Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP maintains a strong lender-side real estate finance practice, regularly advising on complex secured financings and preferred equity investments across asset classes. The team has notable experience in data center transactions, alongside handling workouts and restructurings. The practice is led from New York by Laurie Grasso and Brett Gross, who advise lenders and investors on secured financings, including securitized and portfolio mortgage lending, mezzanine, construction, and hospitality financings, as well as credit facilities and co-lending and participation arrangements. Also in New York, Peter Mignone and Matthew Halal regularly represent institutional lenders in mortgage and mezzanine loan originations. Leading from Dallas, Howard Schreiber brings extensive experience in construction, permanent lending, and office leasing.
Legal 500 Editorial commentary
Accolades
Client satisfaction: Lawyer & team quality
Client satisfaction: Billing & efficiency
Client satisfaction: Sector knowledge
Client satisfaction: NPS ®
Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
- 'Hunton works with a broad range of clients (and client types) on a wide range of real estate finance matters, so they're ready to help with any matter we send their way, and they're very aware of what's currently going on with the market.'
- 'Over the years, Hunton has come to really know our firm--our people, our approach--and not only does that build trust, which is essential, but it also makes our work more efficient and makes it so much easier for Hunton to represent us. Their conscious effort to understand and align with us is the real differentiator.'
- 'Laurie Grasso knows the market, the players, and us. A tremendous lawyer and our most highly valued and trusted counselor. If a tricky, challenging, or high-risk issue comes up, invariably our first step is, "Call Laurie."'
- 'Willingness to deeply understand my business and the risks and opportunities that are most important to my client team.'
- 'The firm has a very strong Data Center finance practice that I rely on heavily, with the expertise on construction matters, acquisitions, and real estate, and the highest level of expertise in the market on Data Center lending.'
- 'Douglas Murphy is one of the preeminent lender lawyers in the market and one of, if not the, first call for me when needing origination counsel. He is a leading expert in the financing of data centers (including stabilized and construction) at multiple levels of the capital stack. He truly does the work and is extremely active at every step of a transaction.'
Key clients
- Atlantic Union Bank
- Beal Bank
- Chatham Lodging Trust
- Tishman Speyer
Work highlights
Represented Atlantic Union Bank in the sale of a $2B commercial real estate loan portfolio consisting of 210 loans to Blackstone. In April, Atlantic Union Bank merged with Sandy Spring Bank and the loan portfolio sale was announced as part of the merger.
Represented an institutional lender with co-origination of a $3.6B+ mortgage portfolio loan to be secured by 13,542,185 square foot of medical office space in 220 buildings in 32 states.
Represented global private equity firm with the due diligence and acquisition and financing of a $342M pool of performing, sub and non-performing commercial real estate loans.
Lawyers
Leading partners
The strongest partners in their field, leading on market-leading deals and endorsed by peers and clients alike.
Practice head
Howard Schreiber; Laurie Grasso; Brett Gross
Other key lawyers
Peter Mignon; Matthew Halal; Douglas Murphy