Ranked in 1 Practice Areas
4

Band 4

Real Estate: Mainly Dirt

New York

2 Years Ranked

About

Provided by Thomas D. Kearns

USA

Practice Areas

• Real Estate Law

• Ground Leases

• Loan Restructuring & Distressed Real Estate

• Real Estate Joint Ventures

• International Law

Career

A master in the “art of the deal,” Tom Kearns navigates the complexities of real estate transactions, structuring, negotiating and closing complicated, high-value deals and co-ownership arrangements.

Tom represents owners, operators, and developers in the acquisition, financing, development, ground leasing, and sale of significant properties. His experience includes office towers, commercial condominiums, industrial, healthcare, retail and mixed-use facilities, film studios, land assemblages, air rights acquisitions, and residential properties.

With exceptional skill and technical know-how, Tom carefully crafts deals, structuring joint ownership arrangements in their many forms, from partnerships, LLCs, and joint ventures to tenants-in-common, REITs, syndications, and corporate ownership arrangements. Clients benefit from his innate understanding of how best to structure their relationships and establish the parameters of their strategic alliances.

Tom is well-versed in structuring programmatic ventures across multiple assets. He also brings deep knowledge of compliance issues and federal and state securities laws, smoothly and efficiently helping clients ensure they meet regulatory requirements. He has led Olshan’s team in closing some of the most impressive deals in recent years including a client's $600 million property sale to a joint venture in what M&A Advisor later named its “Private Equity Deal of the Year.”

Tom is one of Manhattan's leaders in the purchase, turnaround, and sale of office buildings and has handled numerous workouts of ground-leased hotels. He has vast experience in commercial condominium structuring arrangements and has devised sophisticated condominium agreements, including ones for not-for-profit entities that enable them to claim real estate tax exemptions. He also represents professional sports figures and other high-net-worth individuals in their residential property transactions in New York.

Publications

Tom has a bi-monthly column for the New York Real Estate Journal, a leading industry newspaper, and maintains an active twitter account @TDKearns.

Personal

• Elected a Fellow of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers (ACREL), class of 2015

• Named a “Leading Lawyer” in Real Estate: Mainly Dirt by Chambers USA, 2022

• Recognized in The Best Lawyers in America® for Real Estate Law annually since 2019

• Named annually to the Super Lawyer by New York Metro Super Lawyers list since 2006

Professional Memberships

• American Bar Association

• New York State Bar Association

• Board of Directors, Broadway Housing Communities

• Board of Directors, New York Landmarks Conservancy

• Real Estate Committee, The Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services

Expert in these Jurisdictions

• New York

• New Jersey

Education

Fordham University School of Law

J.D.

1984

Fordham University

MBA

1979

Fordham University

B.A.

1976

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