Carlton Fields Expands Real Estate and Commercial Finance Practice
December 26, 2018
Washington, D.C. – Carlton Fields is pleased to announce that it has expanded its Washington, D.C., office and Real Estate and Commercial Finance practice with the addition of a group of lawyers who have deep experience in representing public and private mortgage lenders on all Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and HUD/FHA financing products.
The attorneys represent privately held and publicly traded lenders nationwide in multifamily housing and healthcare facility financings. They join Carlton Fields with three paralegals and three other professional staff from Fox Rothschild.
Gina A. Hough and Samantha T. Schneck join as shareholders. Previously, they were co-chairs of Fox Rothschild’s Real Estate & Housing Finance practice. Also joining as attorneys are Marsha M. Baumgarner, Duy Duc “Dewey” Nguyen, and Vincent "Vinny" D. Weinert-Baumann.
“Gina, Samantha, and their team bring to the firm specialized experience in agency lending and HUD financing,” said Greg Null, Carlton Fields’ Commercial Finance industry group leader. “Carlton Fields is now one of a few select firms in the nation that offers the complete spectrum of commercial real estate finance.”
Carlton Fields’ Real Estate and Commercial Finance practice offers a multidisciplinary approach that spans the spectrum of real estate finance and investment at all levels of the capital stack. The firm’s practice is considered “outstanding” and industry sources highlight the firm’s “great financing practice” in Chambers USA, a guide to top law firms and lawyers.
“The experience and depth of bench Carlton Fields offers is exciting and compelling,” commented Hough. “We are thrilled to join their expert practice. There is a lot of synergy in our approach and that of Carlton Fields. We both believe in the value of putting client service first.”
Schneck added, “We are excited about this opportunity. It enables us to service clients in all areas of mortgage finance. The firm’s collaborative culture among its lawyers and with clients is consistent with our own approach. I think we will have a lot fun doing what we are most passionate about all while providing premier service to our clients.”
Hough represents lenders that originate multifamily financing for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Federal Housing Administration-insured execution, including Multifamily Accelerated Processing (MAP) and LEAN execution. She counsels national lending clients across all three executions and oversees the practice. She is a former Vice President and Deputy General Counsel at Fannie Mae, and is considered a pioneer in the realm of strategic exploitation of intellectual property assets in the mortgage finance industry.
Hough also has extensive experience as in-house counsel for Fortune 100 companies. She previously served as Senior Corporate Counsel for Digital Equipment Corporation (now Hewlett Packard), where she served as counsel to an international array of acquisition, telecommunications, and advertising business teams.
She is an active member of the National Multifamily Housing Council and the Mortgage Bankers Association. Hough received her J.D. from Boston College and her B.A. from Smith College.
Schneck’s practice focuses on complex real estate finance transactions with an emphasis on federally insured loans for multifamily housing and health care under Federal Housing Administration/U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development insurance programs. She counsels national lending clients and negotiates multimillion-dollar, multilayered structured financing deals. A major portion of her practice concentrates on representing lending clients in finance transactions involving multifamily apartment complexes, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, elderly housing, board and care, and intermediate care facilities.
She recently led the legal team that represented a national lender in the largest single asset HUD refinancing. She also focuses on representation of lenders on large loan portfolios and most recently represented a lender involved in an assumption of a multimillion-dollar healthcare portfolio for assisted living and senior living facilities across the country. In addition to FHA/HUD transactions, Schneck also handles Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac transactions and has represented lenders in loan workouts, assumptions, credit facilities, accounts receivables financing, and loan syndication.
Schneck is fluent in Mandarin Chinese. She received her J.D. from the University of Washington School of Law and her B.A. from the University of Washington.
Baumgarner has more than 25 years of experience representing mortgage banking clients in commercial real estate lending. She handles matters involving originating, selling, and servicing loan transactions sold to secondary market investors, including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Earlier in her career, Baumgarner served as Vice President and Deputy General Counsel in the Multifamily Division at Fannie Mae. While there, she developed the Multifamily Selling and Servicing Guide, as well as the industry-wide loan documents, which continue to be used across the sector. She also served as a Senior Vice President of Capital One, N.A. in its commercial real estate department, and before that as Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer for Beech Street Capital LLC, a Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Federal Housing Administration lender.
Baumgarner received her J.D. from American University, Washington College of Law, and her B.S., summa cum laude, from Columbus State University.
Nguyen is a real estate finance attorney whose practice focuses primarily on multifamily commercial financing with execution to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. He represents lenders nationwide in the origination, sale, and servicing of multifamily Agency-program loans. He counsels clients on numerous transactional and regulatory issues, including, delegations, Agency guideline interpretations, land use restrictive covenant agreements, and complex ownership structures. Prior to entering private practice he clerked for the Chief Justice of the South Carolina Supreme Court. Nguyen received his J.D. from the University of Notre Dame Law School and his A.B., cum laude, from Duke University.
Weinert-Baumann centers his practice on real estate finance and affordable and multifamily housing law matters. He focuses primarily on federally insured loans for multifamily housing and health-care facilities under Federal Housing Administration and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development insurance programs. He also represents lenders in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac financings.
He represents lenders in finance transactions involving multifamily apartment complexes, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, elderly housing, and intermediate care facilities. Weinert-Baumann assists developers with HUD approvals related to the acquisition of HUD-subsidized multifamily housing projects. He also advises clients on Section 8 Housing Assistance Payment contract renewals and rent increase proposals, as well as potential acquisition concerns.
He received his J.D. from Washington University in St. Louis and his B.S.B.A. from the University of Missouri.
