Overview
Locke Lord is consistently recognized as one of the nation’s preeminent counselors to public and private real estate investment trusts based on our technical competence, innovative ideas and approaches, and personal attention in the delivery of our services. Accordingly, our REIT practice has been nationally ranked by The American Lawyer in its annual Corporate Scorecard. Locke Lord has been recognized as a top U.S. firm in Investment Funds: REITs in Chambers Global 2013: The World's Leading Lawyers for Business. In addition, Bryan L. Goolsby, a Partner in Locke Lord’s Dallas office and chair of the Firm’s REIT Practice Group, has been recognized in Chambers Global 2013 in the Capital Markets: REITs category for the U.S. region. Additionally, the group was included again in Chambers USA 2012 Client’s Guide to America’s Leading Lawyers for Business.
Our REIT team handles the full spectrum of regulatory, financial, tax, and organizational and other matters, including initial public offerings, public and private offerings of equity and debt securities, restructurings and going-private transactions. We also advise with respect to umbrella partnership (UPREIT) and downREIT partnership structures.
Our REIT attorneys stay apprised of industry trends and understand the legal and business underpinnings of these complex structures and transactions. We assemble teams of attorneys in our corporate and securities, financial services, real estate and tax practices to give our clients the added benefit of in-depth knowledge in those areas. Our REIT clients include national and international owners/operators of apartment complexes, industrial and warehouse properties, hotels, office buildings and shopping centers, as well as various types of mortgage REITs. We facilitate investment transactions and advise clients on tax and regulatory matters while still meeting their business objectives.
REITs demand extensive knowledge in tax planning – another specialty area for Locke Lord attorneys. We assist clients in securing private letter rulings and other interpretive advice from the IRS in connection with REIT qualification and the structuring of complex and extraordinary REIT transactions.
During Locke Lord’s many years of experience in this area, we have helped a diversified group of public and private REITs achieve market and investment success. Among our clients are some of the top-ranked REITs in the country.
We have significant experience in REIT business combinations, including large public mergers as well as private mergers and acquisitions. Our attorneys engage in numerous transactions using partnership units to acquire real estate or other entities on behalf of our REIT clients. Locke Lord structures both the acquisition and disposition of REIT assets and represents sellers of assets into REIT structures. In connection with structuring real estate transactions, we work closely with the buyer's and the seller's financing sources and are skilled in portfolio and individual property financings and refinancings.
Locke Lord’s REIT mergers and acquisitions include the following list of recent combination transactions:
- American Campus Communities with GMH
- Camden Property Trust with Summit Properties
The firm’s REIT attorneys have a broad industry perspective shaped by extensive involvement in trade and legal associations and by practical industry experience. We are one of a select group of law firms represented on the Board of Governors for the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (NAREIT). Our clients also benefit from our leadership and participation in the National Multi-Family Housing Association, the Pension Real Estate Association and on the Government Relations Committee and Securities and Corporate Governance for NAREIT. We also chair the ABA Tax Law Section's Subcommittee on UPREIT Partnerships.