Profile
An experienced tax and business lawyer, Lawrence H. Brenman assists clients in structuring and negotiating real estate private equity funds, Qualified Opportunity Zone (QOZ) Funds, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, limited partnerships, and limited liability companies. Larry has helped structure and carry out tax planning for private equity investments, including the use of blocker structures and private REITs for cross-border and tax-exempt investors. He is experienced in tax planning for businesses, real estate development and syndication.
Larry counsels business owners on a wide range of issues, including business entity structuring, capitalization of the business, compensation of its executives, buy-sell arrangements, and day-to-day contractual matters such as leasing, licensing, and purchase and sale contracts.
Larry is a certified public accountant and an adjunct professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law. He has lectured on a wide variety of transactional law topics, including the tax aspects of partnerships, limited liability companies and real estate investments, the passive activity rules and tax planning for corporate acquisitions.
Concentrations
- Tax
- Real estate funds
- Qualified Opportunity Zone Funds (QOFs and QOZBs)
- Partnership taxation
- Real estate taxation
- Corporate taxation
- Workouts
- LLCs and S corporations
- Mergers and acquisitions
- Real estate acquisitions, sales and syndication
- Real estate development
- UBTI for tax-exempt investors
- Tax-free exchanges and reverse exchanges
- Business
- Mergers and acquisition
- Choice of business entity
- Shareholder agreements
- Partnership agreements and LLC operating agreements
- Joint ventures
- Employment agreements and noncompete covenants
- Deferred compensation plans
Capabilities
Experience
- Representation of private equity fund sponsors.
- Structured and negotiated business and tax aspects of over 100 real estate joint ventures.
- Representation of $500 million Qualified Opportunity Zone Fund.
- Representation of many Qualified Opportunity Zone Fund joint ventures.
- Counsel regarding the structuring of profits interests to partners.
- Tax advice in connection with forward and reverse like kind exchanges.
- Represented private fastener manufacturing company in a $106 million sale to a much larger public company.
- Represented management in the acquisition of a $50 million truck trailer manufacturing company.
- Represented buyer in a multi-company acquisition of a $100 million group of manufacturing companies from a public company.
- Merger of mid-size accounting firm with a larger regional accounting firm.
- Represented real estate partnership in a joint venture and capital raise for a $100 million office building in New York City.
- Acquisition, financing and joint venture of a $150 million condo development in the River North area of Chicago.
°Certain of the above representations were handled by Mr. Brenman prior to his joining Greenberg Traurig, LLP.
Recognition & Leadership
- Listed, Leading Lawyers Network, 2007-2024
- Team Member, a Law360 "Real Estate Practice Group of the Year," 2023
- Listed, The Legal 500 United States, Tax - US Taxes: Non-Contentious, 2021
- Rated, AV Preeminent® 5.0 out of 5.0
- Adjunct Professor, Chicago-Kent College of Law
- Member, American Bar Association, Section of Business Law
- Member, American Bar Association, Section of Taxation
- Member, Chicago Bar Association
Credentials
- LL.M., New York University School of Law, 1983
-
J.D., University of Denver Sturm College of Law, 1982
- Order of St. Ives
- B.S., University of Colorado at Boulder, 1979
- Illinois