In the spirit of the holiday, we're featuring some more real estate lawyers we're thankful for:

Gary Humes, Arnold & Porter

Gary swapped a PhD in theoretical physics for law school at Cornell, and since graduating in '81 has been with Arnold & Porter. His practice has two main focuses: representing tenants and users in large build-to-suit projects, and projects involving transactions with GSA. Some deals combine the two, such as JBG's construction of the Department of Transportation's 1.35M SF HQ, designed to GSA's requirements, or the American Red Cross leasing land from GSA pursuant to a federal statute to build its second headquarters, a 540k SF building, at 2025 E St. Other clients on ground-up buildings include Mitre (800k SF), the Center for Strategic and International Studies (128k SF) and CapitalOne (1.1M SF). Gary's also crossed the table to rep the GSA in negotiations with the Port Authority of NY and NJ over insurance terms on One World Trade Center. Free time finds him biking, playing with his adopted cat Bella or vacationing in Maine (above). Best lessons: Be the "go-to" person for certain issues, while having a breadth of knowledge to issue-spot. As a young lawyer, don't be shy in seeking out projects that will help your professional development.