Today we’d like to introduce you to Jennifer Cloud.
Jennifer, Esq. Broker/Owner of Prominus is a Texas licensed Real Estate Broker and REALTOR® and Texas and New York licensed attorney. Originally from the bayous of Louisiana, she graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Finance from Louisiana State University. She then went to law school at LSU’s Paul M. Herbert’s School of Law where just a year later, she was fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to study abroad for a summer at Faculte’ de Droit et de Science Politique, Universite’ Paul Ce’zanne d’Aix-Marseille in France.
Upon graduating law school she immediately hopped on a plane to begin her legal career in the Big Apple where she first began interning in the legal departments at several Fortune 500 companies such as Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, Estee Lauder Companies, BMG/Arista Records and Consolidated Edison. But litigating construction cases was the path she eventually gravitated towards and stuck with even when she decided to make the move to the Big D.
Fifteen years into her legal career as a commercial and construction litigator, Jennifer decided she wanted a more personalized interaction with her clients along with the ability to have a more flexible work schedule. More importantly, she wanted to be involved in a process that ended with her clients being joyful and excited about the future. The most logical career move was to transition over to real estate. She retired from litigation in August 2015 with the goal of eventually starting a one-of-a-kind brokerage that somehow included her sphere of influence; hence, the beginning of Prominus.
Today, Jennifer is a Certified Luxury Condominium Specialist, Certified Planned Development Specialist and Five Star Real Estate Agent that assists in the sale, procurement and lease of land, commercial and residential properties. From Fort Worth to Rockwall, Frisco to Magnolia, Jennifer has had the privilege of helping her clients and their families begin new chapters in their lives in their new homes, selling acreage they no longer need and finding the perfect office space for their booming businesses. Her clients feel safe and content knowing that she is reviewing all the paperwork involved in the transaction at hand, keeping everyone informed of applicable deadlines and taking a good hard look at the bones of the structure and quality of construction.
While Jennifer was solely dedicated to the practice of law in New York, she was responsible for all appellate and motion practice for a team of attorneys, defended over 100 depositions and appeared on at least 500 different occasions in the Supreme Courts of all boroughs of New York City, Nassau County, Suffolk County, Dutchess County, Westchester County and the United States Southern and Eastern District Courts of New York. She prosecuted/defended at least 4 appeals in Manhattan’s First Department Appellate Division and 6 appeals in Brooklyn’s Second Department Appellate Division.
While in Dallas, Jennifer represented clients in both federal and state courts with respect to commercial, construction, products liability and tort litigation. She also represented and assisted clients in contract preparation, review, interpretation and negotiation.
She routinely worked with real estate agents, owners, developers, general contractors, architects, engineers, subcontractors, and property inspectors with respect to claims of construction defects, professional negligence, deficient construction observation and materials testing, mold and water intrusion, and elevator defects and malfunctions; payment dispute claims and mechanic’s lien foreclosures; breach of contract and fiduciary duty claims; director and officer liability; fraud, conversion, nuisance and trespass claims; violations of the Water Code, Residential Construction Liability Act, Deceptive Trade Practices Act, Texas Theft Liability Act, Texas Residential Construction Commission Act, HUD guidelines and regulations; products liability; as well as general civil litigation.
Jennifer also previously served as general counsel and lead litigation counsel to an affluent high-rise condominium association in Dallas, Texas and a handful of small to mid-sized general contractors and developers in the DFW area. She was consecutively designated a Texas Rising Star from 2009-2014; a designation given to only 2.5 percent of the lawyers in Texas. She also received an AV Preeminent® designation; a testament to the fact that her peers rank her at the highest level of professional excellence.
Periodically she still continues to work with condominium associations, general contractors, start-up businesses, and individuals on their transactional matters.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
The path to real estate was an easy transition from law. As for my legal career, I feel very fortunate that I was given the opportunity to leave Louisiana and begin practicing law in the Big Apple. That experience opened my small-town eyes and allowed me to experience a way of life that fit well with my work ethic and personality. However it was difficult at times practicing in a profession that was at the time still heavily dominated my men, especially in construction litigation. It didn’t help that many times I was expected to be the court reporter in depositions (instead of an attorney) or that I was always having to advocate for fair pay. But my legal career helped shaped the person that I have become and for that, I am thankful. Nothing in life worth having comes easy, right?
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Prominus story. Tell us more about the business.
Prominus is a full-service real estate brokerage whose agents are particularly unique because they each have either a law, architectural, engineering or design degree. With so many agents now entering the real estate market these days, its critical for our clients to feel safe and secure with the choice they’ve made for representation. It’s also important for our agents to feel empowered with as much knowledge as possible and co-sharing our specialized expertise and skills with each other and our clients allows for an agency experience that no other brokerage can offer.
Type A personalities, crazy organizational skills and a live-or-die by deadlines mentality are not all that we bring to the table. Each agent is allowed to offer their professional independent services to Prominus clients and all agents are master negotiators capable of handling large, complex and multiple transactions with the skill of a real estate ninja. On the other hand, they also respect and appreciate any transaction, no matter how small, and treat all their clients with the utmost respect and confidence. Pushing the client to be as informed as possible from start to close is one of our main goals as an agency and that responsibility continues on, even after the transaction has ended.
Our motto is “We think you should expect more from your Realtor”, and with our agency, now you can!
At the moment, all Prominus agents are all attorneys. Besides myself, agent Chris Poulsen is a Probate/Real Estate Attorney as well as an Escrow Officer with Stewart Title. Stephen Rogers is a Tax Attorney and Qualified 1031 Exchange Intermediary and Lauren Tow is a Legal Recruiter. Their profiles can be found on our website at www.prominusrealestate.com.
Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
Dallas has so much to offer and over the years, construction and growth in our area has just boomed. This made it a perfect time for me to jump head first into our real estate market several years ago. Walkability is becoming more and more of a priority and accessibility to prime restaurants, shopping and other retail is becoming top-notch. I love that more LA and NYC influences continue to find their way into our City and that we are attracting more and more phenomenal talent in generally all sectors of business. Dallas’ central location makes traveling to either coast a breeze and our airports offer great international travel as well. With all that growth however comes more traffic, increased home prices and lack of home inventory. It can be frustrating for buyers looking for a home these days but the great thing is, they have the ability to build exactly what they want if they are willing to travel just a bit outside the Dallas City limits. I’m definitely an advocate of change and I love seeing the way Dallas has changed over the past 15 years that I’ve been here since leaving New York. And while change can be hard at first and messy in the middle, it sure can be awe-inspiring at the end.
Contact Info:
- Address: 1920 McKinney Avenue, Fl 7, Dallas TX 75201
2700 Post Oak Blvd, Fl 21, Houston, TX 77056 - Website: www.prominusrealestate.com
- Phone: (469) 319-2846
- Email: jcloud@prominusrealestate.com
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