Biography • Real Estate

Robin Panovka is a partner in the corporate department and co-head of real estate and REIT M&A at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. He focuses on cross-border M&A, takeovers, private equity and strategic transactions, and has been heavily involved in the redevelopment of the World Trade Center since 9/11/01.

Mr Panovka consistently plays an active role in major transactions in the REIT, real estate, hospitality and gaming industries, with particular focus on large-scale M&A involving publicly-traded vehicles and private equity. Examples of recent real estate and REIT M&A representations include: Ventas in its $7.4 billion acquisition of Nationwide Health Properties, $3.1 billion acquisition of Atria's senior housing portfolio and $2 billion acquisition of Sunrise Senior Living REIT, to create the leading healthcare REIT with a $23 billion enterprise value; AMB Property Corporation in its $14 billion merger with ProLogis to create the leading global industrial REIT with combined assets of $46 billion; Morgan Stanley in the sale of the Revel Hotel and Casino project in Atlantic City, and MSREF in connection with the restructuring of the CNL and Pyramid hotel portfolios; Chatham Lodging Trust in its $1.3 billion acquisition, partly in a joint venture with Cerberus Capital Management, of the Innkeepers hotel portfolio in Innkeepers' bankruptcy auctions; the takeover battles for General Growth (GGP), Equity Office (EOP), Shurgard and Taubman; the $22 billion acquisition and restructuring of the Archstone apartment REIT; M&A transactions involving Kimco, Simon, Public Storage, Starwood, Apollo, Harrah's, Penn National Gaming, Sears, Morgans Hotels, Reckson, Innkeepers, Centro, New Plan, American Financial Realty, Mills, Lend Lease, Avalon Bay, Hometown, Post, UBS Paine Webber, Lazard, National Golf, Town & Country Trust, and others; and structuring and investment activity by AREA Property Partners, Apollo and other private equity funds.

Mr Panovka is active in a wide variety of cross-border transactions across many industries, with particular focus in recent years on emerging markets. He is a founding director of the International Institute for the Study of Cross-Border M&A (XBMA), a joint venture among Peking University, Cambridge and NYU, and has co-chaired its recent symposia in Beijing, Cambridge and New York.

Mr Panovka has played a leading role in the redevelopment of the World Trade Center following its destruction on September 11, 2001, helping to negotiate the master development agreement and master plan for the redevelopment, the exchange of the Twin Towers' footprints for five adjacent office sites that enabled the redevelopment to proceed, and the multiple public-private arrangements for building and integrating the office towers, retail space, memorial, museum and infrastructure on the site.

Mr Panovka is the co-author of "REITs: Mergers and Acquisitions," a leading treatise published by Law Journal Press, and has authored 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 Harlem Educational Activities Fund, NYU's Real Estate Institute and Duke Law School; is a fellow of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers and the American Bar Foundation; and serves on the Cornell University Council. He speaks frequently on topics in his fields, including chairing annual conferences for the NYU REIT Center, Practising Law Institute, and XBMA.

Mr Panovka is consistently listed in the top ranks in his areas of expertise by Chambers, LawDragon, Legal 500, Who's Who Legal and similar publications.

Mr Panovka grew up in South Africa and Israel and currently lives in Manhattan with his family. He holds honours degrees from Cornell University and Duke Law School.