Lawrence B. Swibel
Larry Swibel is a founding partner and Chair of the Real Estate Group. Larry practices in the areas of real estate, corporate law and hospitality, and specializes in both restaurant-related work and structuring entities for foreign clients doing business in the U.S. He represents clients, both as developers and lenders, in all aspects of the development of restaurants, hotels, shopping centers, office buildings, theaters and residential properties. In the corporate area, Larry handles mergers and acquisitions as well as advising closely-held businesses regarding shareholder agreements, buy‐outs and similar transactions.
In the hospitality area, much of Larry’s practice is devoted to restaurant leases, licenses, management agreements, financings, equity raises, corporate structuring and contracting. He handles restaurant deals for some of the world’s best‐known chefs and most successful restaurant operators, located throughout the U.S., Canada, the Caribbean region, Europe and Asia. His restaurant clients include Alain Ducasse; Richard Melman and his company, Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, Inc.; Brendan Sodikoff and his company, Hogsalt Hospitality; Four Corners Hospitality, a division of Sterling Bay Realty; Marcus Samuelsson Group; Weber Grill Restaurants; Tim Cushman; T.I.C. Restaurant Group (with 13 Japanese concepts in New York); Kremeworks LLC (with exclusive Krispy Kreme franchise rights in six western states and two Canadian provinces); and Rosa Mexicano Group Holdings.
One of Larry’s noteworthy non-hospitality transactions occurred in 2011, when the United States Treasury selected the Firm as the only small U.S. law firm to assist in administering the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). In that assignment, Larry co‐led a team of the Firm’s lawyers in approximately 165 transactions in which the federal government funded $1.7 billion to community banks around the U.S.
Larry also has assumed leadership positions outside the Firm. Notably, since 1991 Larry has served on the board of The Interlex Group and currently serves as its President. Interlex is an association of leading law firms from 61 countries around the world. Since 2008, he also has served as an Adjunct Professor of Law at DePaul Law School in Chicago.
Larry has been rated AV® Preeminent by his professional peers through the Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review Rating system. This is a testament from peer legal professionals of the highest level of professional excellence and of unquestionable ethics.
Since 2013, Larry was selected to the list of Illinois Super Lawyers. His selection was published in Chicago Magazine. Only five percent of lawyers in Illinois are selected for inclusion to the Illinois Super Lawyers list, and are made on an annual, state-by-state basis.
In addition, since 2016, Larry has been selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America© in the field of real estate law.
Since 2004, Larry has also been named a Leading Lawyer in the areas of commercial real estate law, closely & privately held business law, corporate finance law, commercial bankruptcy & workout law, creditor’s rights, and commercial collections law by the Law Bulletin Publishing Company. Only lawyers who are most often recommended by their peers in the statewide surveys are included in Leading Lawyers Magazine.
Since 1991, Larry has served on the board of The Interlex Group and currently serves as President. Interlex is an association of leading law firms from 60 countries around the world.