Joel Rubin Featured in Law360
"Q&A With Seyfarth's Joel Rubin"

Seyfarth Shaw partner and chair of the Chicago Real Estate Department Joel Rubin was featured in a Q&A in Law360 on February 9. Joel was asked about the most challenging transaction he had worked on; which aspects of his practice area were in need of reform; an important deal or relevant issue to his practice area; a mistake he made early in his career and learned from; and he was asked to name an attorney outside of his firm, in his field, who has impressed him.

Describing one of his most challenging cases, Joel mentioned the split of the Chicago partners from the Trammell Crow Company and the formation of one of the biggest commercial developers in the Chicago suburbs, Hamilton Partners, as having involved major litigation.

He also mentioned working on developing a scheme for a major corporate pension fund to acquire assets and avoid a  built-in tax during an acquisition of several apartment projects in New York City.

Joel said that the approach of both clients and lawyers to the transaction are in need of reform, and there needs to be more focus on the goals to be achieved and an attempt on all sides to work together to achieve such goals.

Especially relevant to Joel's practice is understanding the relationship among issues of real estate, partnership and limited liability company laws, tax laws and pension investor and REIT requirements. Joel notes that all of these come into focus as he is called upon to complete complicated transactions, where one or more of these issues impacts one or more parties to the transaction. "Without a dedicated team approach," he says, "failure is more likely than not."

Over the years, Joel learned that there is sometimes a difference between what "win" means to a lawyer and what it means to a client. He also learned to pay special attention to what the parties say and to ask questions in a way which helps him understand the parties' motivations.

Joel named partners John Gearen at Mayer Brown and Jordan Krasnow at Goulston Storrs as lawyers "who are smart, practicable and share" his thinking.