Profile
Sanford C. Presant, Co-Chair of the firm's Global Real Estate Fund Practice, focuses his practice on providing fund and joint venture best practice business and tax structuring advice to sponsors of the leading real estate private equity funds, qualified opportunity zone (QOZ) funds, REITs, and their local partners and investors in the U.S. and internationally.
Sandy has substantial experience in structuring funds and joint ventures to minimize UBTI and ECI, including the use of blocker structures reducing the withholding and tax for cross border investors and tax-exempts, public and private REITs, and fractions rule compliant structures.
Sandy has more than 30 years of experience as a tax and business lawyer for major funds and real estate companies. He has structured and negotiated the tax and business aspects for leading industry QOZ funds, over 100 real estate funds (including their internal general partner structuring and executive compensation) in the U.S., Europe, Latin America and Asia, and more than 500 joint ventures (partnerships and LLCs), including QOZ subsidiary JVs (QOZBs), as both a corporate and tax attorney. Sandy was the National Co Chair - Real Estate Fund Services at Ernst & Young from 2000 - 2005 and was Chair of DLA Piper’s Real Estate Fund Practice. Sandy is a prior Chair, American Bar Association Partnership Tax Committee, and is a member of the NAREIT Government Relations Committee and the Tax Policy Advisory Committee (TPAC) of the Real Estate Roundtable.
Sandy served as National Chairman of the American Bar Association's Committee on Partnership Taxation, is a member of the ABA Task Force on Debt Restructurings and Bankruptcy, and chaired the ABA Task Forces on Publicly Traded Partnerships and Partnership Tax Allocation Rulings. He has served on the Tax Policy Steering Committee of the State Bar of California, on the advisory board for California CEB's Advanced Tax Planning for Real Estate Transactions, on the Board of Advisors of the Loyola Law School Tax LL.M. Program, and on the Advisory Board for CCH's Journal of Passthrough Entities. He was a regular guest commentator on the PBS program The Nightly Business Report and was a presenter at the 1993 California Economic Summit. Sandy was an Adjunct Associate Professor at New York University's School of Professional Studies. He speaks annually at a number of the principal tax conferences throughout the country.
Sandy was a program director of the 2003 NAREIT Law and Accounting Conference. He currently is a Co-Chair (and founder) of PLI's Annual Real Estate Tax Forum in New York. He is the co-author of the two-volume treatise Tax Aspects of Real Estate Investments. In 2007, he was named a California Super Lawyer, as the result of a joint research project by Law & Politics and Los Angeles magazines. He is listed in The Best Lawyers in America and Who’s Who in American Law.
Concentrations
- Real estate funds
- Qualified opportunity zone funds (QOZs and QOZBs)
- Joint ventures
- General partner executive compensation
- REITs
- Workouts and tax exempt investors (UBTI)
- Debt restructuring
Capabilities
Experience
- Represented more than 50 of the leading private equity fund sponsors and a number of public and private REITs.
- Structured and negotiated the business and tax aspects for over 500 major real estate joint ventures and private equity fund sponsorships, including those for Greystar, Dalfen Last Mile, Bridge Investment Group, Dream Industrial, and Mack Real Estate Investors.
- National Co-Director for Real Estate Funds Services at Ernst & Young, where he developed a partnership agreement diagnostic process that provides fund general partners with recommendations about industry best practices that reduce risk and costs in funds, joint ventures and within the general partner group.
- National Chairman of the Real Estate Funds Practice at DLA Piper.
Recognition & Leadership
- Listed, The Legal 500 United States, US Taxes: Non-Contentious, 2021
- Listed, Lawdragon, 500 Leading Global Real Estate Lawyers, 2024
- Listed, The Best Lawyers in America, Tax Law, 2008-2025
- "Lawyer of the Year," Tax Law, Los Angeles, 2014
- Team Member, a Law360 "Real Estate Practice Group of the Year," 2023
- Listed, Chambers USA Guide, 2011-2023
- Team Member, Chambers & Partners USA Real Estate Law Firm of the Year, 2013, 2017-2018, and 2022
- Listed, Super Lawyers magazine, Southern California Super Lawyers, 2007, 2009-2021
- Listed, Who’s Who in American Law
- Rated, AV Preeminent® 5.0 out of 5.0
- Member, Tax Policy Advisory Committee (TPAC) of the Real Estate Roundtable
- Co-Chair & Founder, Practicing Law Institute (PLI) Annual Real Estate Tax Forum – 1998-Present
- Program Director, NAREIT Law and Accounting Conference
- Prior Chairman, American Bar Association, Committee on Partnership Taxation
- Member, ABA Task Force on President’s Tax Proposals to Congress (1985)
- Member, Options Task Force, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
- Prior Member, Board of Advisors, Loyola Law School, Tax LL.M. Program
- Prior Adjunct Associate Professor at New York University's School of Professional Studies
Credentials
- LL.M., Taxation, Georgetown University Law Center, 1981
- J.D., cum laude, State University of New York at Buffalo Law School, 1976
- B.A., Cornell University, 1973
- California
- New York