Richard Rudman focuses his practice on real estate development and finance, property acquisition, leasing, land use and environmental regulation, joint venture arrangements, construction loans, and construction and design agreements. He has been the lead lawyer on a number of major development projects, including downtown office towers, suburban office parks, urban and suburban multi-family residential projects, hotels, and medical research/laboratory buildings. He has extensive experience in build-to-suit developments and projects with complicated phasing arrangements, environmentally-contaminated sites, contentious permitting issues, and public/private development agreements. He also represents institutional investors, including tax-exempt investors, in the acquisition of investment properties and in sophisticated equity and participating debt investments in locations across the country.

The respected English research firm Chambers & Partners lists him in Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business, noting he "receives a wealth of praise as an 'extraordinarily creative and thorough attorney who is dedicated to his work.'” Mr. Rudman is also listed in The Best Lawyers in America and PLC's Global Counsel Handbook of Corporate Real Estate and has been named a Massachusetts Super Lawyer. He was elected to the American College of Real Estate Lawyers in 2001.

Mr. Rudman's community service includes work for the Boston Arts Academy, Boston’s public high school for the visual and performing arts. He has served as a board member and treasurer of the Boston Arts Academy Foundation since 1999 and as a member of the school’s governing board since 2001. He also served as a founder and original co-chair of the Lawyers Clearinghouse on Affordable Housing and Homelessness, a pro bono program sponsored by the Massachusetts and Boston Bar Associations.

Representative projects include:

• World Trade Center: Team Leader in DLA Piper’s representation of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in negotiations with Silverstein Properties for the redevelopment of the World Trade Center in New York, including the completion of agreements for the Freedom Tower and four other towers that will replace the buildings destroyed on September 11, 2001. Firm-wide, over 60 real estate attorneys worked on this project under the leadership of five Team Leaders.
• Charles River Plaza: Redevelopment of Charles River Plaza in downtown Boston, including all zoning and other governmental approvals, leasing, and financing for the development of 425,000 square feet of new lab/medical/office space above an existing mixed-use property, followed by a $240 million sale of a portion of the project utilizing a condominium ownership structure.
• 33 Arch Street: Development of 33 Arch Street, a 600,000 square foot Boston office tower, including acquisition of land, air rights and existing approvals, additional permitting for redesign, construction and post-construction financing, leasing, the formation of a joint venture with institutional investors, and a subsequent recapitalization of the equity ownership.
• Marriott’s Custom House: Representation of Marriott in the redevelopment of the Boston Custom House, Boston’s first office tower and a landmark listed on the National Register of Historic Places, as an urban time-share resort, including the negotiation of a long-term ground lease with the Boston Redevelopment Authority, all zoning and other governmental approvals, and the creation of a condominium time-share ownership structure.
• One Federal Street: Representation of the building owner in the negotiation of a 300,000 square foot law firm lease and the subsequent sale of the property, a one million square foot office tower in the Boston Financial District, for more than $500 million.
• Sharon Commons: Site acquisition, permitting, and financing for a proposed 500,000 square foot lifestyle center on Interstate 95 in Sharon, MA. The permitting process has included the creation of a new zoning district for the Project by a Town Meeting vote as well as a full range of other local and state approvals.
• The Clarendon: Site acquisition, zoning approvals and other permitting matters for The Clarendon, a 32 story multi-family residential tower being developed in Boston’s Back Bay district.
• Highpoint Apartments: Development of a 75 acre site in Quincy, MA for 1040 apartment units, including site acquisition, a highly contentious process to obtain zoning and other governmental approvals, environmental remediation, financing and formation of joint ventures with institutional investors for the phased development of the project.
• Suburban Boston Office Buildings: Representation of developers and building owners in the development, leasing and financing of more than 2,500,000 square feet of first class office space on Route 128.

Admissions

• Massachusetts
• Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts
• Federal District Court for the District of Massachusetts