Biography

Dan is the founder of the Firm’s Financial Services Department and is Chair Emeritus (having served from 1999 thru 2017) of the Firm’s Real Estate and Financial Services Department, which had grown to 200-plus lawyers when he stepped down in 2017. 

Dan continues to serve as Managing Partner of the Firm’s New York City office. 

According to Chambers USA, Dan’s clients refer to him as a “master strategist” and consummate problem solver. One says, “There are many decisions I will not make unless I have his input." Another client of many years, the head of real estate lending at one of the largest banks in the U.S., says "I think his strength is he's a very practical attorney." 

He has been selected for inclusion in Best Lawyers In America ® 2018 in each of the following areas: Banking and Finance Law, Real Estate Law, Bankruptcy and Creditor-Debtor Rights/Insolvency and Reorganization Law, Litigation--Banking and Finance, and Litigation--Bankruptcy. 

He has been a trusted advisor to lenders, helping them navigate the ups and downs of the business cycle for decades.  He also makes his financing expertise, and deep knowledge of the lending environment and culture, available to the firm’s borrower clients, especially in difficult restructuring and workout situations. Dan writes a regular column on Opportunity Zones (“The Wizard of OZ”) in the New York Real Estate Journal.

Representative Engagements

The following representative engagements illustrate the breadth and diversity of Dan’s practice:

• Representation of Hong Kong/Cayman-based fund investing in U.S. student housing projects.
• The Firm’s Real Estate Finance group, founded and led by Dan for 20 years, has documented and closed 4,400-plus commercial mortgage and mezzanine loans, over $42 billion-plus in principal amount, throughout the United States.
• Served as Kamber Management Company's counsel in three related purchase, sale and exchange transactions totaling over $650 million in Manhattan, NY in a three-month period. 
• The Firm has served as Issuer’s Counsel in two Commercial Real Estate CLO transactions sponsored by Dan’s client Prime Finance.  
• Represented one of the nation's premier developers in a complex restructuring of a $375 million dollar loan on a trophy property in New York City. He also recently assisted one of the top developers in Kansas City on a major loan restructuring on a trophy property in that city.
• Represented a major national special servicer in the successful resolution of a $226 million defaulted mortgage loan secured by 42 troubled nursing home facilities, which involved an in-depth analysis of all loan resolution alternatives, including potential ownership and operation of the nursing homes, sale of the loan, and advice and guidance with respect to all related legal and regulatory issues, including Medicare, Medicaid and state licensure issues.
• Since the 1990's he has represented master and special servicers, portfolio lenders, and property developers and borrowers in connection with numerous high and low-profile real estate loan restructuring, loan enforcement, and bankruptcy matters throughout the U.S. He has been especially engaged recently in connection with numerous outbreaks of so-called “Tranche Warfare” involving disputes, negotiation, and often litigation among members of CMBS capital stacks, syndicated lender groups, and loan participants.
• In the multi-billion dollar ResCap Chapter 11 proceeding in New York, Dan was bankruptcy counsel to a member of the Unsecured Creditors Committee representing a class of consumer borrowers with an allowed claim of $300 million. He now serves as General Counsel of the $60 million Borrower Claims Trust established by the Plan.