Mark Edelstein is chair of Morrison Foerster’s Global Real Estate Group and co-chair of the Distressed Real Estate Group. He has over three decades of experience representing leading financial institutions, real estate companies, owners, acquirers, sellers, and investors in some of their most high-profile transactions. In the recent words of clients, Mark is “without question one of the most talented real estate legal and commercial minds” and his “intellect, commercial and legal sense and problem solving skills are second to none” (Chambers USA). Clients also say he is “a top-notch New York real estate lawyer that connects with and cares about his clients” (Best Lawyers) and “is particularly attuned to current legal issues in the industry and provides excellent service and counsel” (Chambers USA).

Mark practices in the areas of real estate, REIT, and fund finance; private equity; workouts; restructurings; and bankruptcies. He regularly represents lenders and others in a wide variety of mortgage and construction loan transactions, and unsecured and borrowing base financings, involving—among other asset types—office, commercial, retail, industrial, multi-family, hospitality, healthcare, homebuilding, and condominium and cooperatives. He also represents lenders and others in complex real estate workouts, restructurings, and chapter 11 proceedings. Few lawyers have Mark’s experience with and understanding of syndicated, securitized, and participated loan arrangements, subscription lines, A/B note transactions, mezzanine financing, EB-5 transactions, bond financing, and complex intercreditor and co-lender agreements.

Mark has been routinely involved in numerous projects that have reshaped and are reshaping the New York City skyline. Sample projects include 50 Hudson Yards, One Vanderbilt, the new Time Warner Building (30 Hudson Yards), St. John’s Terminal, the Spiral, Deutsche Bank Center (One Columbus Circle), One57, VIA 57 West (the Durst Organization pyramid building located at 625 West 57th Street), the Museum of Modern Art Tower, the Baccarat Hotel, Greenwich Lane, 15 Central Park West, 56 Leonard Street, One Five One (formerly known as the Condé Nast Building/4 Times Square), One Manhattan Square, 111 Murray Street, Pacific Park (formerly known as the Atlantic Yards), 125 Greenwich Street, The Eleventh (76 Eleventh Avenue), 555 Tenth Avenue, One Bryant Park, Gotham West, 5 Times Square, Times Square Tower, and many others.

During the 1990s, Mark established his prior firm’s Real Estate Workout and Bankruptcy Group. He was heavily involved in the numerous debt restructurings and bankruptcies of high-profile real estate companies and developers of that decade, including Olympia & York, Donald Trump, Leona and Harry Helmsley, Harry Macklowe, William Zeckendorf, Harold Brown, Trammell Crow, Peter Kalikow, and George Klein.

During the Great Recession, Mark was, again, in the middle of the highest-profile real estate workouts and bankruptcies, representing, among others, the largest creditor group in the General Growth Properties bankruptcy case and the largest creditor in the Extended Stay Hotels bankruptcy case. He spent years restructuring the debt of, and enforcing litigation and bankruptcy claims against, some of the largest public and private homebuilders in the United States.

Mark has taken cases up to the highest courts in the United States, including the U.S. Supreme Court (RadLAX Gateway Hotel, LLC v. Amalgamated Bank), where the client won a unanimous verdict. He also filed the first involuntary bankruptcy case in the history of two of the largest money center banks in the country to achieve a 100% recovery on a large homebuilder land loan in Nevada at the bottom of the market during the Great Recession.

Mark has received recognition for excellence by Chambers USA, Legal 500, Euromoney’s Real Estate Expert Guide, Best Lawyers in America, Super Lawyers, and Who’s Who Legal (U.S. and International). In 2022, he was named a Real Estate “Trailblazer” by the National Law Journal. In 2017 and 2016, he was one of seven real estate attorneys named “Power Lawyer” by the Commercial Observer. In 2022, 2019, 2014, and 2013 he was named a “Real Estate MVP” by Law360 (globally, only seven attorneys in 2022, five in 2019, seven in 2014, and six in 2013 received this honor). In 2023, 2022 and 2020, Connect Media selected Mark as one of the top attorneys from across the United States, and across the NY and tristate areas, to be featured as a winner in its annual “Lawyers in Real Estate” Awards. In 2019, he was named one of the top 30 real estate lawyers in the world in Euromoney’s Best of the Best Global Expert Guide. He was also named one of the top 30 real estate lawyers in the United States in the Best of the Best U.S. Expert Guide.

Mark is the author of numerous articles and a frequent lecturer on topics involving real estate finance, equity, and workout matters. His articles have appeared in American Banker, Commercial Lending Review, New York Law Journal, National Law Journal, The Practical Lawyer, Real Estate Finance Journal, Corporate Finance, and Real Estate Weekly. In 2021 and 2022, Mark was named a “Top Author” in the JD Supra Readers’ Choice Awards, recognizing top authors for thought leadership.

He has been a multi-year member of the Law360 Real Estate Editorial Advisory Board, had a regular Q&A column in, and was on the advisory board of, Warren Gorham Lamont’s Creditors Workout Strategies, and was on the editorial board of GlobeStreet’s Distressed Assets Investor Newsletter.

Mark is a member of a number of national and local real estate trade groups, including the Urban Land Institute, the Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate, the Mortgage Bankers Association, the Real Estate Lenders Association, the International Council of Shopping Centers, and the Real Estate Board of New York. He is also a member of the Real Estate and Construction Council of Lincoln Center and a board member of the Real Estate Networking Trust.

Mark received his B.A. summa cum laude from City College of New York and his J.D. magna cum laude from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, where he was first in his class.