Bio

Shawna Tunnell is a partner in Alston & Bird’s Federal & International Tax Group. As co-leader of the REITs and Real Estate Funds tax practice, she advises real estate investment entities and their financial advisors on the tax issues relevant to public and private REIT and fund formations, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and going-private transactions across virtually every asset class, including office, industrial, retail, multifamily, hospitality, medical, timber, mortgage, and specialty finance. Her clients rely on her for counsel on private financing arrangements and capital markets offerings of debt and equity securities, including best efforts public offerings for non-listed REITs. Shawna also negotiates with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to obtain private letter rulings and other guidance to ensure federal tax compliance for her clients. She enjoys assisting institutional and high net worth investors with solving tax structuring issues that arise in connection with their investments. In addition to clients in the real estate space, Shawna’s clients include companies in the media and entertainment, technology and telecom, and energy sectors.