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Melina Spadone

Senior Counsel
Los Angeles & New York

Senior Counsel, Los Angeles & New York

T: +1.213.488.3612
T: +1.212.858.1287
T: +1.213.488.3612
T: +1.212.858.1287

Areas of Focus

Melina’s passionate advocacy for our family’s concerns, whether business or personal, is unparalleled.
—Martin Fawer, Advisor to the Trustee, Interlaken Management LLC

Melina Spadone is a corporate attorney who advises ultra-high-net-worth individuals and family offices on myriad legal issues, including crisis management, litigation and real estate.

Melina’s solution-oriented practice is a differentiator. She guides clients through legal activities with a holistic view of client objectives. She is a strategist who listens to a client’s goals, a team manager when seeking and assembling efficient multidisciplinary teams, and an experienced legal tactician when directly advising her clients.

When the biggest players need bet-the-company advice, they seek out Melina. She has served as a crisis attorney for the Rust Movie Production litigation, the Base FX fraud scandal (which allegedly conned investors out of $234 million) and counsel and COO to hotelier André Balazs during the COVID-19 pandemic. She has also advised on minority investments and purchases of professional sports teams and has advised legally and operationally on large art collections.

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Melina previously served as general counsel and chief of staff for several family offices and closely held businesses, ranging in size from $1 billion to $4 billion, whose assets included commercial real estate, publishing and media, investments, and family foundations. She has overseen and coordinated legal, business, investment, philanthropic, real estate, litigation, staffing and political activities. Melina has more than 25 years of legal and business experience with law firms, large corporations, startups, nonprofits and private family enterprises.

Melina has also served as general counsel to a prominent global retail real estate trade association.

Representative Experience

  • General Corporate Matters
    • Going-private transaction in tender offer for public subsidiary of private company
    • Direct investment in venture-backed technology companies
    • Acquisition of closely held media companies, content acquisition
    • Licensing and IP
    • Oversight and management of strategic outsourcing

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  • Private Wealth Matters
    • Represented the family office of fashion entrepreneur Adam Freede in its investment in a minority stake of MLS franchise, LAFC.
    • Advised client and her matrimonial attorneys on matters relating to real estate holdings, trusts and private health insurance in divorce proceedings
    • Advised client on provisions in a child support agreement in conjunction with estate distributions
    • Succession planning for multi-trust single family office; corporate entity review, dissolution, restructuring; liquidation of trusts, asset distribution to beneficiaries
    • Oversight of U.S. and Israeli tax audit of taxpayer and related trust entities; strategic proposal to foreign tax authority; amendment of returns for foreign tax credit
    • CLAT and spillover family trust review for foreign-resident U.S. taxpayers
    • Catalogue of art collection; insurance risk review
    • Creation of strategic plan for political giving to maximize impact in areas of focus
    • Restructuring of existing family office following liquidity event
    • Oversight of private trust creation as part of larger succession plan
    • Management of large fiduciary trust litigation; settlement negotiations
    • Winding down trustee family office
  • Philanthropy and Foundations
    • Professionalization of family foundation and related non-profit entity
    • Maximization of tax benefits for property donation to family foundation
    • Preparation of mission statements, governance, family meeting facilitation
    • Managed strategic donation in related organization in Israel
    • Oversaw sale of photo collection through Christie’s
    • Managed land parcel subdivision and deed restrictions for donation to family foundation
  • Advisory relating to Litigation matters
    • Advised and coordinated G1 trust litigation for N.Y. decanted trust and accounting proceedings
    • Negotiated transition agreements with successor Private Trust Companies and corporate trustee for asset transfer to G2
    • Advised beneficiary in complex trust, estate and tax matters with properties in multiple countries (England and France) and states (Calif., N.Y.) works of art, illiquid investments
    • Advised tenant in an eviction proceeding as part of divorce litigation strategy
    • Advised client in a trust litigation involving their property and its contents in California
    • Advised client regarding a defamation lawsuit
    • Advised client regarding a spec home litigation/mediation for Palm Beach residence
    • Advised client in an employee litigation for hotel properties
    • Advised client in a criminal stalker proceeding
  • Private Wealth Litigation
    • Represented client in mediation and arbitration with key vendors
    • Settled multiple disputes during wind-down of single family office; employee terminations and severance
    • Represented client regarding employee settlements and releases for various operating business and private residences
    • Managed art dispute with major auction house and outside art advisor
    • Represented client in a dispute involving HVAC company for humidity levels needed for artworks
    • Represented client regarding a contested will matter
    • Represented client relating to a landlord dispute

Professional Highlights

  • Advises nonprofits and serves on boards; previous chair of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.
  • Provides pro bono legal services to organizations that focus on women and children; recognized by the New York Legal Assistance Group for her services.
  • Presented during Luxury Institute's "Wealthy Families and Individuals in a Time of Turbulence and Transition" webinar, June 16, 2020.
  • Participated in the “State of Luxury in 2020” panel during the Engel & Völkers Americas Luxury Real Estate Conference, March 3, 2020.

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Education

  • M.B.A., INSEAD, 2000

    J.D., Fordham University School of Law, 1995

    B.A., Brooklyn College, The City University of New York, 1992
    cum laude

Admissions

  • New York

    California

Languages

  • French

    Italian

    Hebrew

Melina's Insights

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