Veteran Real Estate Lawyer Joins Morrison & Foerster in New York

NEW YORK (October 2, 2019) – Morrison & Foerster, a leading global law firm, is pleased to announce that Thomas E. Tether has joined the firm in New York in its Global Real Estate Group. He comes to the firm from Lendlease Group, an international property development, construction, and infrastructure company. Mr. Tether served in various leadership roles during his more than 16 years with Lendlease, most recently as general counsel for Lendlease Americas. At Morrison & Foerster, Mr. Tether will, among other things, counsel clients on real property acquisitions and dispositions, joint ventures and partnerships, and the financing and development of all real estate asset classes.

During his last nine years as GC for the Americas region at Lendlease, Mr. Tether was a member of the regional executive leadership team and oversaw all legal services throughout the Americas, including in the United States, Canada, and Latin America. He led a team of 18 in-house lawyers that provided legal services relating to the company’s real estate operations, including oversight of region-wide compliance and litigation. He regularly negotiated and closed complex, multiparty corporate real estate transactions, and secured project financing through various governmental and private-sector debt and equity sources. Mr. Tether also served on the company’s regional investment and risk and compliance committees.

“I am delighted to welcome Tom to the firm. He is a seasoned lawyer and his strong background in a wide variety of sophisticated commercial real estate matters both complements and enhances our group’s existing strengths,” said Mark Edelstein, chair of the firm’s Global Real Estate Group. “Tom’s almost 30 years of experience in the real estate industry will immediately benefit our clients.”

Mr. Tether also brings experience in construction as it relates to large-scale project construction management, subcontracting, and procurement, including government contracting, as well as dispute management. Additionally, he is highly qualified in public-private partnerships, having spent significant time on Military Housing Privatization Initiative projects while at Lendlease.

“Tom’s in-depth understanding of issues pertaining to construction law and disputes and public-private partnerships further strengthens our group’s offerings,” said Jeffrey Temple, co-chair of the firm’s U.S. Real Estate Group. “Tom has a long track record of success in the real estate space, and we are confident that he will be a great asset to our clients.”

Mr. Tether’s addition underscores Morrison & Foerster’s continued strategic expansion of its global real estate capabilities. He is the fifth senior real estate industry lawyer to join the firm in the past year, following REIT partners Alice Connaughton and Heath Linsky in Washington, D.C. and Atlanta, respectively; Equity and Finance Real Estate partners Oliver s’Jacob and Luke Mines in London; and Real Estate of counsel John Davie in New York.

“MoFo has one of the most highly-regarded and well-respected real estate groups,” said Mr. Tether. “I’ve had the pleasure of previously working with several of the firm’s real estate lawyers. I look forward to closely collaborating with them and other attorneys at MoFo to further build on the firm’s real estate capabilities.”

Morrison & Foerster’s Global Real Estate Group provides innovative and practical legal advice to a broad range of real estate industry participants, in all types of real estate transactions. The group is consistently called upon to lead complex financings, restructurings, recapitalizations, asset acquisitions and dispositions, joint ventures, and leasing and asset management. The firm’s real estate lawyers are regularly recognized for their outstanding work.