Julian Gross is one of the nation’s principal experts on community benefits in land use development and public infrastructure.
For over 25 years, Mr. Gross has represented public entities and nonprofit advocates in contract negotiations, legislative and administrative drafting, and policy development aimed at improving land use development and public infrastructure, and advancing racial and economic equity. He has negotiated dozens of community benefits agreements (CBAs), initiating and refining a groundbreaking contractual approach to resolution of challenging urban development issues. He has taught, published, and spoken widely on the subject of land use and community benefits, with a focus on public and private negotiation strategies. Mr. Gross has also drafted numerous local hiring and contracting policies, and has worked on living wage policies, disadvantaged-business policies, and many other community economic development initiatives. He has also represented public entities and nonprofit affordable housing developers in negotiation of project labor agreements and community workforce agreements that advance multiple policy goals. In addition, he has extensive experience advising public entities and nonprofits on a wide variety of organizational legal needs.
Shoshana provides regulatory, policy, and transactional services to a range of public, private, and nonprofit clients, with a focus on equitable community and infrastructure development. This work includes negotiating/implementing equity-focused project labor and community workforce agreements, drafting community-lead ballot measures, and designing land use and development policies.
Previously, Shoshana worked for a boutique energy and environmental law firm advising rate-regulated utilities, public entities, and private investors on energy-related transactional, regulatory, and litigation matters. This work included a wide range of policy and legal advocacy, including PURPA compliance litigation before federal and state regulators, merger application proceedings, capital cost deferral policy dockets, power cost updates, and general rate cases. Shoshana also worked as a judicial clerk for Justice Charles K. Wiggins of the Washington State Supreme Court, and for a large international law firm in San Francisco.
Shoshana’s collaboration with the Law Office of Julian Gross began in 2014, when she worked on federal funding requirements in community economic development initiatives. She also previously served as a volunteer (and later as pro bono counsel) for Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto, where she supported the development of affordable housing policies. Shoshana now lives and works in Portland, Oregon, and is admitted to the bar in both Oregon and California.
Shajuti Hossain works with public agencies and nonprofits on policy development initiatives and transactions, including equitable contracting initiatives and community benefits agreements. She is also skilled at advising clients in the development of regional and local initiatives that advance racial and economic equity. Ms. Hossain has extensive experience in affordable housing, land use development, and transportation policies.
Previously, Ms. Hossain was an Associate at Renne Public Law Group, where she represented local public entities in California in property tax and employment litigation, investigated workplace complaints, and provided advice on various employment issues. She also participated in affirmative litigation, representing hundreds of low-income patients of Laguna Honda Hospital, a large public nursing home in San Francisco. Before that, she was a staff attorney at Public Advocates, where she worked with coalitions to advocate for equitable policy changes and legal implementation to address the Bay Area housing affordability crisis at local, regional, and state levels. There, she developed expertise in affordable housing and tenants’ rights policy in California and nationwide.
Ms. Hossain lives in San Francisco and is admitted to the California bar.
