Monica J. Labe
Monica Labe
Troy
Michigan (MI)
Real Estate
Business/Corporate
Profile
With over 20 years of experience, Ms. Labe has become a go-to real estate lawyer in complex commercial real estate transactions throughout Michigan and across the U.S. She has extensive expertise representing a wide variety of clients, including multi-national corporations, developers, real estate private equity firms, governmental authorities, lenders and real estate investment trusts in the acquisition, development, leasing, financing, construction and disposition of office, retail, industrial, mixed-use and entertainment projects throughout the U.S.
Ms. Labe is lead real estate counsel for one of the world’s largest automakers in its national real estate representations. She is also lead real estate counsel to one of the largest and most diverse Tier 1 automotive suppliers in the world and its related companies and spin-offs in their respective national real estate representations.
She represents a multitude of financial institutions and insurance company lenders as well as borrowers in complex multi-state workouts, deeds-in-lieu of foreclosure and foreclosures of real estate secured loans, loan modifications and loan origination for permanent and construction financings.
Additional highlights of Ms. Labe’s career, include: lead counsel to the Detroit Land Bank Authority with respect to all legal matters; real estate and finance counsel to the Detroit Opera House through its financing, renovation, re-opening and mixed-use parking garage project; and lead counsel to a $6 billion REIT in the leasing, acquisition, development and sale of its 4 million square foot real estate portfolio in Southeast Michigan.
In addition to her law practice, Ms. Labe is a member of Dickinson Wright PLLC's Management Group. One of six members, she oversees finance and marketing for the Firm. Prior to being appointed to the Management Group, Ms. Labe was the Practice Department Manager for the Real Estate, Environmental and Energy and Sustainability Practice Groups.
Ms. Labe is a published author and has been a speaker/presenter at a variety of forums both in Michigan and nationally. She received her B.A. from the University of Michigan and a J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law. She is licensed to practice law in Michigan and California.
Selected To
Michigan Super Lawyers 2011
Michigan Super Lawyers 2010
Top Lists
About Monica Labe
Admitted: 1993, Michigan
Professional Webpage: www.dickinson-wright.com/ourpeople/pages/person.aspx?person=...
Honors and Awards:
- Chambers USA, named as one of the "Leaders in Michigan"; Best Lawyers in America; Michigan Super Lawyers; Top 50 Women Lawyers, Michigan Super Lawyers; DBusiness "Top Lawyer".
Special Licenses/Certifications:
- Licensed to practice law in California, 1991
Bar/Professional Activity:
- Member, Dickinson Wright Management Group; Former, Dickinson Wright Practice Department Manager - Real Estate, Environmental and Energy and Sustainability Practice Groups; State Bar of Michigan and California; Detroit and Oakland Bar Associations; Commercial Real Estate Women - Detroit, 2002-2005, Board Member and Secretary.
Pro bono/Community Service:
- Board Member, Anti-Defamation League of Michigan; Leadership Detroit XVIII; Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit, Real Estate Committee (2005-2008); Michigan Women's Foundation, Grants Distribution Committee (1996-2000) and Fund Development Committee (2000-2002); Detroit Regional Economic Partnership, National Investment Committee (1997-2000).
Scholarly Lectures and Writings:
- Co-Chair of the State Bar of Michigan's Real Property Summer Conference in 2011 and the upcoming 2012 Conference, the section's largest annual conference; Roundtable Leader: ICSC Law Conference, Hollywood, Florida, November 2010 on Deeds in Lieu of Foreclosure; Presenter, "What's Going on with Commercial Mortgage Foreclosures?", State Bar of Michigan/ICLE, September 2010; Presenter, "Lessons Learned in the Downtown, the Troubled Shopping Center", State Bar of Michigan, Real Property Summer Conference, July 2010; Author, "Selling and Leasing Industrial Property in the Economic Downturn", ALI-ABA's Thye Practical Real Estate Lawyer, Volume 26, Number 4, July 2010; Presenter, "The Defaulted Real Estate Project", ALI-ABA National Webinar, June 2010; Moderator, "An Inside View of the Credit Crisis from Washington", Dickinson Wright Client Webcast and Seminar, November 2009; Roundtable Presenter, "Landlord Strategies for Tenant's Requests for Concessions in these Troubled Times", ICSC Continuing Education Program, April 2009.
Transactions:
- (1) Since 1994, has represented a major Tier I Automotive Supplier and its related companies in significant real estate projects and transactions throughout the United States; (2) Representing lenders in multi-state, complex, multi-million dollar workouts of defaulted loans involving real estate and other non-real estate collateral; (3) Leads a team of attorneys handling national real estate matters for one of Detroit's Big 3; (4) Representing a developer in a multi-million dollar charter school project in Arizona; (5) Counsel to the Detroit Opera House through its financing, renovation, re-opening and mixed-use parking garage project; (6) Counsel to one of the largest owners of thoroughbred horseracetracks in North America on numerous projects; (7) Counsel to a $6 billion REIT in the leasing, acquisition, development and sale of its 4 million square foot real estate portfolio in Southeast Michigan; (8) Counsel to a real estate investment and development company in its acquisition of an upscale shopping center in Hawaii and other significant acquisitions throughout the U.S.; (9) Counsel to a real estate investment company in the sale of 2 shopping centers in Lansing; (10) Represented a company in a $100 million sale leaseback transaction in North Carolina involving 9 facilities; (11) Counsel to a developer in a $70 million infill residential project inWashington D.C; and (12) Represented a developer in a mobile home and organic farming project in Louisiana for victims of Hurricane Katrina.
- Lead counsel in representing the Detroit Land Bank Authority on acquiring hundreds of vacant and foreclosed properties in the City of Detroit for a massive neighborhood restabilization effort undeway in the City., 2010
Representative Clients:
- The Bouma Corporation; Borders Group, Inc.; Carillon Assisted Living; Chrysler Group LLC; Detroit Land Bank Authority; Hart Realty Advisers; Huntington National Bank; Genworth Life Insurance Company; Seligman Western Enterprises; JP Morgan Chase Bank, NA; Magna International Inc., and its subsidiaries; Magna Entertainment Corp.; MI Developments Inc.; RBS Citizens, N.A.; Liberty Property Trust.
Other Outstanding Achievements:
- Selected to Participate in Leadership Detroit XVIII; Commercial Real Estate Women Secretary and Board Member (past); Practice Department Manager of Real Estate, Environmental and Trusts and Estates Practice Groups at Dickinson; Arlyn Minor Legal Writing Book Award/Northwestern University School of Law
Super Lawyers is a rating service of outstanding lawyers from more than 70 practice areas who have attained a high-degree of peer recognition and professional achievement. The selection process is multi-phased and includes independent research, peer nominations and peer evaluations.
