, complex subordination and intercreditor arrangements, letters of credit, and perfecting security interests in collateral. In the project development area, Anita represents governmental and quasi-public entities, private bidders, and other stakeholders in the long-term concession of major infrastructure projects and large project assets.

Anita was recognized on the 2020 edition of The Best Lawyers in America report. Early in her career, Anita received the Real Property Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Outstanding Young Lawyer Award and has been named one of Real Estate Forum’s Women of Influence. She is a frequent speaker and author on current real estate issues. In addition to her legal practice, Anita serves on the Executive Committee of the Central City Association, serves as the vice chair of the Los Angeles County Bar Association Real Property Section and has served on the USC Real Estate and Business Law Forum’s Program and Planning Committees.