Gerald D. Bloch

Gerald D. (Jerry) BlochAttorney(949) 643-0600jerry@gdbloch.com

Background

Gerald Bloch has over 25 years of experience practicing law in the area of real estate.He represents investors, developers, lenders, landlords, tenants and contractors and has resolved complex issues and executed transactions in a wide range of real estate contexts, including purchases and sales, financings, land use, development and construction and commercial leases.

Jerry has held a number of in-house legal positions, including real estate counsel to Wells Fargo Bank, Associate General Counsel for The Grupe Company and General Counsel for Pacific Monarch Resorts.He opened his own practice in Southern California in 1994.

Jerry has a B. A. degree from Boston College, a J. D. degree from University of San Francisco and an L. L. M. degree in tax law from Golden Gate University.He is a member of the Real Estate Section of the Orange County Bar Association, has written numerous articles and was a professor of real property law at San Francisco Law School.

"I would go so far as to say they're pretty well worthless to the meeting planner," says Gerald D. Bloch, an attorney in Aliso Viejo, CA, specializing in hospitality and resort business.
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"All the standard force majeure provision does is allow one party to be able to get out of the contract if an event takes place that makes it impossible for that party to perform," attorney Bloch explains."Now if you carefully think about it, that's a relatively high standard.You don't won't to have to rely on a careworn provision that exists in some old law book somewhere." Bloch adds, "So many things can happen that would make the meeting planner wish to cancel, beyond what the hotel would want.
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Bloch says companies under those circumstances should have to pay cancellation fees."We have a client in the high tech sector who laid some contracts on my desk and said 'We have a deposit on these trade shows and we really don't want to go now.' So some of it is economic," he believes.Pearson of Aon says he hasn't seen economic cancellations, but would take a dim view of them if he did."Some people may want to cancel a meeting for next year and try to use September 11 as a crutch," he acknowledged.
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asks Bloch.Suppose, for example, that a particular community suffers a highly publicized anthrax scare, and suddenly attendees refuse to go to the meeting.Bloch says the contract should always contain a provision allowing the company to be fully excused if conditions in the community substantially change after the contract has been signed.
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Bloch concedes, "Some situations you can still argue either way.But that's good for the planner, because with the hotel's force majeure provision, you can't even argue."This explains why consultant Vitagliano offers the following stern advice for meeting planners: "This is a time to invest a few hundred dollars and an attorney's time to have him review your standard contracts and make recommendations accordingly," he said.

Gerald Bloch

Gerald (Jerry) Bloch is the latest addition as principal of The General Counsel.Jerry brings over 25 years of broad-based experience balanced between in-house and private practice.His in-house positions were with Wells Fargo Bank and later The Grupe Company where he was Associate General Counsel and Vice President.He then became General Counsel for Pacific Monarch Resorts, where he substantially reduced the company's legal expenses, acquired two large real estate development projects and developed the first "points" timeshare program in California ever approved by the Department of Real Estate.He also helped supervise the HR function managing about 800 employees.

Upon his transition to private practice, he became outside General Counsel for Magellan Software (later known as Gauss Interprise, now the Gauss Division of Open Text Corp) where he helped the company acquire land and construct its headquarters.He developed a contract management system and review committee for revenue recognition purposes under accounting rules, negotiated major end user transactions and supported the company's HR function, including policies, hiring, terminations and investigation of workplace issues and employee complaints.He also helped the founders of INDX Software Corporation with several early rounds of financing and agreements with partners and others.

Jerry obtained his BA degree from Boston College in 1977 and his JD degree from University of San Francisco in 1980.He has a masters degree (LLM) in taxation from Golden Gate University.He taught law at San Francisco Law School and has written numerous articles.Jerry is a member of the Orange County Bar Association.