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Steve Degraff | Much Law

Steve is an accomplished transactional attorney with more than 30 years of experience representing entrepreneurs, investors, developers, owners, institutional and private lenders, and family offices. He handles the full range of commercial real estate and business matters, including acquisitions, dispositions, financing, leasing, and structuring transactions.

Clients rely on Steve to facilitate deals from start to finish, no matter the complexity or scope. He takes a proactive approach to identifying obstacles and determining solutions that meet business goals. Steve also has extensive experience in a range of financial distress issues, including negotiating and facilitating favorable results in workouts of troubled loans for both lenders and borrowers.

Steve advised a longtime real estate developer client during the early 2000s boom through the challenging times of the Great Recession. He reminded the client that "tough times don't last, tough people do," a memorable quote from Gregory Peck that Steve said was on point during the real estate downturn. With that level of commitment and compassion to the client’s needs, Steve was able to establish a deep understanding of the client’s long-term business goals and help identify strategic growth opportunities when the market turned. Helping the client rebuild over the following years, and standing by as a friend and trusted advisor, recently resulted in the billion-dollar sale of the client’s real estate and film studio company to a private equity firm. Steve served in the transaction as both legal counsel and business advisor. He is currently advising the client in the next phase of his career, starting up the client’s family office.

After a decade of practicing as a litigator, Steve continues to draw on his dispute resolution experience to help clients identify potential risks, negotiate beneficial terms, and document agreements and other transactions with an eye toward minimizing future litigation.

Steve is a regular speaker on a variety of corporate and real estate topics, including loan workout and financial distress issues. He served as a member of the firm’s Management Committee for 14 years.

Much More Than My Work

I spend time outside my legal practice continuing to think about real estate. I enjoy leveraging new market trends and have strategized, managed, and invested in real estate for almost 30 years.

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