Larry James
Founder · Real estate, development, and business law
Direct: 515.519.3616
Larry James leads Conveyance Law’s real estate and business law practice.
He partners with developers, commercial tenants, and lenders to execute transactions that align with their business goals: sales and leasing transactions, title review, financing, tax credit deals, platting, and municipal entitlements. He works closely with developers on both new development and redevelopment, and is regularly engaged as Iowa local counsel for Am Law 100 firms on complex real estate transactions.
Practice Focus
- Mixed-use and infill development structuring, from site assemblage through stabilization
- Tax Increment Financing under Iowa Code §403, including development agreements, minimum assessment agreements, and TIF opinion letters
- Federal and Iowa historic tax credit transactions, including master tenant structures and investor equity documentation
- Low-income housing tax credit transactions, including competitive 9% and 4% bond-financed deals
- Commercial real estate purchase, sale, leasing, and financing transactions
- Iowa local counsel for national lenders, syndicators, and law firms
- Business formation, governance, and commercial transactions for owner-operated and family-held companies
Background
Before founding Conveyance Law, Larry was a partner at a national law firm, where he led the Iowa real estate practice. He served as lead title attorney on complex acquisitions involving hundreds of sites, prepared Iowa commercial loan documents for national lenders, and acted as local counsel on LIHTC, historic tax credit, and New Markets Tax Credit transactions across the state.
Larry’s background outside the law shapes how he practices it. He has worked as a real estate developer and small business owner. He understands what it takes to make a deal pencil out, what lenders need to see, and what agreements need to survive in the field. That perspective is the reason clients describe working with Conveyance Law as fundamentally different from working with a traditional firm.
Education
Drake University Law School
J.D., 2001
Marquette University
B.A., International Affairs, cum laude
Recognition
- The Best Lawyers in America, Land Use & Zoning Law
- Chambers USA, Real Estate
- Business Record, Forty Under 40
- Des Moines Register, “14 People to Watch”
Civic and Community Involvement
Larry’s involvement in the public side of land use, planning, and development is sustained, longstanding, and informs how he practices on the private side.
Current
- Co-Chair, 1 Million Trees Central Iowa
- Board Member, Trees Forever
- Board Member, Anawim Housing
- Board Member, City of Des Moines Building and Fire Code Board of Appeals
Past
- Founder and Former Chair, Urban Land Institute Iowa
- Board Member, Des Moines Film
- Co-Chair, Connect Downtown
- Chair, Sustainable Development Subcommittee of Capital Crossroads
- Member, PlanDSM Advisory Committee
- Co-Chair, Iowa Soil and Water Future Task Force
- Co-Founder, City Sounds: Des Moines Piano Project
- President, Drake Neighborhood Association
- Chair, City of Des Moines Housing Appeals Board
This involvement isn’t separate from the practice; it informs it. Working on the public side of land use, planning, and development gives the firm a working understanding of how decisions actually get made in Central Iowa, and a direct view into the priorities of the people who make them.
Larry under the marquee of the Varsity Cinema in the Drake neighborhood.
Get Started
Working with our firm
If you’re considering a project, structuring a transaction, or working through a problem that’s developing, we’d be glad to talk. The decisions made early in a deal compound, and engaging the right legal counsel before the structure is locked in is meaningfully more valuable than fixing things later.
Conveyance Law, PLC | Des Moines, Iowa | 515.519.3600
