The real estate department at the law firm Gibson Dunn has grown by 30 per cent over the past two years. The group now employs over 200 lawyers across 17 of the firm's 23 global offices, including New York, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco and London. In London alone, the number of lawyers increased from six in 2021 to 21 today. This growth has been organic, stimulated by the demands of clients who are advised on some of the largest and most complex real estate transactions.
Recent examples of transactions include Blackstone's acquisition of Safe Harbor Marinas, the largest provider of marinas and superyacht services in the US, from Sun Communities for $5.65 billion in April 2025. Furthermore, the establishment of a joint venture between Related Companies and Oxford Properties Group for the development of 70 Hudson Yards, a 1.385 million square foot project set to serve as Deloitte's new US headquarters. Another example is RXR's recapitalisation of three office towers in New York City for $540 million, with a total value exceeding $3.5 billion.
In 2025, the firm also completed more than 225 data centre transactions, including advising on a $16 billion joint venture between Blackstone and Related Digital. Overall, the firm's real estate department generated a business volume of $462 million in 2025, according to Jesse Sharf, partner and co-chair of the department, who will celebrate his 40th anniversary at Gibson Dunn in September. Sharf estimates that this figure will rise to “well over $500 million” this year.
Comprehensive Expertise as a Differentiating Feature
Gibson Dunn's real estate group, which the firm states accounts for over 10 per cent of its total business, has long pursued expertise across the broadest possible spectrum of disciplines. Jesse Sharf, 63, notes that institutional investors make up the largest part of the real estate group's practice, closely followed by lenders and operators/developers. He explained that Gibson Dunn handles many complicated transactions, which sets the firm apart from competitors. He added that most competitors do not offer the development function that Gibson Dunn provides, such as joint ventures, fund formation, and M&A, of which the firm handles a great deal.
According to Sharf, Gibson Dunn's real estate department possesses the deepest legal expertise in commercial real estate. He pointed out that there are many law firms that represent real estate users and developers very well. However, significantly fewer firms are very good at representing lenders, and even fewer for equity investors. Sharf added that a decline in recent sales activity has likely led to a significant increase in the firm's lending business. He explained that people needed to refinance their existing assets when their loans matured, which shifted the focus more towards financing. He stressed, however, that the nature of the business is cyclical, and priorities regarding product types could easily change in two years.
Growth Areas and Specialists
An example of this development is the boom in the data centre sector, which represents a significant portion of the firm's growth. Sharf describes data centres as a form of infrastructure anchored in real estate, as they are physical facilities with power connectivity. Data centres have demonstrated the breadth of the firm's development work and its ability to connect various disciplines such as energy, development, land use, permits, financing, and leasing. Most firms cannot offer this to the same extent. Eric Feuerstein, also a partner and co-chair of the department with Sharf since 2014, added tax and litigation to this list. Feuerstein, 57, emphasised that in multi-billion dollar transactions, all these disciplines are required simultaneously.
- —Real estate financing and refinancing.
- —Complex joint ventures and fund formation.
- —M&A in the real estate sector, particularly take-private transactions.
- —Specialised advice in data centres and their infrastructure.
Gibson Dunn's ability to handle highly complex cases has led to increasing demand for the firm's services, which in turn resulted in recent hires. Sharf highlighted the recruitment of Emily Naughton, who joined Gibson Dunn in December 2024 and whom he describes as one of the country's leading data centre leasing lawyers. Tory Lauterbach, a prominent energy regulatory lawyer, was also hired. This type of excellent specialist gives the firm even more weight in an area that requires specific knowledge of energy and revenue streams for data centre developments, according to Feuerstein.
