ESG Considerations for Real Estate Investment and Finance: Key Provisions, ESG Due Diligence, and Asset Management

Ms. Mac Cormac’s practice focuses on late-stage financings, secondaries, and other corporate transactions for investors, such as SoftBank and Temasek, and on investments for some of the top investors dedicated to impact, from “impact first” foundations to family offices to private equity funds. She co-led the drafting group for the first of the new corporate forms (the Social Purpose Corporation in California), has created hybrid/tandem corporate structures and crafted debt and equity instruments that blend impact with traditional financial terms, and has used corporate law to develop creative capital market solutions to pressing environmental problems. She also advises the boards of public and private companies on corporate governance and fiduciary duties as applied to sustainability and climate change.

Mr. Tether has 30 years of experience in real estate, finance, construction, and corporate law. His experience includes real property acquisitions and dispositions; commercial mortgage financing; complex joint ventures and partnerships; negotiating and closing complex, multiparty transactions; project financing through various governmental and private sector debt and equity sources; large-scale mixed-use property development projects; drafting and negotiating related transaction documentation and business agreements; corporate finance; mergers and acquisitions; leveraged leasing; infrastructure development; commercial leasing; loan workouts; bankruptcies; and litigation. Mr. Tether has experience with virtually all real estate asset classes, including multifamily, office, retail, industrial, and hospitality.

Ms. Jin is the General Counsel for First Street Foundation, a nonprofit research and technology group dedicated to quantifying and communicating climate change risks for every property in the United States. The Foundation has developed the first comprehensive, publicly available, property level climate risk models in the United States. The Foundation’s data is leveraged by industry and governments for use in critical analysis of the potential impact of climate perils on infrastructure, mortgage and housing market inefficiencies, government spending and taxes, and vulnerable communities. Ms. Jin started her legal career with law firms Jones Day and Hawkins Delafield & Wood in New York, and was previously at WeWork, the leading global flexible space provider.

Ms. Wilder brings over 10 years of commercial real estate experience to CGI Merchant Group LLC. She has handled transactions pertaining to the acquisition, disposition, leasing and financing of office, retail, mixed-use, condominium, multifamily and senior housing assets. Additionally, Ms. Wilder has comprehensive experience in legal matters regarding real property, contracts, joint ventures, corporate governance, fund formation, and human resources. Ms. Wilder earned her JD from St. Thomas University School of Law, where she was on the Dean’s List. She holds a BSc from Nova Southeastern University, with a major in Business and Professional Management.