Biography: Real Estate

Robin Panovka is a partner in the corporate department and co-head of the real estate and REIT M&A groups at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. He focuses on cross-border M&A, takeovers, restructurings, private equity and strategic transactions.

Mr Panovka has led many significant transactions in the real estate, REIT, hospitality and gaming industries, as well as other sectors. Representative matters over the last few years include completion of a series of public company M&A transactions that have created the leading healthcare REIT with a combined US$23 billion enterprise value, and the leading industrial REIT with US$43 billion of assets under management; restructuring of a variety of highly leveraged portfolio investments made by leading private equity firms and hotel or gaming companies; the first successful unsolicited takeover of a REIT, and several successful takeover defenses; redevelopment of the World Trade Center, including negotiating the master development agreement that established the blueprint for redevelopment and swapped the pre-9/11 Twin Towers' leaseholds for adjacent sites; structuring of real estate private equity platforms and institutional investments; and numerous other significant M&A and strategic transactions.

Mr Panovka is a frequent speaker and author on topics in his field, including having co-authored "REITs: Mergers and Acquisitions," a leading treatise published by Law Journal Press, and many articles and papers on related subjects. He serves as an adjunct professor at Columbia Business School and Columbia Law School, and as co-chair of the advisory board of the NYU REIT Center. He also serves on the boards of Duke Law School, the International Institute for the Study of Cross-Border M&A (a joint venture among Peking University, Cambridge and NYU), Harlem Educational Activities Fund, and NYU's Real Estate Institute; and is a fellow of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers and the American Bar Foundation. He is ranked at the top of his field by Chambers, Legal 500, Who's Who Legal, and other publications.

Mr Panovka grew up in South Africa and Israel, and holds degrees from Cornell University and Duke Law School.