Bio

Lavon Johns is an experienced real estate and finance attorney who provides clients with a broad range of practical knowledge and legal proficiency in all facets of lending, asset-backed financings and public-private partnerships. Specifically, LaVon has decades of experience providing legal counsel to some of the most recognized nonprofit and faith-based organizations in the country. She is also an effective crisis management lawyer for public executives, professionals, governmental officials, not-for-profits and business entities faced with complex immediate crises in high-profile settings. For almost 25 years, LaVon has represented commercial and industrial clients in multi-million dollar commercial real estate transactions, including acquisitions, dispositions, real-estate based financings, workouts, development transactions, office and retail management transactions, and complex commercial and office lease transactions relating to real property located in the U.S. and abroad. She also has extensive experience counseling clients engaged in corporate mergers and acquisitions involving real property. LaVon is one of very few attorneys in Illinois to attain Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Accredited Professional (LEED AP) accreditation issued by the U.S. Green Building Council. LaVon has significant expertise advising governmental clients in public/private partnership infrastructure transactions. Over the past 15 years, she has acted as lead real estate counsel to the City of Chicago in a $1.8 billion transaction in the privatization of the Chicago Skyway Toll Bridge, a $563 million transaction in the privatization of the Chicago Parking Garage System and the initial $2.8 billion proposed privatization of Chicago's Midway International Airport. LaVon has advised borrowers and lenders, including banks, financing companies, financial institutions and governmental entities, in a variety of secured and unsecured financing transactions, including refinance transactions, lines of credit, letters of credit/credit enhancement, conventional mortgage loans, TIF financings, LIHTC financings, NMTC, receivable financings, loan portfolio acquisitions, workouts and foreclosures, senior and subordinated loan participations, construction financings, equipment financings and sale and leasebacks. She also has extensive experience representing banks and financial institutions that are subject to FDIC loss/share agreements. LaVon's experience with nonprofit and faith-based organizations includes advising on issues relating to federal and state law governance, local governmental politics and relations, governmental compliance and 501 regulatory issues, commercial real estate development (including expansion and leasing), real property gifts issues, unrelated business income, real estate property tax issues, foreclosure and workouts. In addition, she has represented numerous faith-based lenders in connection with loans to faith-based borrowers and in the execution of loans for charitable purposes and missions.