Linsey N. Cohen

With over 25 years of experience in the real estate industry, Linsey Cohen has navigated every corner of the field—from retail and office spaces to multifamily developments. Clients value Linsey for her deep knowledge of the real estate landscape and her proven ability to navigate complex transactions. Her impressive client portfolio includes investors and corporations with property interests spanning the United States.

Linsey brings tireless business savvy to every deal, keeping transactions on track even through the most complex negotiations. She advises a notable roster of clients on high-stakes national commercial real estate acquisitions, dispositions, financing and leasing matters, including:

• One of the nation’s largest drugstore retailers, helping execute its plans for strategic store development through leasing, acquisition or, when appropriate, repurposing assets
• A discount supermarket chain with an aggressive nationwide expansion, negotiating leases, serving as outside counsel for all company lease administration matters, serving as outside counsel for various other real estate matters, managing real estate aspects of strategic acquisitions and spearheading the negotiation of long-term lease agreements for the company’s distribution centers
• The second-largest radio network and media company in the United States, based in Pennsylvania, advising on office leases, tower leasing and acquisitions, dispositions, sales, and vendor agreements
• A large national private institutional investor in multifamily housing, helping on large complex matters, including the acquisition and disposition of more than $1 billion in assets from its securitized portfolios, as well as the acquisition of large portfolios of apartment complexes around the country
• A variety of parties in multiple facets of distressed properties, assisting in ongoing representation of several court-appointed receivers and representation of borrowers in asset restructuring
• A neighborhood-centric, hand-crafted coffee brand, assisting its strategic nationwide expansion
• A Bay Area ghost kitchen company on its strategic nationwide expansion efforts

Linsey prides herself on her “business-first” perspective, learned early in her career while she was an in-house lawyer, to help her clients find the optimal business solution within a legal context. She often counsels entrepreneurial and middle-market clients on corporate and business concerns beyond real estate, liaising with other Gould & Ratner lawyers in litigation, tax, construction and other related areas to resolve issues.

An important aspect of Linsey’s practice is her active involvement in several real estate industry groups – such as Commercial Real Estate Executive Women (CREW) Chicago’s chapter and the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) – as well as the boards of local businesses and nonprofit organizations. Most recently, Linsey joined the Board of Directors as a Board Observer for S.I. Container Builds, Inc., a woman-owned business that works with developers, owners, nonprofits and others to provide sustainable and affordable housing options. Also in 2024, she began serving on the Board of Directors for the Israel Tennis & Education Centers, and in 2019 Linsey joined the board of directors of ZCenter, a nonprofit that provides support to sexual abuse survivors in the northern suburbs of Chicago.

Linsey has been recognized by Crain’s Chicago Business as a “Notable Women in Law” for 2020, 2022 and 2024 and as “Real Estate Lawyer of the Year” for 2020 by Illinois Real Estate Journals. Linsey was recognized in the 2024 edition of The Best Lawyers in America® for her work in real estate law. In 2020, Linsey was inducted into Midwest Real Estate News' Commercial Real Estate Hall of Fame. In 2021 she was recognized as “Chicago Power Woman in Commercial Real Estate” by Bisnow, a “Notable GenX Leader in Law” by Crain’s Chicago Business and a recipient of Connect CRE’s “2021 Lawyers in Real Estate” award.