Add a bookmark to get started

Abstract_Building_P_0036
16 May 20233 minute read

DLA Piper welcomes Michael Rechtin as a partner in the Real Estate group

DLA Piper is pleased to welcome Chicago-based Michael Rechtin as a partner in the firm’s Real Estate group.

Mike has more than thirty years of sophisticated and broad-based real estate experience representing clients in buying, selling, developing, leasing and financing real estate assets in all asset classes. Since 2010, he has been at the forefront of the expanding, multi-disciplinary data center, digital infrastructure and IT commercial contracting fields that straddle real estate and technology. Mike was named the 2023 Lawyer of the Year in Chicago for Privacy and Data Security Law by Best Lawyers. He also frequently speaks at digital infrastructure conferences and is often quoted in trade periodicals.

Mike’s clients include insurance companies, Fortune 500 companies, pension funds, investment advisers, enterprise companies, financial institutions, real estate developers, high-tech companies and data center developers/providers. His recent transactions include representing multiple platform data center companies in acquiring land for development, developing data centers and entering into leases and master services agreements with major technology companies; acquiring operating data centers for private equity-backed real estate and technology funds; representing a financial services client in the outsourcing of all legacy IT infrastructure supporting its banking operations and applications, including mission-critical banking applications; negotiating joint venture agreements related to the development of data centers and multi-family developments; and representing a real estate investment company in the sale of a carrier hotel/data center in a major US market.

“Mike is a preeminent real estate practitioner and thought leader with respect to data centers and the intersection of commercial real estate and technology. Few lawyers have his level of experience and technical ability in these areas, and he will be a tremendous resource for our clients in the US and around the world,” said John Sullivan, chair of the US Real Estate group and co-chair of the US and Global Real Estate sectors.

“We are very excited to welcome Mike to the Chicago office, where he will provide the firm with his extensive skillset and experience with real estate generally and with data centers and the IT/telco aspects of real estate,” said Jesse Criz, co-managing partner of the firm’s Chicago office.

With approximately 200 real estate lawyers in the US and 500 globally, DLA Piper's market-leading Real Estate practice offers a full range of real estate services, including acquisitions and sales, single asset, programmatic and operating company joint ventures, real estate fund formation, public and private REITs, financing, zoning and development, construction and design, leasing and restructuring and workouts. The firm executes hundreds of transactions every year, ranging from billon-dollar-plus transactions to the acquisition, financing, joint venture formation, leasing and sale of individual properties.