After a one-year stint at Houston real estate firm Hines, corporate lawyer Jay Blackman has returned to Big Law at Hunton Andrews Kurth as of counsel in the firm’s private equity practice.
Blackman said he had a great experience at Hines, but he came to the realization that he is “more at home” in a law firm environment. He has previously practiced at Vinson & Elkins, Willkie Farr and Simpson Thacher.
At Hines, Blackman served as assistant general counsel of investment funds and joint ventures, in which he negotiated inbound investments in real estate development partnerships and investment funds.
“Jay’s experience helping clients negotiate sophisticated transactions and investments, both in house and as an outside advisor, perfectly complements the existing strengths of our private equity, M&A and corporate practices,” Mike O’Leary, co-head of Hunton Andrews Kurth’s corporate team, said in a statement.
The Texas Lawbook visited with Blackman about his experience working across Hunton AK lawyers, trends he is seeing in the real estate sector and what he learned from being in-house.
The Lawbook: Have you worked with HuntonAK lawyers on deals before?
Blackman: Yes, many times over the years. I frequently saw lawyers from Hunton Andrews Kurth on the other side of the table, as co-counsel, or representing one of the other parties involved in my transactions. I had always been impressed by the firm’s deep bench of talent, expertise and client base, in both the Texas market and elsewhere around the world. The firm has always been terrific to work with, and I’m excited to be part of the team.
The Lawbook: Did you represent Hines prior to joining them?
Blackman: Actually, I hadn’t — lots of my matters in private practice had very substantial real estate aspects of course, but I came into the role with lots to learn about the business of real estate development and real estate asset management. But substantively it turned out to be a great fit with my background and expertise in structuring private equity transactions and private investment fund formation, and I had the benefit of exceptional co-workers and internal clients who taught me a lot about the business during my time there.
The Lawbook: What are one or two of the most interesting deals you handled while at Hines?
Blackman: I was lucky to be at Hines at a time where I had the opportunity to assist the company in a series of transformative projects and transactions. I hit the ground running working on a major internal restructuring in advance of a bond offering, and then helped launch several investment funds as part of the company’s broader realignment toward raising various sources of long-term capital. These were in addition to the many ‘shovels-in-the-dirt’ real estate developments I worked on at Hines — lots of projects like mixed-use/multifamily residential developments, logistics facilities and industrial re-development that were very cool to watch take shape as the projects progressed.
The Lawbook: What did you learn from being in-house after spending your career at law firms?
Blackman: There’s definitely a different cadence and skill-set associated with being in-house counsel. I think sometimes as outside counsel, you can become used to seeing discrete transactions but there’s not always as much experience living with these deals after they’ve been signed. So it was a tremendous learning experience to understand how members of different teams and functional areas came together to make sure the documentation was faithful to the business deal on the front end, and how performance and compliance were implemented and assured over the years to come.
The Lawbook: What are the emerging trends or important developments in the real estate sector that you are closely following?
Blackman: Right now I think it’s interesting that the big trends that folks in the real estate sector are closely watching are also the issues that are front of mind throughout the economy more broadly — questions like, what does the market for commercial real estate look like in a post-pandemic world, and what effect does the pandemic and, hopefully, a return to normalcy have on the way we work and live? Those are the big questions that I think people are seeing running through many aspects of the U.S. and global economy. Coupled with investors’ increasing focus on ESG issues and the energy transition, and regulators’ attention to antitrust and data privacy issues, and in my view these are the themes that issuers and sponsors will see recurring over and over again in doing deals and running their businesses.