Overview
Rose (Rosie) LeBreton’s real estate work falls into three major categories:
- Development of office buildings, hotels, shopping centers, industrial parks, residential and commercial condominiums and subdivisions
- Acquisition, financing, land use and end sales
- “Forensic title” resolution of complex title issues such as:
- New Orleans Riverfront ownership and entitlements
- BP Oil Spill claims by owners in the DeepWater Horizon disaster
- Mapping and title review of Tulane University’s uptown campus and other properties
- Port of New Orleans’ acquisition of the New Orleans Public Belt Railroad and the Huey P. Long Bridge including land from Almonaster Industrial Park in New Orleans east to Avondale Shipyard in West Jefferson Parish
- Resolved ownership interests of 43,500 acres in St. Tammany Parish
- Defense of 2000+ title insurance claims for national underwriters
- Title insurance and commercial closings through LAWLA Title, LLC
Unlike most real estate lawyers who start with closing work, Rosie’s early experience was in title curative and defense matters. Working in the FSLIC/FDIC crisis, her charge was to restore loans with bad loan underwriting to commerce. This experience provided important lessons in “what not to do” in real estate practice, and led to Rosie’s representation of national title underwriters, such as First American Title Insurance Company and Fidelity National Title Insurance Company, in the defense and resolution of more than 2,000 title matters.
An architecture metaphor for real estate law
Rosie uses an architecture metaphor, often referring to real estate development projects as “legal architecture”:
The foundation of the “building” is good title work, and Rosie is adept at helping developers discern what is visible on the land and what rights may have been alienated but are not visible. For example, the developer wants to avoid breaking ground only to break a gas line, or find the property is encumbered with an underground drainage servitude. Providing a stable ground floor of the “building” requires securing proper zoning and necessary entitlements/easements/permits so the project can operate on the land. Whether an office building or park, a condominium, a shopping center or a residential subdivision, properly documenting the project is akin to building out the upper stories, and the purchase and sale agreement (PSA) is like the architectural drawing: it outlines how the deal will progress from acquisition through closing and build out, and establishes obligations that survive closing. The financing, sale and construction documents are the topmost floors, each deriving from the plans outlined in the PSA, and each with a job in getting the “building” to completion. Finally, receiving the Certificate of Occupancy is like securing the metaphorical roof.
Additionally, Rosie is a licensed Louisiana Title Insurance Agent. At Lugenbuhl, she founded LAWLA Title, LLC, an in-house title agency which provides commercial closing services.
Rose LeBreton is well versed in commercial real estate. She has good expertise, good skill and good attention to detail. She is very familiar with zoning requirements and is very responsive.
Bankruptcy/Restructuring Client – Chambers
Outside the Office
Born and bred in New York, Rosie came to New Orleans to attend Newcomb College, where she met her husband, Edward F. LeBreton III. Together they have three children and four grandchildren, with whom she loves spending as much time as she can, as well as cooking and traveling. As a former voice student, Rosie enjoys all kinds of music and supports the New Orleans Opera Association as an associate board member. She is also deeply tied to Tulane University and honored to serve as a member of Tulane Law School’s Dean’s Advisory Board.
- Represented the owner, Poydras Properties II, L.L.C., in the ground-up development of a five-story building on the corner of Loyola Ave and Poydras Street, and the redevelopment of its adjacent property at 1250 Poydras Street. This included the construction of the building, imposing a condominium regime on the corner building, and imposing an office/hotel regime on the adjacent office building, including all permitting and entitlements, as well as subsequent transactions related to the properti
- Represented a national title insurance underwriter in a recovery action against an agent in a defalcation matter and in addition cured defects in over 200 titles that had been neglected by the agent.
- Successfully defended the title to more than 500 acres of land fronting on the Mississippi River, obtaining a summary judgment interpreting the effect of federal land patents.
- Obtained a judgment, affirmed at the appellate level, which established access rights to the anchor parcel in a Baton Rouge shopping center.
- Crafted the land use rights, conditions and restrictions necessary to unite ten individually-owned properties in the French Quarter into the Astor Hotel complex.
- Created a residential condominium use on land including 12 lots of record occupying more than half of a city square into ten luxury condominiums.
