Sarah E. Swain
Biography
Sarah Swain is a member of the Firm's Real Estate Practice Group in San Francisco. Her work primarily involves commercial leasing work, commercial real estate transactions, and construction law advisory matters. Prior to joining the Real Estate Practice Group, Sarah worked with the Firm's North America talent management team, focusing on attorney training and development.
Practice Focus
Sarah represents clients on matters relevant to commercial real estate projects, including acquisitions and dispositions of real property, commercial leasing, and real estate aspects of wind, solar, and battery storage projects. She also represents clients with the development of complex design and construction agreements using various pricing and delivery models.
Representative Legal Matters
- Assists multiple global clients with regular drafting and negotiation of commercial leasing and related documents for leased real properties throughout the US and facilitates review by local counsels for non-US leased real properties.
- Assists multiple global clients with acquisitions and dispositions of owned real properties and leased real properties located throughout the US and facilitates review by local counsels for non-US leased real properties, both as standalone real estate transactions and as part of M&A transactions.
- Assists multiple US-based clients with advice on the real estate aspects of proposed investments in wind, solar, and battery storage projects.
- Assists with ongoing construction advice and preparation of construction contracts for a religious nonprofit organization operating in hundreds of locations globally.
- Assists with periodic advice to overseas lenders regarding use of US real property as collateral for loans.
- Assisted a large wholesale restaurant food distributor with the sale of multiple real properties located throughout the US.
- Assisted an architecture, engineering, and consultancy firm with understanding licensing requirements across multiple global jurisdictions.
- Assisted a power plant operator with the acquisition of multiple owned real properties and subsequent sale to a data center operator.
- Assisted a private equity firm with the acquisition of nine owned real properties in the US through a 363 bankruptcy process and subsequent sale-leaseback transactions.
- Assisted an industrial manufacturer with transfers of 300+ owned and leased real properties as part of the global spin-off of the industrial segment of its business.
- Assisted with the preparation and negotiation of multiple construction contracts for renovation / fit-out projects for an information technology company operating at various locations in the US.
- Assisted with the real estate transactional aspects of the separation of a global computer software manufacturing company into two independent, industry-leading companies.
- Assisted with advice to a luxury fashion retailer and supported the transfer of approximately 250 leases, in connection with its global reorganization.
- Supported the preparation of financing documentation in connection with the bankruptcy restructuring of two oil & gas companies, valued at USD 2.25 billion.
- Supported the construction of multiple US retail stores for one of Europe's largest grocery chains, valued at more than USD 400 million.
- Supported the closing of a joint venture agreement with a large US commercial real estate developer for mixed-use development of a vacant 62-acre parcel in Chicago, with projected development costs estimated at USD 3.9 billion.
- Supported the transfer of 69 of a leading integrated retailer’s owned real properties into a real estate investment trust, as part of a larger transaction involving the transfer of 235 of its properties valued at approximately USD 2.3 billion.
- Supported the defeasance of a luxury hotel owner’s first mortgage and closing of a new USD 65 million mortgage loan for a resort in Mexico and for the USD 454 million refinancing of three luxury hotels in the United States.
Admissions
- California~United States (2019)
- Illinois~United States (2014)
Education
- John Marshall Law School (JD) (2014)
- Tufts University (BA English) (2002)
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