Joseph Philip Forte, Partner, Commercial Real Estate Practice Chair
Joseph Philip Forte is a commercial real estate finance lawyer with wide-ranging experience and significant expertise in all aspects of mortgage originations and subordinate debt, participations and co-lending arrangements, warehouse/repo/back-lending arrangements, loan servicing and special servicing, workouts and restructurings, securitizations, enforcement and bankruptcy, and capital markets transactions.He has a proven record of guiding institutional lenders, investors and special servicers through multiple market disruptions and regulatory transitions, and advising clients on federal and state mortgage laws and regulations, REMIC/Grantor Trust structures, credit rating agency issues, investment authority, state and local licensing and doing business qualification.
Mr. Forte is frequently engaged as an expert and advisor in complex commercial real estate finance matters involving mortgage lending, servicing, CMBS, securitization, title issues and insurance, intra-tranche and intercreditor issues and enforcement. His experience includes documentary and compliance investigations, mediations, expert testimony and opinions, as well as strategic consultation with lawyers and financial institutions on specialized commercial real estate finance problems or concerns.
Mr. Forte began his career at Cadwalader and has been a partner at leading Wall Street and international law firms, including Trubin Sillcocks, Thacher Proffitt & Wood, Dechert and Alston & Bird. His practice at those firms placed him at the center of the development and evolution of commercial real estate finance. He has represented many Wall Street and money-center banks in the development, organization, documentation and origination of their commercial mortgage backed securities (CMBS) programs and has served many as securitization and program counsel.
Mr. Forte has also played a significant role in shaping commercial real estate finance industry standards and practices. He served as principal draftsman and spokesman for the real estate finance industry’s Capital Consortium’s development of its proposed Capital Markets Mortgage, and he was closely involved in industry efforts designed to support the emerging securitization market following the savings and loan crisis.
He is a co-founder of the Commercial Real Estate Finance Council (CREFC) and also founded CRE Finance World and serves as its Publisher. Mr. Forte led an industry task force involved in development of the ASTM environmental site assessment phase 1 standard and testified before committees of the United States Senate and House of Representatives regarding the secured-creditor exemption. He later chaired the Real Estate Roundtable HVCRE Task Force, which secured for statutory changes to federal HVCRE requirements affecting construction lending. He led the Real Estate Roundtable LIBOR Task Force, participating in the Federal Reserve’s LIBOR consultation for CREFC regarding securitization.
Mr. Forte served as General Counsel of AmTrust Title Insurance Company, a national title insurance company, overseeing regulatory compliance, risk management and strategic legal matters. He also directed the company’s response to the operational and legal challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic, including the development of workarounds that allowed title insurance coverage to continue for real estate sales, purchases and financings.
An acknowledged industry leader, frequent author, lecturer and speaker, Mr. Forte has been recognized as“a pioneering figure in real estate financing…at the forefront of commercial real estate reform” (Lexology) and as “one of 30 ‘Most Influential People in Real Estate’ driving growth and innovation in the commercial real estate recovery following the Global Financial Crisis.” (Commercial Property Executive)