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Overview | Depth of Staff | Clients | Breadth of Experience
Overview
Vinson & Elkins has been actively involved in real estate and business transactions throughout its history. Our practice is broadly based, and the firm's lawyers have represented all facets of the real estate industry, including banks, insurance companies and other financial institutions, mortgage bankers, equity participants, developers, contractors, design professionals, consultants and governmental entities. The practice includes acquisitions, dispositions, financings, entity formation (joint ventures, limited partnerships, limited liability companies, real estate investment trusts, business trusts), securitization, leasing, construction contracting and workouts and restructurings.
Depth of Staff
We have over 45 lawyers in our domestic offices whose practices are heavily concentrated in real estate and related financing transactions. As projects and client needs require, we also draw upon other firm lawyers having experience related to a particular transaction. For example, we have lawyers experienced in tax, partnership law, corporate and security issues, labor, environmental matters, executive compensation/employee benefits (ERISA), intellectual property rights, litigation, bankruptcy and governmental regulation, all as applicable to a wide variety of real estate transactions.
Clients
Our clients include Fortune 500 companies, public and private real estate investment trusts, large and mid-sized domestic money center banks, foreign banks, insurance companies, other financial institutions, multinational companies, tenant representative firms, investment bankers, insurance companies, governmental entities, private developers and architects, engineers and other design professionals.
Breadth of Experience
Our practice covers the full range of legal issues relating to the modern real estate industry.
Acquisitions and Dispositions
We have been extensively involved in acquisitions and dispositions of all kinds of real estate. Our experience includes assembly (on a confidential basis) of Central Business District properties for a major office project and suburban land for mixed use residential/retail development; dispositions and acquisitions of improved office properties, retail projects, hotels and industrial centers; and dispositions and acquisitions of portfolios of mortgage debt and properties.
Development of Leasing Programs
We have assisted a major national retail developer/manager and other smaller entities in the development of lease forms and leasing programs that allow the leasing agents, and their in-house staff, to respond to specific business issues with prepared contractual compromises that maintain the overall integrity of the lease documents.
Entity Formation and Tax Structuring
We have significant experience in the legal aspects of structuring the formation of partnerships, limited partnerships, joint ventures, corporations, trusts and limited liability companies, with both domestic and foreign joint venture partners and investors. We also have a number of tax lawyers with extensive real estate, partnership, real estate investment trust and business transaction experience including complex financings and investments by foreigners investing in U.S. real estate, and American entities investing abroad.
Environmental
We counsel our real estate clients (owners, builders, tenants, and lenders) on matters involving regulatory compliance, particularly in the context of business transactions; assist clients in developing self auditing programs and procedures; represent them before the federal, state and local bodies that legislate and enforce environmental regulations; and defend them in litigation, including agency enforcement actions and criminal environmental charges. Specific experience includes matters related to the National Environmental Policy Act; Superfund; Clean Air Act; Clean Water Act; Texas Solid Waste Disposal Act; waste management; wetlands; endangered species; land use law; and coastal and offshore concerns.
Financing
We provide legal counsel to a wide range of lenders and borrowers in connection with structuring financing transactions, such as traditional mortgage financing, securitizations, participating mortgages, off-balance sheet lease financings and convertible debt financings. We have been involved in the financing of a wide range of property types, including office, retail, industrial, hotel, multifamily, subdivision and mixed-use purpose. We are well versed in the application of usury laws to the full gamut of potential equity and financing arrangements related to real estate activities.
Leasing and Management
We represent property owners and prospective tenants in a wide range of leasing and management activities, including commercial office, industrial and retail space. We have been actively involved with both developers and land owners in structuring and documenting ground lease transactions.
Operating and Reciprocal Easement Agreements
We have represented property owners, tenants and lenders in all types of reciprocal easement agreements, parking agreements and operating agreements, from two-store sites to regional malls. We are familiar with many of the major department stores' and national tenants' forms and strategies and thus are able to move efficiently through negotiations.
Real Estate Investment Trusts
We have represented sponsors in the structuring of real estate investment trusts, real estate investment trust in the financing, acquisition and disposition of individual and portfolio properties and investment groups in the acquisition and sale of real estate investment trusts. We are familiar with the tax and other operational structures essential to the creation and operation of real estate investment trusts.
Workouts and Restructures
We have significant experience with workouts and restructurings of existing financings and projects, including representation of regulated and unregulated lenders and borrowers.
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Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
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