Press Release
03/04/08 -
Vedder Price Real Estate & Land Use Group Acquires New Shareholder
The law firm of Vedder Price P.C. announces that Danielle Meltzer Cassel joins its Chicago office as a Shareholder in the Real Estate and Land Use Group. Ms. Cassel focuses her practice on transactional real estate, land use and public incentives law. Ms. Cassel was formerly a Shareholder in the Real Estate group of DLA Piper.
Ms. Cassel’s transactional and land use work has covered a broad spectrum of property types, including: urban and suburban retail and office developments, hotels, hospitals, schools, industrial parks and manufacturing facilities, power plants, and single family and multifamily residential properties. She has represented purchasers and sellers, lessors and lessees, providers of debt and equity, developers, project operators, and end users in transactions ranging from the beginning phases of due diligence, formation of joint ventures, design, and construction, to the ongoing operations, disposition, redevelopment, and refinancing of existing properties. Ms. Cassel’s land use and development work has included numerous planned developments and subdivisions in both urban and suburban contexts, annexations and disconnections, utility and transportation issues, impact fee and subsidy negotiations, and preparation of easement and operating covenants.
“We are delighted to have Danielle join our Real Estate and Land Use group,” stated Michael A. Nemeroff, President of the Firm. “She brings a wealth of transactional real estate, land use and governmental incentives experience that will be an asset to our clients. We are also proud to be affiliated with a person so committed to the Chicago community.”
Ms. Cassel has worked, studied and volunteered extensively in several fields related to inner-city development. Her most significant research projects include a multi-year study of the 1990 National Affordable Housing Act, lending collaborations for Community Reinvestment Act credit among traditional mortgage lenders and neighborhood-based institutions, and bridge loans facilitating non-syndicated Low-Income Housing Tax Credit equity investments.
Ms. Cassel received her B.A. degree (summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa) from Yale University in 1992. She earned a Masters degree in Public Policy from the John. F. Kennedy School of Governments at Harvard University (1996). She obtained her law degree from Harvard University (J.D., 1996).
Ms. Cassel was a member of Leadership Greater Chicago's Class of 2006. She is the recipient of a "Tomorrow's Leaders Today" award from Public Allies Chicago and a Special Recognition Award from the Partnership to End Homelessness. She currently serves on the boards of the Primo Center for Women and Children, the Community Economic Development Law Project (CEDLP), and the Yale Club of Chicago. For several years, Ms. Cassel served on the board of WomanCraft, Inc., a subsidiary of Deborah's Place, Chicago's largest provider of shelter and services to formerly homeless women, and on the advisory board of Public Allies Chicago.
She has lectured on land use law issues for the Illinois Institute of Continuing Legal Education, the CEDLP, the University of Chicago Law School Real Estate Law Society, and the University of Chicago Law School Institute for Justice Clinic on Entrepreneurship. She has taught land use and zoning law seminars at Northwester Law School (Spring Semester, 1999-present) and the University of Chicago Law School (Spring Quarter, 2001-present).
Ms. Cassel was recently noted as an "up and coming" lawyer in Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business, and for having a “phenomenal brain and terrific client skills.” She is also listed in The Best Lawyers in America. Mr. Cassel is a member of the American Bar Association and the ICSC.
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