Practice Areas & Industries: Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP

Practice/Industry Group Overview

"Cadwalader occupies a lofty position as one of the premier real estate financing teams in New York . . . [T]he lawyers know their stuff and the market . . ."
- Chambers USA 2008

Cadwalader's Real Estate practice, one of the premier real estate groups of any major international law firm, applies its expertise to the complete spectrum of real estate transactions, including financings, acquisitions, sales and exchanges, development, construction, joint ventures, real estate investment funds, loan syndications, management, leasing, workouts, land use, government-assisted projects and environmental matters.

Services Available

Our Real Estate team offers the services of sophisticated professionals who provide a superior depth of expertise to clients developing, acquiring, investing in, or lending with respect to significant projects or providing financing to real estate investment trusts (REITs) and related entities. The group provides advice to many of the world's largest investment banks, commercial banks, insurance companies, and mortgage banks, as well as pension funds, separate accounts, commingled funds, and savings and loan associations, in their varied roles as issuers, sponsors, underwriters, investors and lenders to buyers and sellers of real estate assets and companies.

Working as a team with talented lawyers across a broad range of other disciplines, Cadwalader's real estate attorneys are uniquely qualified to assist clients in the structuring and execution of a wide variety of real estate transactions throughout the United States and the world.

Real Estate Finance
Capital markets real estate finance is of particular importance to Cadwalader’s real estate practice. We pioneered many of the legal structures for securitized products that are the standard world-wide and played a critical role in more than $1 trillion of capital markets transactions. Working closely with our Capital Markets Department, the Real Estate group has represented investment and commercial banks in the origination of more than $10 billion in mortgage loans intended for securitization.

We represent clients in all types of loans, including permanent loans, construction loans, bridge loans, single asset/single borrower securitized loans, participating loans, shared appreciation loans, borrowing base asset loans, subscription facility loans, convertible loans, mezzanine loans, loans backed by credit leases, conduit loans and loans secured by ground leases.

The firm’s real estate attorneys have been involved in virtually every type of mortgage loan securitization offering, including:

• public offerings
• private placements
• foreign offerings
• bonds
• pass-through certificates and commercial paper
• diverse pools of conduit mortgage loans
• small pools of large loans
• single mortgage loans secured by one or more commercial or multifamily properties
• performing and non-performing mortgage loans from existing portfolios
• new commercial mortgage loans originated with a view toward securitization
• commercial loans affecting a variety of properties.

Real Estate Investment Trusts
Our real estate attorneys are active in all aspects of transactional and regulatory work for REITs and owners of real estate portfolios. We counsel such clients on the structuring and marketing of REIT securities, organization and registration under federal and state securities laws, offerings, both public and private, of equity and debt securities, securitization transactions, and secured and unsecured loans. We have also served as counsel on merger, acquisition, divestiture and joint venture activities. 

We represent and advise sponsors and potential sponsors of REITs and real estate operating companies in a number of different situations. The Firm has advised numerous real estate developers and syndicators, including a number of groups of public limited partnerships, on the use of REITs for the long-term ownership of property. We also assist advisors to institutional investors, including investment bankers in connection with their representation of institutional clients, and advisors who have continuing portfolio or asset management relationships with institutions with significant real estate interests.

Workouts and Bankruptcy
With the regular incidence of nonperforming permanent and construction loans and troubled real estate investments, it is essential to have legal counsel experienced in dealing effectively with troubled real estate interests. Cadwalader brings together attorneys in the areas of real estate, bankruptcy, litigation and tax to provide complete representation to borrowers and lenders in all facets of real estate workouts, bankruptcies and recapitalizations. Members of these practice groups are familiar with the concerns unique to large financial institutions, developers and government agencies. In the last several years, Cadwalader has successfully dealt with contested foreclosures and bankruptcies on more than 1,000 substantial properties.

Hotels
Cadwalader real estate attorneys have been involved with a number of significant hotel projects in New York, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, and Las Vegas. Our hotel work includes acquisition, financing, development, leasing, franchising and sale of all types of hotel properties.

International Presence
In addition to our domestic presence, Cadwalader is a leading law firm in the representation of international financial institutions and investors in Europe and Latin America. The combined strengths of our practices in real estate finance and capital markets make us well-suited for the international arena and enable us to anticipate and accommodate the needs and expectations of domestic and foreign owners of real estate as well as lenders in these transactions.

Cadwalader’s U.K. real estate solicitors are well versed not only in English law but in all aspects of European community law and they routinely represent clients involved in inbound and outbound multi-jurisdictional transactions throughout western and eastern Europe.

The Real Estate group’s international experience further extends to representing clients in diverse real estate matters throughout Latin America, where Cadwalader has gained more real estate finance and investment experience than any other U.S. law firm. We advise private and public clients on matters in Central and South America, such as the acquisition of controlling interests in real estate companies, joint venture development projects, lodging and leisure projects, and equity and debt offerings.