Vinson & Elkins LLP opens a new office in Richmond

The international law firm of Vinson & Elkins LLP has opened a new office in Richmond at the Boulders Office Park.

The company said in a news release that the move comes as it expands its capital markets and M&A practice by adding an REIT team.

The firms has hired five lawyers who previously were partners with Hunton & Williams LLP.  They are: Daniel M. LeBey, S. Gregory Cope, Christopher C. Green and David Samuel Freed, who now are partners in V&E’s capital markets and M&A practice, and Christopher Mangin Jr., who joined as a partner in the tax practice.

LeBey and Mangin will work in the new Richmond office initially, which  has eight employees and plans to expand the office in the future. Cope and Green will be in the Washington, D.C., office, and Freed will work from an office in New York.

“All of our leading investment banking clients and many of our private equity clients either actively participate in REIT capital markets and M&A transactions or hold significant real estate investments which may be candidates for the REIT structure, so this is a unique opportunity for us to expand into an area of focus that is of extreme importance to our clients,” V&E Managing Partner Scott Wulfe said in a statement.

According to the law firm, the four M&A corporate partners regularly serve as issuer’s counsel in public and private offerings of equity and debt and preferred securities. They also routinely represent leading investment banking firms and private equity firms in such transactions. Additionally, the group advises REITs and other real estate-related businesses in mergers and acquisitions and joint ventures and advises sponsors in connection with the formation and capitalization of private investment funds focused on commercial real estate and mortgage assets.



On the tax side, Mangin advises clients on a broad spectrum of federal income tax issues associated with REITs, partnerships and related businesses.