K&L Gates Deepens Real Estate Group with Addition of Nashville Trio

Nashville - Global law firm K&L Gates LLP has expanded its real estate group with the addition of partners Matt Harris and Rick Pensinger and of counsel Christian Schütz in the firm’s Nashville office, which recently celebrated the one-year anniversary of its establishment and now includes more than 40 lawyers. They join K&L Gates from Baker Donelson and are among the nearly 110 partners and of counsel the firm has welcomed across its platform since the beginning of 2020.

“We are very excited that Matt, Rick and Christian have decided to join K&L Gates and our new Nashville office,” said Mary Beth Johnston, managing partner of the firm’s Nashville office and co-leader of the health care and FDA practice. “Since the launch of the office last year, we have remained focused on continuing its growth by adding premier practitioners in variety of areas. Real estate has been a particular area of emphasis. So, we feel very fortunate that these well respected and recognized lawyers are joining our team.”

Harris, a Nashville native, handles acquisitions, dispositions, development, financing, and complex leasing of industrial, multi-family, health care, office, and wireless communications properties for real estate investment trusts (REITs) and other public and private entities and private developers locally and nationally. He is also well-versed in land use and zoning law, with decades of experience representing clients before planning commissions and zoning boards in connection with required approvals for complex and controversial projects.

Pensinger represents clients in the acquisition, sale, and leasing of commercial real estate, particularly in the wireless telecommunications, health care, automotive, and restaurant industries. For more than two decades, he has represented a leading wireless telecommunications provider in the development, leasing, acquisition, and disposition of network real estate assets throughout the United States.

A native German with a German law degree, Schütz focuses his practice in the areas of complex real estate transactions, including acquisitions and dispositions, greenfield and brownfield development, and finance and economic development, with particular experience serving the needs of German, Swiss, and Austrian clients investing in the United States and U.S. clients conducting business in Germany and the European Union. He also serves as Honorary Consul of the Federal Republic of Germany in Tennessee.

K&L Gates established its office in Nashville in 2021 with the hiring of more than 25 lawyers across a variety of practice groups, including health care, litigation, corporate, intellectual property, finance, and construction, among others. The office has continued to grow, adding nearly two dozen lawyers since its launch, and provides the firm and its clients access to one of the nation’s fastest-growing markets, including in areas such as health care, technology, and investment.

Shannon Skinner, a co-leader of the firm’s global real estate practice, remarked: “We are delighted to welcome this premier team to our global real estate platform. Matt, Rick and Christian have significant experience handling transactions across a broad range of industries and deep roots in the community. We are excited that they’ve joined our dynamic Nashville office, continuing its growth trajectory, as well as adding to our substantial real estate offering throughout the United States.”

K&L Gates’ large and diversified real estate practice advises clients in a variety of real estate investment, land use, planning and zoning, development and construction, financing, leasing, tax, and litigation matters around the world.