Elliot Surkin concentrates his practice on real estate development, finance and taxation. He has acted as general counsel to the developers and owners of many of the most significant office, mixed-use and retail projects in the greater Boston area. These include Boston office towers International Place, 101 Federal Street, 33 Arch Street, 500 Boylston Street, 222 Berkeley Street; regional malls Providence Place (Providence, Rhode Island) and South Shore Plaza (Braintree, Massachusetts); and art complexes Citi Performing Arts Center and The Boston Center for the Arts.

He was lead counsel to Global Retail Investors, a joint venture of First Washington Realty and CalPERS, in the July 2009 purchase of controlling interests in a portfolio of 86 shopping centers valued at $1.73 billion. This was the first major US real estate portfolio investment completed in the past two years. He represents Ram's Head Development, a joint venture of The Chiofaro Company and Prudential, in early permitting activities in 2009 for a two-tower 1.5 Million square foot mixed use development on the Boston waterfront.

Mr. Surkin served as developer's counsel in the site acquisition and pre-development financing of a 120-acre site in suburban Boston for a major retail development. He was one of the five senior DLA Piper real estate partners leading the team of lawyers representing the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey related to the redevelopment of the World Trade Center in Manhattan in 2006, and during the re-negotiated agreements in 2010; these services are continuing in 2011 with respect to the development in joint venture with a private firm of One World Trade Center tower. Recently, he was counsel to Sun Microsystems in the sale and partial lease back of Sun's Burlington, Massachusetts campus - the largest transaction of its kind in suburban Boston.

He is a member of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers and a life member of the American Law Institute.

Mr. Surkin has taught courses in real estate development and finance throughout his career. At the MIT Center for Real Estate, for more than 10 years through 2008, his course, "Legal Issues in the Development Process," included real estate development degree candidates, as well as business, design and urban planning graduate students from MIT and Harvard. For more than 20 years (1975-1996), he taught a large lecture course at Harvard Law School on the subject of "Real Estate Planning: Development, Finance and Taxation." He regularly gives guest lectures at Harvard Business School. His recent publications include When Joint Venturers Can’t Agree: The Buy-Sell Revisited," and "How Do I Get Out of Here? A Discussion of Exit Strategies in Closely-Held Real Estate L.L.Cs," for the American College of Real Estate Lawyers.

The respected English publisher Chambers & Partners has repeatedly ranked him in the top tier of real estate lawyers in Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business. In 2007, the publication said that he is "widely revered for his real estate development expertise" and commented, "In terms of skill and experience he is the match of anyone in the country." In 2008, Chambers noted his "vibrant real estate practice," adding that he "is equally adept at development, taxation and financing matters" and "stands out because he focuses on what is important and the needs of the client." In 2009 Chambers said Mr. Surkin is "prized for his borrower-related expertise." Chambers followed up in its 2010 edition, calling Mr. Surkin “one of the real estate deans of the Boston Bar,” and in 2011 it notes his work on "sophisticated regional real estate projects."

The PLC Which Lawyer? Yearbook 2009 recommends him. Mr. Surkin is also named in the International Who's Who of Real Estate Lawyers and the International Who's Who of Business Lawyers. For 20 years, he has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America for real estate law. He has been named a Massachusetts Super Lawyer.

Mr. Surkin is a member of DLA Piper's firmwide Policy Committee and Managing Partner of the Boston office.

Mr. Surkin's community service includes significant work for major Boston arts organizations and Massachusetts conservation groups. He served as vice chairman and member of the Executive Committee and is Clerk and a member of the Board of Directors of Citi Performing Arts Center in Boston (The Wang Center for the Performing Arts). He was chairman of the Board of The Trustees of Reservations 1998 - 2004 and former chair of the Chappaquiddick Local Committee. The Trustees of Reservations is the largest conservation land trust in Massachusetts and one of the oldest in the world. He is a former director of the Sheriff's Meadow Foundation and a lifetime honorary board member of the Boston Center for the Arts, Inc., where he previously served as chair of the board of directors.