James Zuckernik is a partner in the Business Law Department of our Boston office, concentrating in the areas of real estate, finance, and business law. For the past 25 years, Mr. Zuckernik has represented owners, developers, and lenders in developing and financing commercial and residential real estate projects, in the financing and construction of surgical centers and facilities, and in financing and structuring complex business transactions. He has been involved in numerous large-scale financing, leasing, and development projects throughout New England and internationally.

Mr. Zuckernik has represented developers of affordable housing projects, medical/surgical facilities, and nationally known retailers in developing and permitting various projects. He has extensive experience in restructuring loan transactions, gained, in part, from his broad experience advising lenders during the economic downturn of the late 1980s and early 1990s, as well as during the most recent financial distress.

Mr. Zuckernik also has considerable experience in negotiating and structuring credit facilities, partnership relationships, and joint venture agreements. He regularly represents physicians in the purchase and sale of their practices, along with employment, contracting, co-venture, investment, and other business matters. He frequently advises clients in connection with commercial disputes, including mediation and alternative dispute resolution. He has significant experience representing lending institutions, opportunistic lenders, and investors in structuring complex financial transactions secured by private equity interests, as well as in forming various business entities (including corporations, LLCs, LLPs, and trusts), and in structuring closely held businesses.

Mr. Zuckernik served on Robinson & Cole's Managing Committee and as managing partner of the firm's Boston office.

Community Involvement

- Jewish Family & Children's Service, Legal and Human Services, Board of Directors, Subcommittee Board Member

- New England Village, Inc., Board of Directors, Legal Counsel

- The WBUR Group (NPR Affiliate), Board of Overseers

- Bentley University, Guest Lecturer

- Boston University, teaches Real Estate Finance

- Babson College MBA Program, teaches Business Law

Experience

- Represented opportunistic fund in financing portfolio loans, with structured security in domestic and international locations.

- Represented a consortium of New York City opportunity funds in acquiring a previously failed 750-unit residential development project on Cape Cod and in the development, permitting, financing, construction, and ultimate sale of the then largest active retirement condominium project in Massachusetts.

- Represented the lender/investor in structuring a private equity participation involving financing, site location, and development of a series of national retail stores in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island.

- Represented physician specialty groups in the development of their facilities and in structuring the investment and business concerns between co-venturers, including contracting, participation, investment, and business issues.

- Represented numerous real estate developers and investors in significant acquisition and construction projects, including commercial, industrial, residential, and affordable housing projects.

- Represented varied opportunity or equity fund investors and their special finance affiliates and intermediaries in the acquisition of New England properties and investments, and in meeting the special requirements of opportunistic investors and lenders.

- Oversaw construction of a number of surgical centers from conception and site location through design and construction, including contracting, construction issues, financing, and permitting.

- Represented numerous institutional lenders and investors in secured loan transactions involving real property and asset-based credit facilities.

- Represented a New York opportunity lender in financing a large Chapter 40B housing development and in the eventual foreclosure of the project as well as entitlements and restructuring of the affordable component of the project with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development.

- Represented the developer in negotiation of a town's inclusionary zoning law as it applied to a large condominium project and resolved issues regarding the application of the Inclusionary Zoning Statute and ambiguities in the ordinance.

- Representation of Next Generation Vending and Food Service, a large regional vending and food service company, and its subsidiaries concerning its acquisition of several large franchised territories in the Northeast from an international food service company, as well as the sale of several client-owned regions to the same international company. Our Finance Group also represented this client with the negotiation of complex financing arrangements related to the transaction. Additionally, our Tax and Benefit Groups were involved in this transaction.

- Retained to complete a complex due diligence process and to structure and close a transaction involving the acquisition of existing purchase by various entities, and closing a $20 million-plus loan transaction for Southport on Cape Cod.

Finance

- Represented a Boston-area college in a recapitalization campaign, which involved securing financing facilities and analyzing the impact of certain capital reconstruction programs on a 100 million-dollar real estate portfolio.

- Has provided extensive loan workout and restructuring advice for numerous lenders in all areas of finance, with a specialization in distressed real estate, construction loans, and construction defect cases.

- Routinely represents conventional secured lenders in real estate and asset-based secured loans.

News

12.12.11, Partners Judge Transactional Negotiation Meet at Boston University

9.22.10, Seeking Asylum: Robinson & Cole Lawyers Help Man from Uganda in Pro Bono Case