Sidley Austin has hired a 14-lawyer real estate finance team from Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft as it continues to expand its New York office. 

The group includes the co-chair of Cadwalader’s finance group, Bonnie Neuman, along with partners Melissa Hinkle, Nick Brandfon and Molly Lovedale. They will be joined by counsel Andrea Weitzman and nine associates. 

Neuman, who had spent the past 20 years at the firm and led its real estate finance practice, will now co-lead the real estate group at Sidley. 

“Bonnie is well known to our real estate and securitisation teams, who praise her business acumen and believe she has the strongest lender loan origination practice in the market,” said Brian Fahrney, chair-elect of Sidley’s executive committee. “We’re excited to have her lead the continued growth of our real estate group. With Nick, Melissa, Molly and a team of lawyers also joining, we’ll be well equipped to serve clients from our offices in New York and worldwide.”

Neuman has represented JPMorgan Chase, Citibank, Deutsche Bank and other financial services companies in multi-billion dollar agreements. Meantime, Hinkle advises on commercial lending and transactions, often representing national commercial mortgage lenders, while Lovedale and Brandfon work on real estate finance. Brandfon also works with corporate finance clients. All the partners have joined in New York except Lovedale, who will be part of Sidley’s Washington DC team. 

Sidley’s real estate practice is ranked Band 4 by Chambers and Partners. The practice is noted for its strength in real estate lending finance, as well as M&A and cross-border transactions involving real estate groups. The team has acted for Goldman Sachs in numerous real estate transactions, including in a $1.72bn common equity block trade for Welltower, the largest REIT common equity offering in 2023. 

The incoming group continues the growth of Sidley’s nearly 500-lawyer New York practice, which office managing partner Nancy Chung has identified as a key area for the firm. Recent partner laterals have focused on M&A and private equity, including the hire of Cravath Swaine & Moore’s PE co-head Dave Perkins earlier this month and the head of Jones Day’s M&A group, David Grubman, in January. In recent months, partners have also joined the practice from Milbank, Skadden and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett. 

A Cadwalader spokesperson commented: “We wish our colleagues well and thank them for their contributions. Cadwalader maintains a robust real estate finance practice, led by Holly Chamberlain, who also serves on our management committee.”

They added that 70% of the practice’s partners and other senior lawyers were still at the firm, and that it remained focused on CMBS lending, balance sheet, bridge and construction lending, mezzanine and preferred equity finance and loan-on-loan financings. 

“We also continue to have the largest integrated real estate origination and securitisation team in the market today,” the spokesperson said.