Florida firms Holland & Knight and Akerman have added on multi-partner teams to each of their New York real estate practices.
Holland & Knight lured a team of six attorneys from Haynes and Boone. Partner Noah Shapiro said Holland & Knight offers a wider range of resources for their clients' ancillary needs.
"Holland & Knight gives us a little bit of a different platform, meaning access to land use, condominium law, zoning and construction attorneys," Shapiro said. "We thought it would help expand our practice while helping our clients as well."
The group represents large landlords and corporate tenants in all aspects of their retail office and restaurant lease negotiations. Major clients include SL Green Realty Corp., L&L Holding Co., Brookfield Office Properties and Fischer Brothers.
Joining Shapiro are partners Russ Rabinovich and Lauren Margiano, senior counsel Siobhan Green, and associates Abigail Pugliese and Jennifer Haberman.
“We thank the lawyers for their service to the firm and wish them success,” Haynes and Boone Partner Craig Unterberg said in a statement.
At Akerman, partners Alan Cohen, Randy Eckers, Michael Estreicher and Samuel Lee, as well as senior counsel Alexander Sokoloff, have joined from real estate boutique Duval & Stachenfeld. The team specializes in real estate financing both domestically and in Latin American and the Caribbean. Cohen will serve as the chair of Akerman's real estate finance practice.
“With an acute understanding of the financing of complex real estate projects, this market-leading finance team will help us better service our lender and borrower clients," Eric Rapkin, chair of Akerman’s real estate practice group, said in a statement.
This is the second recent team departure for Duval, which lost a four-person team to Stroock & Stroock & Lavan in May of last year. The roughly 70-lawyer firm did not immediately return calls for comment.
The lateral moves come just as Akerman lost its former chairman, David Spector, and 11 other attorneys to Holland & Knight's West Palm Office. Despite a heated lateral market, Holland & Knight managed to only lose 12 attorneys while attracting 63 lateral hires in 2018, according to ALM Intelligence's Legal Compass.
Akerman also had an active 2018, with 11 departures and 47 hires. Notable lateral hires include six malpractice attorneys added to its West Palm Beach office in February and two real estate attorneys brought on to work in its Dallas office.