Legal talent for commercial real estate & REITs — where deal volume meets public-company discipline.

Because a REIT legal team is two functions in one. It blends high-volume transactional real estate — acquisitions and dispositions, leasing, financing — with public-company securities discipline: SEC reporting, REIT-tax qualification, governance and corporate-secretary duties. A CV rarely tells you which side a lawyer can really carry, and REIT-tax counsel in particular are genuinely scarce. A specialist reads the context the hire will live in: the deal cycle, the disclosure and tax tests they will be measured against, and the new FinCEN/CTA beneficial-ownership obligations now landing on real estate teams. See our methodology for how we apply that lens.

General Counsel and Chief Legal Officers for REITs, VP and Associate GC for real estate transactions, securities and corporate-governance counsel and corporate secretaries, REIT tax counsel, leasing and real estate finance counsel, and the newer AML and beneficial-ownership compliance counsel. The mission-critical and scarcest seats are REIT tax and securities — see in-house counsel recruiting and compliance recruitment. On the firm side we place real estate, REIT-tax, capital-markets and leasing partners and associates through partner recruiting.

Two things: the deal cycle and the transparency wave. Transaction volumes bifurcated in 2024 — office investment fell to roughly $55B, down 56%, while apartment sales rose to $146B, up 22% (MSCI Real Assets, via Multifamily Dive, 2024) — so transactional hiring is growing in multifamily and industrial while it contracts in office. At the same time, FinCEN's Residential Real Estate Rule (effective Dec 1, 2025, final rule Aug 2024) (FinCEN / Federal Register, 2024) adds beneficial-ownership reporting that is pulling AML and compliance counsel into real estate teams for the first time.

The public-company overhead. Listed REITs answer to the SEC for disclosure — 10-K/10-Q/8-K, proxy and Reg FD — and to the IRS for REIT qualification: the 75%/95% income and asset tests and the 90% distribution requirement, all of which make REIT-tax counsel mission-critical because a single slip can cost the entity its REIT status. Layer on §1031 structuring, joint ventures and funds, and the new CTA/FinCEN beneficial-ownership reporting, and the work is materially heavier than pure real estate. The scale behind it is real — $4.5 trillion in gross U.S. real estate and more than 190 equity REITs (Nareit, REIT Industry Fact Sheet, 2024) — which is why the bench is deep and durable.

It should shape it directly. REIT and commercial real estate legal hiring is highly rate-sensitive — transactional teams freeze fast in high-rate or office-distress environments, and the office sector remains structurally challenged while multifamily and industrial are more resilient. Public-REIT practice also carries heavy securities and governance overhead beyond pure real estate, and CTA reporting has faced litigation and shifting enforcement. The lesson for employers and candidates alike is to value depth in a durable specialism — REIT tax, securities, leasing or AML — over a profile tied to a single, cyclical deal pipeline.

Start confidentially. We work with senior GCs and CLOs, securities and governance counsel, REIT-tax, leasing, real estate finance and AML compliance lawyers — and with law-firm real estate and capital-markets practitioners — who want to move within or across the companies and firms they already know. Compensation is strong at public REITs but leaner at private owners and smaller developers, so calibration matters. You can submit your CV in confidence or read our salary insights to read the market first.