Chet Lipton, Partner

Chet F. Lipton is a partner in Cooley's Business department, is co-chair of the Firm's Structured Real Estate Investments practice and a member of the Credit Finance, Mergers & Acquisitions and Real Estate practices.  Mr. Lipton joined Kronish Lieb Weiner & Hellman LLP in 1979, which merged into Cooley Godward Kronish LLP in 2006. He is resident in the New York office.

His real estate-related corporate work includes, among other things, the representation of real estate owners, operators, lenders, syndicators and investors in connection with joint ventures, partnerships, preferred and common equity investments, private and public syndications, collateralized debt securities obligations and other financings. Mr. Lipton's real estate-related representations also include the formation of private REITs, the representation of NYSE listed REITs in financings, securitizations, joint ventures and other transactions, and the representation of sellers exchanging real estate interests for common and preferred REIT operating partnership units. The Cooley REIT team includes experts in all aspects affecting a REIT's formation, capitalization and operations, including corporate, real estate, securities and tax.

Mr. Lipton is also engaged in a general business practice that encompasses a broad range of corporate and financial matters covering diverse industries.  He has represented companies and individuals in the banking, financial, real estate, parking, manufacturing, energy, apparel, theatrical equipment leasing, bottling, food and beverage distribution, book distribution, cable television, and chemical industries in joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, private placements, initial public offerings, real estate syndication, trademark licensing and other transactions.  Many of these transactions have had both domestic and international components.  His primary areas of expertise include partnerships, LLCs and joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, management buyouts, restructurings, work-outs and debt and equity financing.  Mr. Lipton also has substantial experience representing Chapter 11 debtors in connection with selling subsidiaries, divisions and assets, and structuring and drafting plans of reorganization. 
 
Mr. Lipton has represented a number of Fortune 500 companies in complex commercial and industrial joint venture and partnership transactions, and has represented large investors in significant real estate partnerships and LLCs.  He has also represented numerous professionals (including lawyers, architects, engineers, private investigators and turnaround consultants) in the formation or restructuring of their firms. 

Some noteworthy representations include:

• Arbor Realty Trust Inc. and subsidiaries in connection with the formation of a private REIT subsidiary, a $470 million and a $475 million commercial real estate collateralized debt obligation transaction and numerous preferred equity investments.
• Investor group in connection with a $400+ million investment in C.W. Investments Limited Partnership, a Cayman Islands limited partnership that purchased the Canary Wharf real estate development in London.
• Allied Partners Inc., a closely-held real estate company, in connection with a joint venture with Boston Properties to acquire and own the Citigroup Center in New York City.
• Cambridge Realty LLC in connection with a joint venture with NorthStar Capital Investment Corp. to acquire, own and operate a $150 million portfolio of shopping centers in Puerto Rico.
• ConocoPhillips in connection with an investment in and corporate restructuring of a foreign subsidiary with over $1.5 billion in assets.
• Honeywell International, Inc. in connection with the unwinding of a joint venture with Knorr Bremse AG valued at over $500 million engaged in the business of manufacturing truck brake systems in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil and Germany.
• A 43.5% owner of Private Capital Management, L.P., an investment manager, in connection with the $1.2 billion acquisition of the company by Legg Mason.
• Sunoco Inc. in joint venture transactions with GE Capital involving investments in domestic coke manufacturing plants in West Virginia and Indiana.
• Coltec Industries in $120+ million joint venture with Dana Corp. engaged in the manufacture of industrial bearings.
• A management team in connection with the management buyout of LVI Environmental Services Group, Inc., a large domestic asbestos abatement company, including the merger and the private equity, mezzanine and senior bank financings.
• A private equity firm in the acquisition of a controlling interest in a building materials manufacturer in Poland and an investment in a start up domestic regional commuter airline.
• Client Distribution Services, Inc. and certain private equity funds which were its principal shareholders, in connection with the acquisition of CDS by Perseus Books Group.
• PDM Holdings Inc. in the purchase of the Iberia Foods subsidiary (second largest distributor of Hispanic foods in the U.S.) of Unilever.
• Bash Theatrical Lighting, Inc. and affiliated closely-held corporations and their owners in connection with the sale of their movie and production equipment rental businesses in New York, Nevada, Florida and Maryland.
• OpTel, Inc., as Chapter 11 debtor-in-possession, in connection with the divestiture of its cable TV assets in various markets, including transactions with Adelphia and Time Warner, and in connection with the successful formulation, approval and implementation of a plan of reorganization.
• Hexcel Corp., as Chapter 11 debtor-in-possession, in connection with the disposition of its resins manufacturing subsidiaries in France, Germany, Italy and Spain in a management buyout, the disposition of its domestic resins manufacturing subsidiary to H.B. Fuller and the successful formulation, approval and implementation of a plan of reorganization.

Prior to the merger of Cooley Godward Kronish LLP and Kronish Lieb Weiner & Hellman LLP, Mr. Lipton served as a member of Kronish's Executive Committee and co-chair of its Structured Real Estate Investments Group.

Mr. Lipton graduated from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1979, where he served as an Editor of the Georgetown Law Journal.   He was a New York State Regents Scholarship recipient and earned a B.A. in Economics from the State University of New York at Binghamton, where he received the Bank of New York Foundation Award-Southern Tier for Excellence in Economics and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and was a member of Omicron Delta Epsilon.

Mr. Lipton is admitted to practice before the New York State Bar. His professional affiliations include the New York Bar, the American Bar Association (Business Law Section) and the New York State Bar Association.

Education

• Georgetown University Law Center
  JD, 1979
• State University of New York at Binghamton
  BA, 1976

Admissions

• New York

Memberships

• American Bar Association
• New York State Bar Association