- Advised multiple condominium developers and associations on their developments: for example 8616 Oak Street in Uptown New Orleans and Maison du Parc in the heart of the French Quarter.
- Represented the largest landowners in St. Tammany, Plaquemines and St. Landry-St. Martin Parishes on a variety of real estate, levee control and industrial development issues.
- Represented the Poitevent and Hayne families in St. Tammany Parish, resolving complex ownership issues on 43,500 acres, mostly acquired in the 19th century, and reducing well over 100 individual owners into five limited liability companies.
- Worked on Lakeway II, in Metairie, to divide the office building into a three-unit condominium providing office, hotel and spa uses.
- Retained as lead Louisiana real estate counsel by the Deep Water Horizon Trust, she and her team resolving thousands of damage claims for the owners of the Louisiana Wetlands in the BP Oil Spill.
- Advised the Port of New Orleans in its acquisition of the New Orleans Public Belt Railroad, advising on the Belt’s 120-year property ownership from the Almonaster industrial area in New Orleans East to Avondale Shipyard located in West Jefferson.
- Served as the “legal architect” for the development of Tulane University’s riverfront properties, a project requiring in-depth knowledge of riverfront title and regulatory issues and involving working closely with Tulane, the Port of New Orleans, the New Orleans Convention Center, and the City of New Orleans on behalf of the client.
Reported Cases:
- Five N Co. v. Singer A&P Remainder Trust, et al., 721 So.2d 1066 (La.App.1stCir. 1998), cert. denied, 1999 La. Lexis 610 (La. Feb. 5, 1999)
- Plaquemines Parish Government v. Henry Schenck and all Other Living Heirs of Felix Villere
- The Administrators of the Tulane Educational Fund, v. Henry Schenck and all Other Living Heirs of Felix Villere
- Belle Chasse Plantation, LLC v. Henry Schenck and all Other Living Heirs of the Felix Villere., 2014 WL 12689924
- Poule D’Eau Properties, L.L.C. v. TLC Properties, Inc., 2022-1011 (La. App. 1 Cir. 2/24/23)
- Riversphere One, L.L.C. vs. Ernest N. Morial New Orleans Exhibition Hall Authority, Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans, No. 13-5903, Div. “F-7”
Professional
- Louisiana State Bar Association
- Texas Bar Association
- ABA Real Estate Section (Title Insurance Subcommittee)
- New Orleans Bar Real Estate Committee
- Urban Land Institute (Executive Committee)
- New Orleans Commercial Real Estate Women (President 2009)
- CREW Network (National), chair of recognition and education committees (2010-2012)
- Louisiana Land Title Association
Community
- Tulane University Alumni Board (represented the Law School in the University group)
- Tulane Law School Alumni Committee
- Founder & Honorary Chair of the Annual Tulane Law Hall of Fame Luncheon
- Tulane Law School Dean’s Advisory Board (a distinguished advisory board to the administration of the Law School)
- Board of Directors, Garden District Association
- Founding Board of Directors, Preservation Resource Center
- Founding Board of Directors, Camp Pleasant, Inc.
- Board Member, New Orleans Opera Association
- Best Lawyers (2008-2025)
- Super Lawyers (2009-2024)
- Inside New Orleans “Elite Lawyers” (2024)
- Chambers and Partners USA: Band 2 in Land Use (2023) and Band 3 in Real Estate (2011-2016, 2019-2024)
- New Orleans Magazines “Top Lawyers” (since 2007)
- New Orleans CityBusiness Leadership in Law Hall of Fame Honoree (Class of 2021)
- New Orleans CityBusiness Leadership in Law Honoree (Class of 2017, 2019, 2021)
- Featured in New Orleans Magazine Best Lawyers Edition (2011, 2016)
- Featured in article on women practicing law in the 1970-80s, National Law Journal
- Martindale-Hubbell AV Preeminent Rating
- CityBusiness Woman of the Year Honoree (2009)
- Outstanding Young Woman of America (1976)
- Assistant Dean, Tulane Law School, 1977-1979
- Law Clerk to Hon. Charles Schwartz, Jr. (U.S.D.C., E.D. LA) 1979-1980
- Licensed Real Estate Agent, 1976