Levine and O’Connell join King & Spalding

 

 

New York, NY King & Spalding has added real estate lawyers Scott Levine and Christine O’Connell as partners in the Corporate, Finance & Investments (CFI) practice group.

Both partners focus on commercial real estate finance and development, representing clients across all types of real estate transactions, including major investment banks, private equity funds, hedge funds and other institutional lenders.

“Scott and Christine have a stellar portfolio of clients, with particularly strong links with institutional lenders, which makes them a natural fit for both our real estate and financial services practices,” said Todd Holleman, leader of King & Spalding’s CFI Practice Group. “They give us the ability to provide a broader range of real estate financing options to our clients, including highly structured and alternative debt products.”

Levine represents a variety of lenders in mortgage and mezzanine originations, workouts and restructurings. He also advises on the acquisition, financing, holding and disposition of real estate assets, including lodging and hospitality properties, retail, office buildings, mixed-use projects and undeveloped land. Levine is a graduate of Cornell University and Fordham Law School.

O’Connell works with major investment banks, private equity funds, and other financial institutions in the origination, acquisition, disposition, and restructuring of various real estate assets. Her practice covers the structuring and negotiating of commercial agreements and complex loan transactions. O’Connell is a graduate of College of the Holy Cross and New York Law School.

The pair join from Arnold & Porter, where they were both partners. 

The recruitment of Levine and O’Connell follows the addition of real estate partners Erik Andersen, Elizabeth Gable and Jared Zaben and counsel Nathan Pagett, Julian Buchbinder, Brett Nizzo, and David Hart in June 2018, and counsel Varuna Bhattacharyya in October 2018. All eight lawyers had joined King & Spalding from Riemer & Braunstein.

“We are investing heavily across our transactional practices in New York, and real estate is one of the areas in which we continue to grow profitably,”said Edward Kehoe, managing partner of the New York office. “Scott and Christine are excellent additions to the practice and a fantastic follow-on to the eight-lawyer team we hired last year.”