NAREIT Honors Goodwin Procter Partner Gil Menna With Lifetime Achievement Award

NEW YORK, Nov. 16, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts has honored Gil Menna with the NAREIT Industry Achievement Award for outstanding contributions to the REIT industry.  The award was presented in New York City at this year's annual REITWorld 2010 Conference, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the legislation establishing real estate investment trusts.  Each year, NAREIT honors an industry professional whose acumen and integrity have helped raise awareness and understanding for the value of REITs and publicly traded real estate.  Menna is co-chair of the Real Estate Capital Markets Group at Goodwin Procter, a national Am Law 50 law firm.

"Goodwin Procter, and its partners Charlie Post and Bill King, played an instrumental role in the creation of the REIT industry by helping craft the tax and legal structure underlying the Real Estate Investment Trust Act of 1960.  I'm honored to be able to represent the many past and present colleagues at our firm who have carried on our firm's tradition of service to this important industry and to NAREIT, the organization that supports its growth on so many levels," said Menna.  

Menna represents some of the nation's leading publicly traded real estate operating companies in connection with their corporate finance, corporate governance, and merger and acquisition transactions.  Over the past five years, he has assisted clients in REIT transactions totaling over $109 billion, with $94 billion in M&A transactions and $15 billion in equity or debt securities transactions.

Since its role in the inception of the industry in 1960, Goodwin Procter has continued to assist its clients and NAREIT in connection with the modernization of the REIT vehicle.  In 1992, in connection with the Taubman Centers, Inc. initial public offering, Goodwin Procter helped to create the first public UPREIT structure by providing the first UPREIT tax opinion used in a public securities offering.  This work proved to be a turning point in the modern REIT era, with the UPREIT structure paving the way for the tax advantaged initial public offerings of a large number of widely respected private real estate operating companies.  

Today, Goodwin Procter continues its leadership role in the industry and represents both public and private REITs and real estate investment bankers in a variety of transactions, including REIT M&A transactions, complicated REIT joint venture investments, and REIT equity and debt offerings, including initial public offerings.  

Menna is a member of the New York, California and Massachusetts Bars.  He serves on the Advisory Board of New York University's Real Estate Institute's REIT Center, is a Board Associate member of NAREIT and a member of the Real Estate Roundtable.  He is a frequent guest lecturer at Columbia Business School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Center for Real Estate, where he lectures on the legal representation of publicly traded real estate operating companies.

About Goodwin Procter

Goodwin Procter LLP is one of the nation's leading law firms with offices in Boston, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, New York, San Diego, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, and Washington, D.C.  The firm's core areas of practice are corporate, litigation and real estate, with specialized areas of focus that include financial services, private equity, technology, REITs and real estate capital markets, intellectual property, products liability and mass torts.  Information may be found at www.goodwinprocter.com.

SOURCE Goodwin Procter LLP