Career Overview

Current Focus: I joined Applegate & Thorne-Thomsen in 2001. My practice focuses on affordable housing development, with a particular emphasis on multi-tiered transactions. I represent developers in a variety of complex low-income housing transactions, including transactions utilizing multiple funding sources, such as FHA-insurance, municipal bonds, HOPE VI and public housing capital funds, state and historic tax credits and federal programs such as HOME and CDBG.

I have represented a variety of developers that are engaged in the redevelopment of public housing in Chicago. Representative redevelopment projects and clients include: Robert Taylor Homes/Legends South (Brinshore-Michaels); Henry Horner Homes/Westhaven (Brinshore-Michaels); Cabrini Green/Parkside Old Town (Holsten Real Estate Development); Hilliard Homes (Holsten Real Estate Development); Ogden North/Park Douglas (Brinshore-Michaels in partnership with Sinai Community Institute); and Britton Budd and Pomeroy Senior Housing (Chicago Housing Authority). I counsel tax credit syndicators in connection with investments in affordable housing developments nationwide, and have structured and documented real estate loans for both commercial banks and private lenders. I also work on traditional real estate matters involving the sale and acquisition of property. I also co-chair the firm’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee.

Speaking Engagements

• Panelist, Affordable Housing Development, Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education, Land Use Law in Illinois (March 6, 2019)
• Presenter, 28th Annual Edward J. Devitt Distinguished Service to Justice Award (presented to Hon. Ann C. Williams), United States Supreme Court (September 2010).
• Speaker, Chicago Housing Authority Finance & Build Green Workshop (February 17, 2010).
• Panelist, “Protecting Your Client in the New Environment”, ABA’s 18th Annual Affordable Housing and Community Development Law Conference (May 20-22, 2009).
• Moderator, “Putting it All Together: A Case Study on the ‘Typical’ Affordable Housing Development”, Applegate & Thorne-Thomsen Seminar, Tax Credit Basics and More (April 21, 2009).

Professional Affiliations

• Member, Mayor Lightfoot’s Housing Transition Committee
• Board Member, Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives, Inc.
• American Bar Association
  • Member, Forum on Affordable Housing and Community Development Law
• Advisory Board Member, The Law Project of the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights
• Member-at-Large, Armstrong Park Advisory Council
• Member, 4500 Forrestville Block Club
• Former Board Member, Joel Hall Dancers & Center, 2001-2011
• Former Board Member and Co-Chair of Advisory Committee, Chicago Center for Arts and Technology