MARICOPA LAWYER - MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

Kevin P. Nelson • June 1, 2018

Kevin P. Nelson, Chair, Real Estate Law Section

Kevin P. Nelson

How long have you been a member of the MCBA? Of the Real Estate Law Section?


Since 2008, I believe.


How long have you been practicing real estate law? Was it your first area of practice? If not, what else have you done?


Some portion of my practice has focused on real estate law for the past 13 years. I started practicing in Flagstaff, Arizona working for a small firm and did not have a first area of practice. I just did whatever was put in front of me. Over the years, my main areas of practice have included real estate, banking, construction, employment, insurance (95% not on the defense side), and tribal law. I still actively practice in each of those areas, except for employment.


What do you see as the focus for the Real Estate Law Section this year?


I have three focuses. First, is increasing membership and building a solid Board. If anyone is interested in joining, we welcome your participation. Second, improving the benefits members of our section receive by being a member. Over the coming months, our goal is to improve upon the consistency of our section's CLEs and to run our E-Communities page into a resource practitioners may use to learn more about recent case law and legislation as well as County resources available to them.


What issues do you see facing attorneys practicing real estate law in Arizona?


For me, there are two main issues. First, how artificial intelligence will change the practice. Smart contracts and blockchain technology appear to be the buzzwords now and the potential for technology to limit the need for less experienced attorneys or attorneys performing more routine functions is becoming a reality. As the real estate industry starts to incorporate smart contracts, I see a decreasing need for general transactional attorneys and an increasing need for sophisticated litigation attorneys with substantial experience working with and understanding technology. Second, water. That is an obvious issue.


If you hadn't been a lawyer, what else would you be?


Good questions. Most likely a small business owner, an astronomer, or a programmer.


If you could be any fictional character, on TV/in books/in a movie, who would it be, and why?


Batman, at least for a while. It would be nice to have an overabundance of wealth that you could use toward helping others by day, then turning to a secret life of fighting crime with the use of sophisticated toys and a sidekick butler by night. But it would have to get lonely after a while. I would miss living in a busy house and I already miss enough sleep.


What's the strangest job you've ever held?


I do not consider any job strange. Work is work. But I worked as a dishwasher, a landscaper, and a camp counselor (supervised by my wife) at different points of my life prior to graduating from law school.

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Arizona law provides qualified protections for mechanics whom perform repairs on vehicles at the vehicle owner’s request. Those protections are provided by a common law lien, a statutory lien, and a statutory right to treat certain vehicles as abandoned. Each protection, however, is subject to limitations including those meant to protect liens on the vehicle’s title at the time of the repairs (“prior liens”).
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This feature article originally appeared in Laches Magazine in April 2023. Growing up as a shy latchkey kid about 60 miles from the Mexican border in what was then the smallish city of Tucson, Arizona, I was provided with an early opportunity to become resourceful. Being from a broken home with a single parent who worked two jobs and put herself through college with me under her wing, I also quickly found that you learn a lot if you keep your mouth shut and your eyes open and actively watch and listen to the world around you. Once I emerged from the dark tunnel that enveloped my teenage years, I began to appreciate how the attributes I gained in my youth helped me quickly seek out, adapt to, and succeed in - most of the time - new environments.
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By Kevin P. Nelson • June 16, 2018
Like most attorneys I know, I hate answering phone calls late Friday afternoon. Will I do it? Sure. But I know before I pick up the phone that whoever is on the other side will not have an issue that is easy to fix or that can wait until Monday to be addressed. For the past two years, those late Friday phone calls have typically concerned misdirected escrow funds.
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By Kevin P. Nelson • February 14, 2018
If you are considering doing business on Tribal Land or with Tribal Entities, you need to understand that the law that applies to the business deal will likely not be Arizona law. This article addresses some important issues that arise when businesses and individuals do business with Indian Tribes or Tribal Entities on Tribal Lands. First, let’s understand what the terminology means.
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By Kevin P. Nelson • March 16, 2017
When beginning a business, many co-owners prefer to spend time focusing on their common efforts rather than the risks associated with their business relationship. Some important questions are commonly (and understandably) avoided during this “honeymoon” phase. Unwillingness to focus on these issues while they are still hypothetical can leave the partnership on a shaky foundation during rough times.
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The Fraudulent Debtor: Liability of Debtor’s Life Insurance Proceeds Beyond the Grave

By Kevin P. Nelson • March 16, 2017
It is well-settled under Arizona law that life insurance proceeds payable to beneficiaries, other than the deceased debtor, are exempt from claims against the deceased debtor’s estate. That rule has stood for more than sixty years and is supported by statute, A.R.S. S 20-1131(A), and the Arizona case, May v. Ellis, 208 Ariz. 229, 230-31, 92 P.3d 859, 860 (2004). In fact, in 2008, the Arizona legislature clarified the rule by confirming that life insurance proceeds are exempt from such claims regardless of whether the beneficiary is an individual or a trust.