Katten announced today that Alec G. Nedelman has joined the firm’s Real Estate practice as Senior Counsel. He will be advising the leaders of Katten’s West Coast Real Estate group on business and talent development, helping them grow and strengthen Katten’s longtime presence there.

“We are excited to have Alec bring his talent and energy to our firm as it will help us continue to grow our already strong Real Estate group on the West Coast,” said Katten’s Real Estate National Chair Timothy G. Little. “Alec is highly regarded as an attorney whose deep experience extends beyond negotiating complex commercial real estate transactions to developing and growing practices as well as helping other attorneys develop their careers while delivering quality client service.”

At iStar Inc., a leading publicly traded finance company in the commercial real estate industry, Nedelman held the position of General Counsel of Structured Finance, where he handled the origination of new senior debt, mezzanine debt and joint venture facilities in addition to the restructuring and workouts of over $1 billion in troubled assets. Over the course of nearly 13 years at that company, he advised on negotiation strategies, managed outside legal counsel and developed training programs.

Nedelman also served as General Counsel of Structured Finance at Safehold Inc., a separate publicly traded finance company managed by iStar that is revolutionizing real estate ownership through its modern ground lease capital solution, where he was extensively involved in the structuring of ground net lease investments. Before joining iStar, he had been Senior Vice President of Business and Legal Affairs in the commercial real estate division for a large mortgage lender. Prior to that, Nedelman was a partner in the Real Estate practice at Mayer Brown for a decade where he was responsible for the group’s largest client and, in addition to client responsibilities, focused on business development, recruitment and sustained growth of the Los Angeles office. At the time of his departure, he was the co-leader of Mayer Brown’s international Real Estate practice.

A fellow and past president of the American College of Mortgage Attorneys, Nedelman is a frequent author and sought-after speaker on industry topics including negotiation techniques and strategies, financing and workout issues, and law firm practice and talent development.

Katten is a full-service law firm with nearly 700 attorneys in locations across the United States and in London and Shanghai. Clients seeking sophisticated, high-value legal services turn to Katten for counsel locally, nationally and internationally. The firm’s core areas of practice include commercial finance, corporate, financial markets and funds, insolvency and restructuring, intellectual property, litigation, real estate, structured finance and securitization, transactional tax planning, and trusts and estates. Katten represents public and private companies in numerous industries, as well as a number of government and nonprofit organizations and individuals. For more information, visit katten.com.