Michael Kessler

Practice Areas

Michael has one of the market’s strongest securities, M&A, and financing practices. Michael is committed to his clients’ growth initiatives, advising on more than $100 billion in capital raising and M&A transactions across all economic cycles. He is well known for effective exits and addressing liquidity issues. He has transformed finite life vehicles with fixed termination and liquidity deadlines into public company, perpetual life, and permanent capital formats.

He advises leading companies, investment banks, private equity sponsors, and fund managers across numerous industries. He is best known for expertise in the real estate, specialty finance, REIT, BDC, banking, insurance, fintech, and energy sectors. He has one of the U.S.’s leading real estate finance practices, expanding the REIT sector into new asset classes.

Strengths of Michael’s practice include public and private M&A, including private equity transactions, advising board special committees on unsolicited hostile acquisitions, conflicting interest matters, and related party transactions; debt and equity capital markets transactions across public and private markets, including IPOs, follow-on capital raises, preferred stock offerings, and convertible, high-yield, and investment-grade bonds; financing, including credit facilities, term loans, and bank, mezzanine, and high-yield debt; fund formation and capital raising, including finite life and evergreen permanent capital vehicles; and corporate governance and SEC disclosure, including shareholder activism, executive compensation, and fiduciary duties.

Professional Memberships

Oliver Scholars, which prepares high-achieving African American and Latino students from underserved NYC communities for success at top independent high schools and prestigious colleges, board of directors, Nominating and Governance Committee, chairman; Children’s Arts Guild, which offers arts education to underserved children, board of directors.

Education