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Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP

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The real estate team at Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP offers a combination of acquisition and joint venture, public-private development, finance, development, and leasing advice. Assisting clients to acquire, finance, and develop real property assets, the practice acts for a range of entities from developers, owners, and investors to REITs and private equity funds. The team is co-headed by Michael Leake, a partner in the firm’s San Diego office, who has a broad-based real estate transactional practice with experience in property purchases and sales, leasings and financings. Alongside Leake is co-head Keith Garner, who acts out of the San Francisco office and focuses on state and federal environmental laws, land use planning issues, and entitlement procedures.
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Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

  • ‘The Sheppard Mullin team is incredibly responsive, thorough, and knowledgeable. They have the industry contacts and expertise to guide us appropriately and efficiently through the process. We couldn't ask for better representation.’

  • ‘Overall the group is fairly efficient and produces high-quality, well-organized documents. Their work is some of the easiest-to-follow documents I have seen in my time in the CRE industry. They are very skilled at knowing key points for my institution and for my varied clients which help to speed along new assignments and loan extensions. They are zealous advocates but also do not go past the answer or "lawyer for lawyering's sake", and are helpful in keeping our clients and their respective counsel moving ahead on deals.’

  • ‘Sheppard Mullin’s Real Estate team is extremely smart, responsive, and predisposed to innovation and problem-solving under the most difficult circumstances. Cannot offer too many compliments about this group.’

  • ‘Michael Leake is simply one of the finest real estate lawyers I’ve worked with in the past 25 years. While he has superior knowledge and technical proficiency in such varied disciplines as deal-making and execution, land use, and leasing, Mike possesses a combination of creativity and problem-solving aptitude that is presented in a result-oriented manner that other lawyers simply do not have in this space. Mike’s intelligence and acute business acumen allow him to truly “partner” in problem-solving. Mike is also an exceptionally affable guy to work with - a terrific ambassador for the firm! ’

  • ‘Jeff Smith is excellent. I’ve worked with him for more than 15 years.’

Key clients

  • Realty Income
  • 1HWY1, LLC
  • Kennedy Lewis Investment Management
  • H&S Energy, LLC
  • Terreno Realty Corporation
  • Palladius Capital
  • Lincoln Property Company (LPCC West LLC)
  • KB Home
  • The Walt Disney Company
  • Calavo Growers, Inc.

Work highlights

Served as real estate diligence counsel in connection with Realty Income’s $9.3bn merger involving the addition of 172 Spirit Realty sites to Realty Income’s portfolio.
Advised auction house Sotheby’s in purchasing the Whitney Museum of American Art’s landmarked building, designed by Marcel Breuer and located at 945 Madison Avenue in New York City.
Represented a large, NYC-based private equity firm in connection with the refinancing of the 2,500-room Rio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

Lawyers

Practice head

Keith Garner; Michael Leake

Other key lawyers

Jeffrey Smith; Richard Fries