Real Estate Forum Recognizes Laurie Grasso and Rori Malech as 2017 Women of Influence

Real Estate Forum recently named Laurie Grasso and Rori Malech among its Women of Influence, an annual listing of women in real estate who influence the industry and are committed to professional mentoring and community and civic endeavors.  Full write ups of the pieces can be seen here and here.

Laurie Grasso is one of seven women selected for induction into the “Women of Influence Hall of Fame,” having been selected as a “Woman of Influence” four times previously in her career. She is one of only four law firm partners nationally to ever be inducted in to the Hall of Fame, and one of 25 women to ever be recognized. The Hall of Fame honors those in the industry who have made longtime contributions to commercial real estate in significant ways.

Grasso joined Hunton & Williams in 2012 and helped launch the New York real estate practice, which is now a major national real estate practice. In the past 12 months alone, Grasso closed deals worth a total of $1.815 billion. Also in the past year, Grasso, together with partners Rori Malech and Peter Mignone, launched Hunton’s Preferred Equity “task force,” which is now at the forefront of preferred equity deals.

Rori Malech was highlighted among 50 of the industry’s most influential women in real estate. Malech is a partner in the Washington, D.C. and New York offices of Hunton & Williams. She worked on 17 deals over the past year valued at approximately $2.1 billion. Her most significant deal involved advising Hersha Hospitality Trust on its sale of seven Manhattan limited-service hotels to a joint venture between Hersha and Cindat Capital Management Ltd., in a transaction valued at $571.4 million.

Read Real Estate Forum’s 24^th Annual Women of Influence issue (July/August 2017) for the complete listing.

Hunton & Williams’ real estate group, with more than 75 real estate and finance lawyers, closed deals in 34 states and handled more than 185 transactions totaling $37.5 billion last year. Working across practices to service clients in the real estate industry, the team has advised on more than 200 REITs. The team was named among Dealogic’s top 10 advisors for handling nearly $20 billion in real estate M&A deals in 2016, and its lending team handled $6.8 billion in financial institutions’ mortgage loans last year alone.