Louis J. Hait's practice covers a broad range of commercial real estate, with an emphasis on the representation of capital providers at all levels of the capital stack, including representing banks and other lending institutions in originating structured mortgage and mezzanine debt, negotiating intercreditor and co-lender agreements, and acquiring portfolios of performing and non-performing loans; representing hedge funds, opportunity funds and pension plans providing mezzanine, preferred equity and common equity joint venture investments; and construction lending, leasing, acquisitions and sales. Mr. Hait has counseled both institutional lenders and borrowers in complex real estate loan workouts and restructurings during multiple down cycles in the real estate market. He has a particular expertise in fashioning "one-off" solutions for hard-to-structure, would-be loan assets.
Mr. Hait regularly writes and lectures on commercial real estate law. Most recently, he was a faculty member for the Practicing Law Institute's conference entitled "Negotiating Real Estate Deals 2017," at which he spoke on "Recent Trends in Real Estate Lending." Mr. Hait's most recent publications were "Does a New York Foreclosure Create an Opportunity for a Tenant to Walk Away from Its Lease Obligations," which appeared in the Winter 2015 edition of NY Real Property Law Journal, and "Does the Use of Equity Pledges in Mortgage Loans create a 'Clogging' Issue?" which appeared in Law360 in March 2013. Mr. Hait is an adjunct professor of law at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, where he teaches a course on real estate finance.
Recognition
Real Estate and Construction: Real Estate (2012)
Credentials
Education
- J.D., New York University School of Law, 1984
- B.A., Yeshiva University, 1981, magna cum laude
Admissions
- New York
Activities
- Member, Association of the Bar of the City of New York
- Member, New York State Bar Association
- Member, American Bar Association