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Yoonji Han, Alex Nicoll, and Daniel Geiger
2022-02-01T18:46:31Z
- Real-estate tech is on the rise: investors sank a record $32 billion into the industry in 2021.
- Lawyers with real-estate and tech expertise help companies navigate regulatory and corporate issues.
- Here are 10 of the top lawyers helping fuel growth in the proptech industry.
Last year, a record number of real-estate tech — popularly known as proptech — companies went public, many of them via SPACs, and a record amount of capital poured into the space.
In 2021, investors sank a record $32 billion into the industry, according to the Center for Real Estate Technology and Innovation.
Proptech was on the rise before COVID-19 hit. But the pandemic has forever changed the housing market, the rental market, and commercial real estate, increasing the need for new technology and digital tools.
Behind every SPAC deal and private venture round are the corporate lawyers who draw up contracts and fulfill regulatory requirements. Same with every novel form of fundraising or crowdfunding — without lawyers, these new innovations would be impossible.
Insider asked leading proptech figures to identify the top lawyers they call on when they need legal advice. Only a few lawyers specialize in proptech, but many include it as part of their larger book of work.
Here are 10 of the top lawyers in the burgeoning proptech space:
Tad Freese, Latham & Watkins
Firm: Latham & Watkins
Specialty: M&A, private equity and emerging companies, corporate governance
Key clients: Airbnb, Hippo
Freese is a Latham dealmaker who has worked with a range of companies, but his work on Airbnb's massive IPO — proptech's biggest success story — cements him as a lawyer to know in real-estate tech. He also helped to take the insurance-tech company Hippo public in 2021.
He is a partner and a Bay Area managing partner at Latham. He joined the firm in 1994.
Gregory Grossman, Cooley
Firm: Cooley
Specialty: Corporate work for emerging companies, proptech, and VC funds
Key clients: MetaProp, Jabbrrbox, Equity Residential, Gem Realty Capital, Workbox, Pacaso
Grossman wears many hats at the tech-focused firm Cooley: He's a founding partner of the firm's Chicago office and a cohead of its corporate group. In addition to broader technology companies, Grossman works with proptech clients including MetaProp, the second-largest proptech venture fund by dollars invested, which helped popularize the term "proptech."
Grossman joined Cooley from DLA Piper as a partner last May. Before that, he cut his teeth at Katten Muchin Rosenman and Winston & Strawn.
Justin Hamill, Latham & Watkins
Firm: Latham & Watkins
Specialty: IPOs, M&A, private and public debt and equity, public company disclosure
Key clients: Offerpad, Vacasa, Opendoor
Hamill has advised on three of proptech's larger SPAC mergers in recent years, and he was recently selected as a 2021 dealmaker of the year by the New York Law Journal and Lawdragon 500. His practice goes far beyond real estate and proptech, but he has worked with many giants of each.
He is a partner at Latham, which he joined in 2019.
Minta Kay, Goodwin Procter
Firm: Goodwin Procter
Specialty: Real estate, proptech, M&A
Key clients: Homeward, Kasa Living, WhyHotel, DayBase
Goodwin Procter is one of the prominent Big Law firms with a dedicated proptech practice group, which Kay spearheads. Kay has helped clients like Homeward, Kasa Living, and WhyHotel with matters ranging from fund formation and joint ventures to leasing, acquisitions, and intellectual property.
Kay, a partner at Goodwin who joined the firm in 1988, is a veteran of real-estate and proptech: She's swept up a variety of awards for her work in the real-estate legal space and serves on the leadership board of CREtech, an organization for proptech industry experts.
Jeffrey Klein, Goodwin Procter
Firm: Goodwin Procter
Specialty: Corporate work for technology companies, proptech
Key clients: EasyKnock, Stacksource, Biproxi, Steady Technologies, Knox Financial, HiHome, Nabr
Another member of Goodwin's proptech initiative, Klein helps tech and proptech companies with corporate work, including joint ventures, M&A, and financing transactions. For example, he repped the home-financing startup EasyKnock's $200 million Series B in June 2020, as well as its $5 million Series B extension a couple of months later.
Klein has been at Goodwin since 1998.
Peter Osborn, Moulton Law Group
Firm: The Moulton Law Group
Specialty: Corporate work for entrepreneurs, startups, venture-backed companies, and VC investors
Key clients: MetaProp
Osborn is a trusted advisor to MetaProp, which recently closed on a $100 million third fund dedicated to investments in early-stage proptech companies. Osborn has served as outside counsel for its VC transactions, including in Enkasa's $3 million seed round in September; Mapped's $6.5 million seed II round in June; and Occupier's $5 million seed round in March.
Sara Priola, Law Office of Sara Priola
Firm: Law Office of Sara Priola
Specialty: Blockchain, fintech, regulatory, corporate law
Key clients: Not listed, but previously worked in-house as the chief legal officer for PeerStreet and cofounded Figure and Provenance Blockchain
Priola has run her own law firm since 2019, after serving in leadership at three startups. Most directly relevant is her two-year stint as the chief legal officer of PeerStreet — a real-estate debt marketplace that allows individual investors to invest alongside institutions — which required navigating a complex regulatory environment. Then she cofounded Figure and Provenance Blockchain. Figure uses blockchain technology to lend to customers looking for mortgages and home equity lines of credit.
Priola did not return requests for information.
David Richardson, DLA Piper
Firm: DLA Piper
Specialty: M&A and financing for proptech, construction tech, and other technology companies
Key clients: Assignar, Briq Technologies, Brick & Mortar Ventures, BuildingConnected, Accruent
Richardson, a partner at DLA Piper, advises technology startups and companies, PE, and VC funds in the tech sector on financing transactions and M&A deals. Last year, he repped the construction-tech companies Assignar and Briq Technologies in their $20 million and $30 million Series B rounds. Other proptech clients include Brick & Mortar Ventures, BuildingConnected, and Accruent.
Kevin Rooney, Cooley
Firm: Cooley
Specialty: Venture financing, M&A, strategic corporate relationships
Key clients: Fifth Wall Ventures, Snapdocs, Brick & Mortar Ventures, Autotech Ventures, Brookfield Ventures
Rooney is a longtime Silicon Valley lawyer with deep connections to some of proptech's biggest venture funds, including the biggest investor, Fifth Wall. Most recently, he advised Snapdocs, a proptech software company that helps lenders and title and escrow companies manage their transactions, in a Series D that helped the firm take home $150 million in Tiger Global funding and valued it at $1.5 billion.
Rooney is a partner at Cooley, which he has been with since 2013.
Mark Schonberger, Goodwin Procter
Firm: Goodwin Procter
Specialty: Real estate, proptech, business law, crowdfunding, REITs
Key clients: RealCrowd, Fundrise, Cadre
Schonberger, along with Kay and Klein, is a member of Goodwin Procter's proptech initiative, and he works closely with complicated crowdfunding businesses like Fundrise and Cadre.
Schonberger is a partner at Goodwin Procter, which he joined in 2011.
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