Biography: Real Estate

Joseph Philip Forte is a partner in the New York office and a member of its real estate finance & investment group. He has substantial experience in commercial real estate finance with a particular emphasis on the origination, workout and enforcement of portfolio and securitised mortgage loans with a focus on complex real estate finance for the capital markets. His expertise extends to permanent, bridge and construction mortgage lending, mezzanine finance, pari passu and subordinate debt, co-lending and participation arrangements, loan sales and purchases, and loan workouts, foreclosures and restructurings. He also advises lenders on mortgage banking, doing business, licensing, investment authority and secondary mortgage market issues.

Mr Forte was involved in the early development of the secondary and securitisation markets for residential, multifamily and commercial mortgages, and in 1988, he developed the programme documents for the first commercial mortgage loan conduit. He has also represented the nation's commercial real estate finance industry in the development of the ASTM's original environmental risk management standards; with others in the adoption of the 1994 Bankruptcy Code amendments; as principal draftsman of the Capital Consortium's Capital Markets Mortgage form; in defeating the American Land Title Association's original Creditors' Rights Exception to its title insurance policies across the US; and as Amicus Curia in the recent GGP and ESH Bankruptcies.

Mr Forte is a member of the American, New York State and City Bar Associations and a past chair of several of their committees; a Fellow and past governor of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers (ACREL) and past chair of several ACREL committees; a Fellow of the American College of Mortgage Attorneys (ACMA); a governor and past president of the Commercial Real Estate Finance Council (formerly CMSA), and founder and publisher of its quarterly magazine, CRE Finance World. He also is an active participant in The Real Estate Roundtable and its real estate capital policy advisory committee; a member and non-voting governor of the Anglo-American Real Property Institute and a member of the Mortgage Bankers Association and a past member of its board of directors and its commercial board of governors as well as past chair of several of its committees and past counsel of the NY Mortgage Bankers Association. He is the author of several books and numerous articles and frequent speaker for ALI-ABA, PLI, ACREL, ACMA, bar associations nationwide as well as many national real estate and finance industry trade associations on a wide range of issues affecting mortgage finance, loan workouts and enforcement and capital market matters as well as environmental risk management. Mr Forte is a trustee/manager of The Downtown Association in the City of New York and a member of the Chicago Title Insurance Company advisory board. Mr Forte has been recognised as a leading real estate finance practitioner in many prominent national and international surveys and has been the recipient of several 'best article' awards from legal and industry publications.

Mr Forte received his BA, magna cum laude, in 1969 from St Francis College and his JD, cum laude, in 1973 from St John's University School of Law, where he was managing editor of the St. John's Law Review and a Thomas More Scholar.