Jeff Keitelman, DLA Piper

Jeff trades in traditional "dirt law," while heading the government real estate, corporate real estate, and green real estate teams, and sitting on the firm's executive and policy committees. For the past 10 years, he's represented the Port Authority of NY and NJ in the redevelopment of the 16-acre World Trade Center site (a $20B project). At its peak, the project took 80% percent of his time (and a lot of help from others); they did all of the real estate-related aspects, including ground lease, financing, JV and other development work, and major leases with Conde Nast and the US government. Last week, they closed on a $1.6B bond financing for Tower 3. Other recent projects: Selling a portfolio of 22 buildings in 12 different markets for over $500M for Columbia Property Trust; creating a joint venture between JP Morgan, Alony Hetz and others, to reformulate Carr Properties; helping StonebridgeCarras with the 500k SF DOJ lease at Constitution Square (the first major deal in NoMa); and working with Pfizer on numerous leasing and other transactions, including a sale-leaseback for its 500-acre campus in New York state. After Brown University and Columbia Law School, Jeff started at Shaw Pittman (hired by Jay Epstien). Ten years later, he joined Rudnick & Wolfe, which eventually became DLA Piper. He tells us he's married to his best friend, with three children. Best lesson: Be passionate.