Real Estate Superstar Jeff Keitelman Talks About His Move to Stroock
After 19 years with DLA Piper, star real estate lawyer Jeff Keitelman joined Stroock & Stroock & Lavan. Swapping a 4,000-lawyer firm for one with 300 attorneys, he calls the transition a return to his roots.
Jeff co-chairs Stroock's national real estate practice, is co-managing partner of the DC office, and sits on the firm's Executive Committee. At this point in his life, he says, "I want to get back to the community in DC. This move--and heading the DC office with Chris Griner--will enable me to do that." He tells us that first and foremost, Stroock has a great and unique culture: "It’s a 140-year-old firm with a very positive internal value system." Jeff joined Stroock with seven other DLA Piper real estate lawyers, including partner Kim Pagotto and colleagues Kelly Booker, Joe Miller, Hala Sibay and Richard Cohn. It was a quick transition: the group left DLA at 5pm on a Friday, and started at Stroock about 30 minutes later. "The whole office was waiting there to greet us."
Jeff's long been one of the country's top real estate lawyers. He joined Shaw Pittman 29 years ago after graduating from Columbia Law, then 10 years later moved with a group to Rudnick & Wolfe. (Some of the lawyers who joined him at Stroock have been colleagues for 10 to 15 years.) His work has included leading the $20B redevelopment of the World Trade Center site, representing the Port Authority of NY and NJ. He's currently finishing up a $650M sale-leaseback for a major corporate client's campus in New Jersey. For a REIT client, his group is doing a 10-building portfolio sale of properties in eight different states. In addition to these types of projects, Jeff says he can now spend more time on their traditional real estate practice, on corporate real estate, and on their government real estate specialty, helping owners and investors who lease space to the federal government.
Stroock's DC shop is where K Street meets Wall Street, Jeff says. He's above with Kim and DC co-managing partner Chris Griner. The office opened on K Street in 2013, and Jeff will help build out its real estate, government contracting and litigation practices. There are still some steps to go to make this a more full-service office, he says. Since arriving, they've been introducing Stroock clients to the new DC real estate team, and the real estate clients to Stroock. The firm is in growth mode, adding more than 23 lawyers over the last seven months; at around 300 lawyers, it is about the same size as DLA Piper's predecessor, Rudnick & Wolfe, when Jeff joined 19 years ago. Stroock also has real estate as one of its core strengths. They're excited for the challenges and adventures ahead, Jeff says, believing "strongly in the idea that we can do sophisticated legal work with great clients in a place that is empowering and wants you to be happy and healthy--and maybe have a little fun too."
