Robert Bodansky

Practice Areas

Bob serves as investment counsel to some of the largest public and private pension funds in the country, as well as other institutional investors—universities, family offices, foundations—representing them in domestic and international investments of every kind.

Career

Government and corporate pension funds take seriously their fiduciary obligations to plan participants and beneficiaries. In an environment where plan funding can be a challenge, these plans are looking to alternative investments and real estate as a way to enhance their returns. These transactions are complex, and in-house legal and business teams deal with a substantial number of such deals at any given time. Bob routinely handles comingled funds of every type, co-investments, joint ventures, direct (principal) investments, separate accounts (discretionary and nondiscretionary), and secondary transactions. His global practice includes private equity, hedge fund, and real estate transactions.

Bob has the depth and breadth of knowledge and experience to handle any type of investment transaction, working side by side with the legal and business teams as a trusted advisor. He sees hundreds of deals with the leading sponsors, so he can keep clients abreast of trends and changes in the market, and let clients know if certain provisions are off-market.

Bob has worked with government pension plans since the mid-1990s. He is aware of the unique issues and headline risks of these investors. His strong corporate, M&A, and transactional real estate background makes him particularly well suited to handle these transactions. In addition, he served as the managing partner of his own 25-attorney firm. As a result, he is particularly attuned to both the practical business issues as well as the legal issues involved in running a business.

As chair of the Institutional Investor practice group, Bob can identify the right talent to deal with a given transaction or challenge. He has assembled a team of more than 50 attorneys as part of this practice group. The team includes not only transactional attorneys, but also attorneys focused on derivatives, fiduciary, MNPI/insider trading, bankruptcy, litigation, securities, and other areas.

Bob appreciates the knowledge and responsiveness of his Seyfarth colleagues and the resources the firm provides him to better serve his clients. He uses project management and Seyfarth Link to help with large portfolio secondary transactions. He is proud to lead an outstanding, enthusiastic team of attorneys focused on representing institutional investors, and helping those investors for the benefit of teachers, first responders, retirees and others. Bob also was honored to serve for many years as the office managing partner of the firm's Washington, DC, office, where he oversaw strategy, culture, and operations.

Bob was listed in Best Lawyers in America (Woodward/White Inc.) for Real Estate Law (2015-2022); named as a Recognized Attorney by The Legal 500 (Legalese Ltd.) for Private Equity Funds (2018-2022), Real Estate (US) (2016-2022), and M&A/Corporate & Commercial: M&A Middle Market (US) (2016-2019); and recognized as a Notable Practitioner by International Finance Law Review 1000 (Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC ) in both M&A and Real Estate) (2018-2022).

Education