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H. Edward Hales, Jr

Partner

With a law career that spans four decades, Ed Hales guides and facilitates his clients’ investments in commercial real estate projects. 

Ed’s practice is primarily focused the representation of institutional investors providing debt and equity financing for commercial real estate projects in core markets throughout the United States. A significant portion of Ed’s practice involves tiered joint venture structures organized for the development of a wide range of real estate asset classes, including industrial, retail, multifamily, life sciences, hotel and hospitality, mixed use, residential, and student housing.  Ed’s clients are primarily lenders and equity investors, including large public and private pension plans. His advice extends to risk identification and analysis, organization and documentation of multi-party joint ventures, federal, state and local tax planning, and regulatory compliance. 

Ed’s practice involves a broad range of legal disciplines: partnership and limited liability company law and regulation, creditors’ rights and remedies (including bankruptcy, reorganization, receivership and insolvency proceedings), tiered joint venture structures, contractual rights and remedies, state and federal taxation (including unrelated business income tax), ERISA compliance and Plan Asset Rules, property valuation and appraisal, construction, environmental, and entitlements. He also has substantial experience in the representation of institutional investors and family offices in agribusiness, timber, and alternative green energy projects, including solar farms and anaerobic digesters. 

Ed’s clients include major insurance companies, large public and private pension plans, best-in-class commercial real estate developers, owners and operators, and real estate focused private equity funds, and family offices. 

For any client seeking an experienced lawyer to head up its legal team for structuring complex commercial real  estate investments—from term sheets and contract negotiation and documentation through due diligence, financing, and a final closing—Ed can provide that leadership.

  • Represented an institutional investor in a joint venture with a publically traded REIT originally formed to own and redevelop all former Sears retail outlets at the University Town Center mall in La Jolla, California.
  • Represented an institutional investor in the joint venture for the development of a 700,000 square-foot Class A office building to be part of a mixed-use development in Midtown Atlanta, Georgia.
  • ALI/ABA annual seminar on developments in partnership and LLC law
  • Caribbean Hotel Conference
  • Named to The Best Lawyers in America in the area of real estate law (2005-2024) and leisure and hospitality law (2015-2024)
  • Selected for inclusion in Georgia Super Lawyers® (2004-2019)
  • Recognized by Chambers USA: Guide to Leading Business Lawyers in the area of real estate (2009-2015)
  • Recognized by The Legal 500 United States in the area of real estate (2008-2010, 2012)
  • Member, American Bar Association
  • Member, Atlanta Bar Association
  • Member, Lawyers Club of Atlanta
  • Member, American College of Real Estate Lawyers
  • Fellow, American College of Mortgage Attorneys
  • Member, Pension Real Estate Association
  • District of Columbia
  • Florida
  • Georgia
Honorable Griffin B. Bell, U.S. Court of Appeals - Eleventh Circuit.
  • J.D., with high honors, University of Florida Levin College of Law,

    Editor-in-Chief, University of Florida Law Review, Order of the Coif, Florida Blue Key, Phi Kappa Phi, Omicron Delta Kappa

  • B.A., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
H. Hales

Partner

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