Brian W. Varland
Attorney at Law
Email: [email protected]
Telephone: 952.841.0001
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Brian W. Varland is a passionate real estate and business litigation attorney experienced in advocating for and counseling clients in a variety of legal and administrative proceedings, including successful appellate advocacy in several cases that have helped shape the law and decide new issues. A native of Boone, Iowa who grew up in New Ulm, Minnesota, Brian still draws upon his experience of summer work on farms and in factories and earning an Eagle Scout Award in striving for a fair and just resolution for others’ real world concerns.
The connection between people and land and the systems of government/administrative affairs have been a focus for Brian dating back his work as a Gypsy Moth Trapper for the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, his service as a United States Senate intern in Washington, D.C., his work as an intern monitoring a complete session of the Minnesota Legislature, and in his authoring a law review article on the U.S. Supreme Court’s Eighth Amendment jurisprudence, 28 Hamline L. Rev. 311 (2005). Brian has had the opportunity to share his passion teaching law school students contract drafting and negotiation skills as an adjunct law professor. He also co-authored the North Dakota chapter in the State-By-State Guide to Construction Contracts and Claims (2013 & 2019 Supp.).
Recognized as a “Rising Star” by the Super Lawyers rating service, Brian graduated in the top 10% of his law school graduating class while also serving as Managing Editor of the law review. He loves camping with his family, talking around a fire, and reading about history, nature, and baseball.
- Real Estate Litigation and Transactions
- Appellate Practice
- Business and Contract Litigation
- Construction Litigation
- Employment Litigation
- Administrative Law and Regulatory Compliance
- Environmental Law
- Minnesota
- United States District Court for the District of Minnesota
- United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
- Adjunct Professor, Hamline University School of Law (Contract Skills Lab) 2015
- Member, American Bar Association
- Member, Minnesota State Bar Association
- Member, Hennepin County Bar Association
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Safeco Ins. Co. v. Holmgren Bldg. Repair, Inc., 946 N.W.2d 638 (Minn. Ct. App. 2020), review denied (Minn. Sept. 15, 2020) (addressing for the first time particular factors for a signed stipulation’s satisfaction of all five requirements for preserving a lawsuit under the one-year filing deadline of Rule 5.04(a) of the Minnesota Rules of Civil Procedure and standards for relief from judgment in a dismissed lawsuit under Rule 60.02(a))
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M & G Services, Inc. v. Buffalo Lake Advanced Biofuels, LLC, 895 N.W.2d 277 (Minn. App. 2017), review denied (Minn. June 28, 2017) (holding as a matter of first impression in Minnesota that the removal of a byproduct generated from the operation of a business is not a lienable improvement to real property under Minnesota’s mechanic’s lien statute)
- Constellation Development, LLC v. Western Trust Co., 2016 ND 141, 882 N.W.2d 238 (N.D. 2016) (unanimous decision addressing an option to purchase and a claimed right of first refusal in the same real estate purchase agreement and recognizing a contractual “right of first offer” in North Dakota case law for the first time)
- Northdale Construction Co., Inc. v. Veritas Development, Inc., 2013 WL 3868149 (Minn. App. July 29, 2013), review denied (Minn. Oct. 15, 2013) (holding that it is reversible error for a district court in a mechanic’s lien foreclosure action to apportion a blanket mechanic’s lien on the basis of equity, rather than on a pro rata, per-lot basis as required by the mechanic’s lien statute, Minn. Stat. § 514.09)
- Slattengren & Sons Properties, LLC v. RTS River Bluff, LLC, 805 N.W.2d 279 (Minn. App. 2011) (holding as a matter of first impression that when a third-party lender’s purchase-money mortgage and a vendor’s purchase-money mortgage were taken as part of the same transaction, the mortgages arose simultaneously and the order in which the purchase-money mortgages were recorded establishes their priority)
- 84 Lumber Co., Ltd. Partnership v. Dan Happe Constr., Inc., 2010 WL 3000555 (Minn. App. Aug. 3, 2010) (holding that a mortgage for a development had priority over mechanics’ liens for lumber provided for construction of quad homes where construction of the quad homes was intended to be a separate, independent project from the general infrastructure of the whole development and priority of the mechanic’s liens did not relate back to site preparation work performed prior to the mortgage)
- Rising Star, Mpls. St. Paul Magazine
- Best Brief Award (Hamline University School of Law Class of 2004)
- CALI Award for Legal Research and Writing (Hamline University School of Law, 2002)
- Distinction (Saint Olaf College Political Science Department, 2000)
Undergraduate:
- B.A., Magna Cum Laude, Saint Olaf College, 2000
Law School:
- Juris Doctor, Magna Cum Laude, Hamline University School of Law, 2004
- Member, Phi Alpha Delta (Law Fraternity)
- Managing Editor, Hamline Law Review