Thomas R. Fileti is head of the firm's Los Angeles Real Estate Practice Group. He represents a broad spectrum of clients in connection with investments in and the financing, operation and disposition of real estate assets. His practice emphasizes real estate finance transactions and credit facilities of all types (including syndicated credit facilities; A/B notes and participation arrangements; mezzanine financing; note purchase transactions; and intercreditor and co-lender agreements); credit leases, lease financings, and other complex lease and finance transactions; REITS and transactions involving REITs; acquisition and disposition of real estate assets, loans, and portfolios; matters involving hotel financing, acquisition, operation, disposition; real estate joint ventures and other equity investments; workouts of problem loans and problem real estate investments; and real estate aspects of large-scale utility projects.

Mr. Fileti joined Morrison & Foerster in 1984 and became a partner in 1987. Since 2003, he has been named a leading Real Estate lawyer in California by Chambers USA. He has been named a 2007, 2008, and 2009 Best Lawyer in America in the field of Real Estate Law. Mr. Fileti is a member of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers.

• Represented banks and other commercial lenders in various syndicated lending transactions involving real estate assets, including loan facilities bifurcated into “A” and “B” tranches. Recent representations have included the representation of the agent bank in connection with a series of syndicated loans in the amount of $2.3 billion to subsidiaries of a REIT secured by portfolios of office buildings and mixed use projects; representation of senior lenders in connection with negotiation with mezzanine lenders of an intercreditor agreement with respect to $585 million in construction loan financing for a mixed-use residential and retail project, to be funded by the senior and mezzanine lenders in a “pari passu” basis; representation of agent bank in connection with $435 million in construction financing for a 2-phase San Francisco high-rise luxury condominium project; representation of agent bank in connection with $240 million in construction financing for a high-rise office building in Irvine, California; and representation of agent bank in connection with $180 million in construction financing for spa-anchored resort and for-sale villas in Paradise Valley, Arizona.
• Represented contributors and REIT’s in connection with various transactions involving the contribution of property and partnership interests in exchange for REIT operating partnership (OP) units. These transactions have included representation of the general partner of 16 different partnerships in connection with its contribution of its general partner interests to a REIT’s operating partnership, concurrently with the tender offer by the REIT (on terms negotiated with the general partner) for all the limited partnership interests in the partnerships, in a transaction involving apartment projects valued at approximately $400 million and in which the consideration offered to the general partner and tendering limited partners included cash, “common” OP units and a customized class of “preferred” OP units.
• Represented various high-tech, biotech, financial services and other clients in connection with various lease financing and other transactions for the acquisition or construction of office buildings, headquarters facilities, and manufacturing, distribution and other facilities. These transactions have included the representation of one of the world’s largest biotechnology companies in connection with a $520 million lease financing, the primary source of funding for which is an A1/P1-rated “single issuer” commercial paper program supported by a backup liquidity facility provided by a group of highly-rated commercial banks. The collateral for the lease financing consisted exclusively of interests in certain improved “airspace parcels” which were created through the “vertical subdivision” of the client’s Northern California manufacturing campus, which upon build out will include the world’s largest biotechnology manufacturing facility.
• Represented various clients in connection with the acquisition, sale and financing of hotels and resorts. These transactions included (i) representation of a seller in connection with the sale of four Luxury Collection hotels to a hotel REIT for $350 million, in which the consideration consisted in part of cash and in part of REIT stock and (ii) representation of a hotel REIT in connection with its acquisition and origination of B notes, mezzanine loans and subordinate participation interests relating to various hotel assets.