Bio

Lawrence Swibel is a founding partner and Chair of the Real Estate Group. Larry practices in the areas of real estate, corporate law and hospitality, and specializes in both restaurant-related work and structuring entities for foreign clients doing business in the U.S. He represents clients, both as developers and lenders, in all aspects of the development of restaurants, hotels, shopping centers, office buildings, theaters and residential properties. In the corporate area, Larry handles mergers and acquisitions as well as advising closely-held businesses regarding shareholder agreements, buy‐outs and similar transactions. In the hospitality area, much of Larry’s practice is devoted to restaurant leases, licenses, management agreements, financings, equity raises, corporate structuring and contracting. He handles restaurant deals for some of the world’s best‐known chefs and most successful restaurant operators, located throughout the U.S., Canada, the Caribbean region, Europe and Asia. His restaurant clients include Alain Ducasse; Richard Melman and his company, Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, Inc.; Brendan Sodikoff and his company, Hogsalt Hospitality; Four Corners Hospitality, a division of Sterling Bay Realty; Marcus Samuelsson Group; Weber Grill Restaurants; Tim Cushman; T.I.C. Restaurant Group (with 13 Japanese concepts in New York); Kremeworks LLC (with exclusive Krispy Kreme franchise rights in six western states and two Canadian provinces); and Rosa Mexicano Group Holdings. One of Larry’s noteworthy non-hospitality transactions occurred in 2011, when the United States Treasury selected the Firm as the only small U.S. law firm to assist in administering the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). In that assignment, Larry co‐led a team of the Firm’s lawyers in approximately 165 transactions in which the federal government funded $1.7 billion to community banks around the U.S. Larry also has assumed leadership positions outside the Firm. Notably, since 1991 Larry has served on the board of The Interlex Group and currently serves as its President. Interlex is an association of leading law firms from 61 countries around the world. Since 2008, he also has served as an Adjunct Professor of Law at DePaul Law School in Chicago.