The Firm has a leading practice in representing clients purchasing and selling so-called “secondaries” in real estate funds. These transactions, which involve the purchase or sale of investment interests in underlying real estate funds, seem very simple on their face; however, they are often very complex and require counsel with expertise in all aspects of the capital stack.  For example, in order for counsel to effectively represent a purchaser of an interest in a mezzanine debt fund, counsel must understand (i) the mezzanine debt business and the way the transactions are likely to be structured, (ii) the way the applicable real estate investment fund is structured, and (iii) the real estate, corporate and tax issues attendant upon the transfer of the interest in the fund. In 2013 alone we have represented clients with roughly $2B of transaction value in this area.