Pillsbury Expands Private Capital Team with Addition of Leading Real Estate Partners Nellie Camerik and Pejman Razavilar

Representing clients across the United States, Camerik and Razavilar will support the Real Estate practice with a presence in New York and in Miami.

“Nellie and Pej enhance our ability to support clients looking to both access and deploy private capital through sophisticated real estate transactions that involve all levels of the capital stack,” said Firm Chair David Dekker. “With private investment in real assets expected to drive substantial activity over the coming decade, our Real Estate team is well-positioned to advise on and facilitate those deals. We know that Nellie and Pej will provide us with a significant advantage in servicing clients that demand extensive experience navigating complex transactions through various real estate cycles and market fluctuations.”

Over her nearly 36 years as a real estate practitioner, Camerik has represented numerous types of real estate market participants, including financial institutions, corporations, family offices, private equity funds, insurance companies and other institutional clients, in a full range of real estate transactions, across all real estate asset classes, and in various capacities including as borrowers, lenders, owners, developers, landlords and tenants, sponsors and investors, agents, participants and joint venture partners. She also has extensive experience in a broad range of public finance transactions representing credit enhancers, bond purchasers, monoline insurance providers, 501(c)(3) non-profit institutions, low-income housing developers, and underwriters in the issuance and sale of taxable and tax-exempt bonds as well as the workout and restructuring of defaulted bonds.

Razavilar focuses his practice on complex real estate joint ventures, financings, operating company formations and recapitalizations, preferred equity transactions, and real estate fund investments, particularly those where complex tax planning or structuring is required. Representing institutional investors, family offices, money-center banks, investment managers, special servicers, sponsors, developers and operators at all levels of the real estate private equity capital stack, he has experience in virtually all real estate asset classes, including resort and hospitality, mixed-use phased developments, retail, multi-family and industrial.

Having worked together before, during and after the collapse of the real estate market in 2008, each of them brings significant experience in both in-court and out-of-court restructurings and workouts, notably playing a key role in the implementation and resolution of the real estate assets in Lehman Brothers’ $600 billion multi-year bankruptcy.

“The interplay between real estate and private capital is critical to those we represent,” said James Rishwain, Pillsbury’s Global Head of Real Estate and Real Estate and Construction Industry Leader. “Nellie and Pej are lawyers of the highest caliber, whose established track record and deep connections to the real estate investor and developer communities reinforce our already strong, Chambers USA-ranked, Real Estate practice. We are so pleased to have them join our firm as co-heads of our East Coast Real Estate practice.”

Pillsbury has been significantly expanding its Private Capital capabilities across several practice areas over the past 12 months. Prior to welcoming Camerik and Razavilar, the firm announced the arrival of funds-focused Insolvency & Restructuring partner John Storz in New York; partner Eunice Choi in San Francisco, who focuses on fund formation and management and serves as the leader of the firm’s Private Capital Sponsor Practice; and Robert Stein, a debt finance partner in New York who works closely with private equity sponsors and their portfolio companies.

The firm has also expanded its venture capital capabilities in the past year, welcoming startup partners Glenn Luinenburg and Todd Rumberger in Silicon Valley; partner Sarah Melaney in London, who focuses on investment rounds, scaleups, strategic exits and general corporate governance; VC Investment Funds partner David Holland in Washington, DC; Steven Green, a Silicon Valley-based Corporate partner who advises startups in the life sciences and technology industries; and Andy Smetana, leader of Pillsbury’s Emerging Companies & Venture Capital practice in Austin.

“The real estate landscape continues to evolve but Pillsbury’s commitment to industry investors, developers and sponsors, as well as its expansive platform in so many aspects of the real estate industry, align perfectly with the demands of sophisticated real estate clients requiring a multi-faceted team of lawyers that can deliver high-caliber legal advice as efficiently as possible,” said Camerik. “The constant influx of private capital into the real estate market will continue to generate deal flow and opportunities for firms like Pillsbury that take a more holistic approach to servicing the real estate industry. With that kind of platform and so many outstanding practitioners at the firm to collaborate with, I can’t imagine a better place to be as a real estate lawyer.”

Razavilar added, “Pillsbury’s embrace of high-end, private capital-driven real estate work reflects a deep understanding of where the industry is headed and how capital flows through it. We’re thrilled to be joining a team that’s so well-suited to the next wave of market activity.”

Offering in-depth market knowledge, and a coast-to-coast U.S. presence with a global reach, Pillsbury’s Real Estate practice handles the full range of real estate assignments from multijurisdictional portfolio transactions to single-asset deals in local markets. The practice collaborates with and complements the firm’s finance, REIT, fund formation, construction, project finance, litigation, insurance advisory, tax, environmental, labor and employment, and bankruptcy practices to ensure comprehensive, streamlined service for clients.