Justine Fitzgerald Bio

To close a deal as efficiently as possible, Justine works closely with her clients to understand their goals and tolerance for risk. Recognizing that no business deal is without risk, Justine has a keen sense of what is an intolerable level of risk and advises her clients accordingly. She is a problem solver who takes pride in getting the deal closed. As a child, Justine dreamed of becoming an architect. Her favorite toys were wooden blocks, matchbox cars and Lincoln logs that she used to build entire cities. Although she gave up the architecture dream after high school, Justine feels fortunate to be able to represent real estate developers, investors and users and to serve as an integral part of the project team to develop and construct new and renovated buildings of all types. Today, she enjoys pouring over architectural plans and schematic designs for her client’s projects and especially loves visiting her client’s projects in her spare time to watch them progress. Justine’s business law practice concentrates on all aspects of commercial real estate transactions, including the acquisition and disposition of real property assets, debt and equity financing, joint ventures and the formation and operation of ownership entities. She has extensive experience negotiating purchase and sale agreements, ground leases, development agreements, architecture and construction contracts, office and retail leases and construction, permanent and mezzanine financing documents for commercial mixed-use, office, retail, residential and government projects in the Washington, DC, Virginia and Maryland metropolitan areas and around the country. Justine also represents closely held private and family-owned companies and non-profit organizations in a variety of industries with their real estate investment, shareholder/partner disputes and leasing activities. Earlier in her career, Justine practiced law for many years at Arnold & Porter LLP and served as senior in-house counsel at Hilton Worldwide, Inc. In 2010, she co-founded Fitzgerald & Rhodes LLP (later Fitzgerald Law PLLC), a boutique business law firm.