Real Estate

Operating at the intersection of Wall Street and Main Street, Willkie’s Real Estate Department leverages its industry experience and multi-disciplinary approach to advise clients on every deal aspect, regardless of structure, size, location or property type. We represent a diverse group of clients — public and private, foreign and domestic, real estate investment trusts (REITs), hedge funds, developers and family offices — in real estate transactions throughout the United States and internationally.

The team regularly advises large institutional clients on multibillion-dollar real estate transactions, organizes public and private REITs, and advises on opco-propco transactions, REIT mergers and acquisitions, equity offerings and a broad array of complex mortgage and mezzanine financings, as well as other transactions involving public and private capital markets. We also work on complex single-asset and multi-property portfolio acquisitions and sales, formations and recapitalizations of joint ventures, and leasing and development transactions, workouts and in- and out-of-bankruptcy restructurings.

The Real Estate Department advises on transactions across the full spectrum of real estate sectors, including office, retail and malls, hospitality and gaming, industrial and logistics, life sciences, digital and data centers, multi-family residential, infrastructure and mixed-use.

In addition to our market-leading real estate equity investor capabilities, Willkie has a real estate finance practice representing the market’s leading institutional lenders, debt funds and investors.

Our interdisciplinary approach to the practice of law, and the cooperative spirit that it engenders in all of our attorneys, enables us to excel at transactions of all kinds. We, in turn, are regularly called upon to provide sophisticated real estate advice on transactions – such as mergers, acquisitions, asset sales and restructurings – led by the firm’s other practice groups. We coordinate the work of several of the firm’s practice areas, including Private Equity, Mergers & Acquisitions, Capital Markets, Finance, Structured Finance & Derivatives, Asset Management, Restructuring, Private Wealth, Tax, Communications & Media, Environment, Health & Safety and Executive Compensation & Employee Benefits.

Our Real Estate Department is designated among the country’s leading real estate practice groups by prestigious publications such as The American Lawyer, Best Lawyers, BTI Consulting, Chambers, Euromoney, Global Counsel, IFLR1000, Institutional Investor, Law360, Legal 500, The Real Deal and Who’s Who. Willkie Real Estate partners have been consistently named to Law360’s annual list of “MVPs” in Real Estate as well as its “Rising Stars” list. Chambers USA 2024 ranks Willkie as a leading firm for each of New York Real Estate: Mainly Corporate & Finance, New York Real Estate: Mainly Dirt, CA: Southern Real Estate and Nationwide Real Estate. Sources reported to Chambers that, "their work is extremely detail-oriented and meticulous. They understand the business side of real estate very well" and “[they have] the experience and willingness to go the extra mile to represent us in transactions with our best interests in mind."