Sean P. Murphy
Senior Counsel
Sean Murphy advises businesses acquiring, selling and financing commercial real estate, including REITs, opportunity funds, investment partnerships, general contractors, developers and operators of commercial real estate. He has also represented clients in the life sciences and med-tech industries, health care-related real estate owners and operators, family offices and investment firms. He uses a broad toolkit cultivated from deep transactional experience in markets across the country to find creative solutions that bring parties to agreement.
Experienced in coordinating portfolio transactions across multiple states and sometimes involving multiple regulatory settings, Sean handles often high-profile projects from concept to completion. He possesses a rare career path that has included service as a partner and counsel in leading U.S. law firms, as a federal trial and appellate attorney with the Department of Justice, and years working as a corporate general counsel. With this background, Sean is skilled at providing business-oriented solutions rather than strictly legal approaches to clients’ concerns and building productive partnerships. He’s often able to steer negotiations and resolve conflicts before they become bigger problems, frequently without the expense of litigation.
Experience
- Created and operated an SEC-registered investment advisory business and served as chief compliance officer and chief operating officer.
- Handled acquisition or ground-up development of numerous assets, including medical office buildings, medical research and laboratory facilities, and seniors’ housing assets for a JV involving a private investment partnership and publicly traded REIT.
- Assisted borrower in financing 32 assisted living and memory care facilities in seven states worth $240 million, including assets assumed with HUD-insured mortgages.
- Negotiated a $183 million bulk financing closing backed by Fannie Mae and secured by projects across 11 states on behalf of a student housing owner-operator.
- Secured $21 million of HUD-insured permanent financing for an owner-operator of a seniors’ housing facility in West Hampton, New York.
- Represented developer and operator in acquiring and financing a $20 million off-campus student housing project servicing the University of Arizona.
- Counseled a consumer-packaged goods startup in forming and capitalizing its business, leading to an appearance on Shark Tank and sales across the United States.
- Managed a number of dispositions for a publicly traded health care REIT, including the sale of skilled nursing facilities in the Northeast and Midwest U.S.
- Negotiated the acquisition of, and conducted legal due diligence for, a digital application providing the client a new business and revenue source.