Andrew Lance

Adjunct Professor

Andrew A. Lance is a partner in Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher's Real Estate Practice Group.  He is resident in the New York office, where he is also a member of the firm's Finance Committee. Mr. Lance's clients include private real estate equity funds, hedge funds, corporate and individual developers and owners of office, retail, hotel, industrial, recreational, professional sports and entertainment real estate, mortgage and mezzanine lenders, REITs and other public and privately-held companies investing in or using real estate.  Mr. Lance also represents many not-for-profit organizations, particularly those building charter schools and involved in the performing arts. His practice includes restructuring of complex debt structures, equity interests in development ventures, and private and public-private ground leased and fee-owned development projects, as well as enforcement of remedies and realization on collateral by lenders in such projects.

Mr. Lance is a member of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers and a fellow of the American College of Mortgage Attorneys.  Mr. Lance is listed in The Best Lawyers in America 2010 and 2009 and in New York Magazine's "2009 New York Area's Best Lawyers" edition.  Mr. Lance was recognized by Legal 500 in 2007 as a "big player in the complex field of mezzanine and preferred equity financing techniques."  Mr. Lance was the lead attorney for the transactions that won the Real Estate Board of New York's Most Creative Retail Deal of the Year Award twice in recent years: the relocation of Hard Rock Café to the former World Wrestling Entertainment site at Times Square (2004), and the lease by Walgreens of the entire building at One Times Square (2007). 

Mr. Lance joined Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in March 1999.  He previously practiced law as Special Counsel with Sullivan & Cromwell in New York from 1984 to 1993.  Mr. Lance also has served as a consultant to investment banking and management consulting clients on securitized finance and real estate transactions, and on global facilities leasing.  He has been an Adjunct Professor at New York Law School since 1985, teaching Commercial Real Estate Leasing and Land Transfer and Finance, a Visiting Lecturer at Yale Law School, and a lecturer at the New York University Schack Institute of Real Estate teaching Real Estate Finance and Investment Analysis.  He also is a frequent lecturer at programs of the Practicing Law Institute, the New York State Bar Association, the International Council of Shopping Centers, and IMN Conferences.  His recent speaking engagements include a Council on Foreign Relations teleconference on "Investing Capital in Real Estate in the Current Economic Climate," and at the Real Estate Investment World Latin American Conference on "Evolution of Private Equity Transactions in Latin America."

Mr. Lance earned his Juris Doctor in 1983 from Yale Law School, where he was a member of the Yale Law Journal.  He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree cum laude in 1980 from Princeton University and attended the University of Paris.  Mr. Lance was a Fellow of the Coro Foundation Leadership New York Program for the 1999-2000 term.  Mr. Lance has completed the FitchTraining Commercial Real Estate CDO credit risk workshop; he has advised issuers of commercial real estate CDOs and investors in CRE CDOs.  Mr. Lance has been honored twice in 2004 and 2009, by Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York, the service organization for not-for-profit performing arts organizations in New York City, for his support for A.R.T./New York and its member organizations.  He joined the Board of A.R.T./New York in 2004, and was elected in 2005 to form and head their Audit Committee.

Mr. Lance's practice focuses on the following areas:
Restructuring of the debt and equity positions in real estate development projects, resort hotels and other real estate investments, including both for the owner/developer and for the lender.  Such engagements include loan extensions, forbearance agreements, deeds in lieu, UCC and real property foreclosure, modification of ground leases, bankruptcy advice, and the purchase and sale of distressed debt, as well as disputes among members in owner entities including activation of buy-sell provisions.