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McDermott Will & Schulte

McDermott Will & Schulte

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United States • Real estate

2

Real estate – mid-market ($0-500m)

McDermott Will & Schulte‘s real estate team focuses on representing a wide range of clients, including various hospitality, holistic, retail, casino, and energy-based developers on a national level, regarding their leasing agreements, land & zoning rights, and property acquisitions. Head of the Chicago real estate practice and co-head of the U.S real estate practice is David (Dj) Wolff, a specialist in private equity management, transactions, leasing, dispositions, and financings. Supporting Wolff closely is Justin Bender, also from the Chicago office, who focuses his practice on advisory-based roles and giving specialist counsel to clients regarding their portfolios and property management initiatives. From the New York office, Scott Weinberg handles a wide range of financial transactional work, alongside Elias Eliopoulos, who assists clients throughout their sales agreements, managing landlord and tenant rights on the side.
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.

  • ‘Mal Serure and Zena Ho handled our matters. Each of them stands out for its exceptional responsiveness, commercial awareness, and client-centric approach. What distinguishes thier services is its ability to provide advice that is not only legally sound but also deeply aligned with the client’s objectives, constraints, and expectations. Unlike many U.S. counsel who often deliver voluminous comments without sufficient regard to the client’s practical concerns, Mal and Zena consistently offer clear, concise, and solution-oriented guidance. Their work product is always calibrated to what truly matters for the client. ’

  • ‘The team is quick and responsive, proactively moving things forward to get deals closed. The MWS team has a great sense of what is "market" and provides key advice when negotiating and structuring our transactions.’

  • ‘Brian Donnelly is very responsive and knows the market extremely well. He is a great source of knowledge and good at crafting unique solutions. Megan Vallerie and Alison Mackenzie are detail-oriented and practical negotiators.’

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Key clients

  • Arbor Realty Trust
  • Barclays
  • Apollo Global Management
  • Apollo Insurance Solutions Group LP
  • BentallGreenOak (BGO) Strategic Capital Partners (“BGO-SCP”)
  • Brookfield Properties Group
  • Colony Credit Real Estate Inc. (now known as BrightSpire Capital, Inc.)
  • DK Fund, LP – Draper & Kramer, Incorporated
  • Global Asset Capital
  • Ian Schrager Company
  • Innovo Property Group
  • IS Development, LLC

Work highlights

Advised Driftwood Capital on a transaction involving 18 hotels worth $1.2 billion being “rolled up” into a new investment fund structure.
Acted for Prime Healthcare in a multi-jurisdictional acquisition of a portfolio of healthcare assets from Ascension, including: 8–9 acute care hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers, skilled nursing facilities, assisted living facilities, home health agencies, hospice business lines, 12 medical office buildings, 98 parking lots, and 21 parcels of vacant land.
Represented RFR Holding LLC in the disposition of 100% of the building located at 522 Fifth Avenue, New York, including all its office and retail condominium units.
Practice head

  David Wolff; Elias Eliopoulos; Justin Bender; Scott Weinberg