DLA Piper Expands Real Estate Practice

WASHINGTON, DC-In a move that will, perhaps, place it at the very top of the heap in the category of international real estate law practices, global law firm DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary US LLP has recruited a team of 10 attorneys from the REIT securities practice of prestigious law firm of Alston & Bird LLP. DLA Piper established a new group of industry heavy hitters–all of whom are in North Carolina and will work from a newly opened DLA Piper office in Raleigh.

Brad S. Markoff, an industry veteran who is also a member of the board of advisors of the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts, is leading the new DLA Piper REIT securities team of partners, counselors and associates as managing partner of the new office. This merger of sorts, according to DLA Piper and the former Alston & Bird team, is expected to blanket the legal world’s real estate capital markets business.

DLA Piper’s addition of the REIT securities honchos allows the firm to fulfill a longstanding mission of diversifying its real estate capital markets practice–a practice that devotes more than 200 attorneys in all the major markets, representing clients ranging from real estate owners and developers to investors and brokerage firms. “We’ve been trying to do this for a long time; we were looking for the right player to come along,” DLA Piper’s Lee I. Miller tells GlobeSt.com. As joint CEO, Miller serves as one of the leaders of the firm’s global operations. “We had a substantial practice, but Brad was a marquis player and he gave us significantly more reach.” Indeed, as Markoff notes, his team had been growing at a rapid pace over the last few years, with some on the team representing REITs and others representing various underwriters all over the country. The names that graced Markoff’s client list include investment banks and REIT securities underwriters such as Raymond James, Friedman Billings Ramsey, Wachovia Securities and Deutsch Bank; as well as such REITs as Highwoods Properties, Duke Realty, Wells Real Estate Investment Trust and Eagle Hospitality Properties Trust.