
Profile
Richard A. Crow specializes in complex commercial real estate transactions. His practice encompasses office and retail leasing, including ground leasing, and the acquisition of land for residential, retail, and mixed-use development. His clients include homebuilders, office and retail landlords, quick-service restaurants, and restaurateurs, including several James Beard Award recipients and nominees, and a winner of the American reality competition series “MasterChef.”
He is a “deal maker” who engages with his clients, striving to understand their businesses and objectives. He believes that a lawyer’s role is not to be the center of a transaction but to facilitate it for the client by proactively identifying and addressing potential business and legal issues.
Richard is Board Certified in Commercial Real Estate Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. He currently serves as Chair of the Real Estate, Probate, and Trust Law Section (REPTL) of the State Bar of Texas (SBOT) and is a frequent speaker at SBOT-sponsored real estate continuing legal education courses. He is a fellow in the American College of Real Estate Lawyers (ACREL) and has been invited to attend ACREL’s Advanced Leasing Institute in Washington, D.C., this April.
Capabilities
Experience
- Represented publicly traded data center operator in the redevelopment of its campus.
- Represented purchaser of a large, financially distressed multi-tenant retail center out of bankruptcy.
- Negotiated settlement on behalf of sports venue operator in dispute with a governmental entity.
- Represented university in the development and leasing of an arena to host its NCAA Division I men’s and women’s hockey teams.
- Represented James Beard Award winning chef in negotiations with a landlord and a financially distressed tenant to terminate the tenant’s lease, purchase its assets, and enter into a new lease with landlord.
- Represented a national quick-service restaurant chain in the acquisition of its first locations in Greater Houston.
- Board Certified, Commercial Real Estate Law, Texas Board of Legal Specialization, 2016-Present
Recognition & Leadership
- Listed, The Best Lawyers in America, Real Estate Law, 2018-2025
- Listed, Super Lawyers magazine, Texas Super Lawyers, 2022-2024
- Team Member, a Law360 "Real Estate Practice Group of the Year," 2023
- Selected, Texas Bar CLE, “Best of. . . the 2019 Advanced Real Estate Law Course,” 2019
- Selected, Texas State Bar CLE, Steven C. Haley Award for Best Speaker, Advanced Real Estate Law Course, 2017
- Director, Texas State Bar Advanced Real Estate Law Course, San Antonio, Texas, 2023
- Member, State Bar of Texas
- Member, Real Estate, Probate and Trust Law Section
- Chair, 2024-2025
- Secretary and Incoming Chair, 2023-2024
- Treasurer, 2022-2023
- Council Member, 2016-2020
- Chair, Real Estate Legislative Affairs Committee , 2013-2019
- Member, Real Estate, Probate and Trust Law Section
- Member, Houston Bar Association
- Member, Real Estate Section
- Fellow, American College of Real Estate Lawyers (ACREL), 2019-Present
- Member, Houston Real Estate Lawyers Council (HRELC), 2019-Present
- Life Fellow, Texas Bar Foundation
- Member, Texas Bar College, 2023-Present
- Member, Honorary Board of Directors, Houston Dia de Los Muertos Gala and Parade, 2022
Credentials
- J.D., cum laude, University of Houston Law Center
- M.S., Wright State University-Main Campus
- B.A., Ambassador University
- Texas