JeffreyJahns

Senior Counsel

As a real estate lawyer with more than four decades of experience, Jeff’s mantra is “getting to yes” in a way that’s consistent with—and often exceeding—the client's expectations.


More About Jeff

Real estate transactions have the potential to create tremendous value; counsel's experience, skill, and timeliness are often a key determinant in the value creation process. Jeff's broad and extensive experience in a wide range of real estate transactions, his skill, and his well-earned reputation for prompt response and on-time delivery have helped numerous clients meet and exceed their real estate objectives.

Jeff's core practice and passion is the development process, ranging from transactions with multiyear timelines, from initial site options through to the sale, financing, and/or leasing of large projects. His clients include developers, corporate users, lenders, REITs and other investors and real estate companies working in a broad range of product types, including shopping and mixed use centers, office buildings, hotels, logistics and industrial facilities, and apartment and condominium buildings. This has led, in addition to the nuts and bolts of the real estate practice, to Jeff’s frequent engagement in ground lease transactions, build-to-suit transactions, tax increment financing and other public-private arrangements, zoning and land-use matters, joint ventures and sale-leasebacks. He even finds time as a labor of love for historic preservation and conservation projects.

Jeff began his practice more than 45 years ago performing a range of real estate, and related tax and litigation services for clients. He has tried real estate, construction, and tax cases, and handled numerous appeals, in a range of state and federal jurisdictions. This tax and litigation experience proves invaluable in navigating complex real estate transactions. Thanks to this experience, Jeff is multilingual in the technical and sometimes differing languages of the developer, financier, consultant, contractor and government official. For many years he has authored the highly regarded The Development Process for the Illinois Institute of Continuing Legal Education (IICLE), which encapsulates that expertise.

Jeff enjoys working with and having the support of Seyfarth's large Real Estate practice, which he helped create. Moreover, most real estate matters require support from complementary practice areas, such as the tax, construction, environmental, corporate, and litigation practice groups, and he is happy to turn to these first-rate resources. Perhaps most of all Jeff thrives on working with savvy clients and being in the mix of creative marketplace transactions.

  • JD, University of Chicago Law School

    Center for Urban Studies, Richard King Mellon fellow

  • AB, Villanova University
  • Illinois
  • Wisconsin
  • US Supreme Court
  • US Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit
  • US District Court, Northern District of Illinois (Trial Bar)