Theodore B. and Doris Shoong Lee Chair in Real Estate Law and Urban Planning

The Lee Chair is supported by an endowment from Theodore B. “Ted” Lee (1932–2021) and Doris Shoong Lee (1919–2018), founders of the real estate investment firm Urban Land Company. They established the professorship with the goal of supporting work at the intersection of real estate, urban planning, and land use/environmental law. Holders of the Lee Chair teach a joint course between real estate law and urban planning. 

Ted Lee graduated from Harvard University and then obtained both his JD and MBA from UC Berkeley. Following his studies, he worked as an advisor on urban redevelopment projects for California minority communities, and his efforts resulted in projects such as San Francisco’s Japantown and Jones Memorial Homes, Sacramento’s Chinatown, and the Filipino Center in Stockton. Doris Shoong Lee supervised the retail chain National Dollar Stores, founded by her father in 1901 in Vallejo as Sang Lee Dry Goods. Together, Ted and Doris founded the Urban Land Company in 1972, a privately held real estate investment and development firm in San Francisco and Las Vegas.

Ted was a Berkeley Fellow and served on the UC Berkeley Foundation and other committees and Doris served as a Trustee of the UC Berkeley Foundation. They were generous benefactors who focused their support on education and the arts.