How many times have you been warned by someone to "dot your (i)s and cross your (t)s" when you're finalizing a legal document?

In a case that could have had wide-ranging repercussions for brokers—had it gone the other way—a federal appeals court has ruled that JLL did not fail disclose it was representing both parties in a 2020 real estate transaction in Washington, DC.

In a decision issued Friday, US Appeals Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan tossed out a March 2022 decision by US District Judge Florence Pan interpreting the DC law on dual representation by brokers—a regulation passed in 1996, but never before challenged in court—as having technically been violated by JLL in a 2018 lease transaction with an affiliate of S.C. Herman.