Mr. William G. Barris, Member

Bill has been with the firm since its inception in 1968. He has over 36 years of broad-based real estate practice experience, including representation of numerous real estate lenders and several of Michigan's largest developers with regard to retail, shopping center, office, high-tech, industrial and hotel projects in Michigan and several other states. Having represented owner-investors, developers and lenders, Bill has a unique perspective of all aspects of real estate transactional work. His practice philosophy is to find common sense solutions to issues so that transactions do not become bogged down by unnecessary roadblocks. Bill is chairman of the firm's real estate department and a member of its management committee.

Representative Case/Transactions
Counsel to real estate developers in more than four billion dollars ($4,000,000,000) of real estate related transactions in the last seven years.

Represented a developer and affiliates in a multi-state acquisition of five office buildings, acquisition of four Michigan office buildings and acquisition of 24 industrial buildings with purchase prices of $155,000,000.00, $156,000,000.00 and $143,000,000.00, respectively.

Represented a developer of office-industrial buildings in the sale of 23 buildings for $48,000,000.00.

Represented a developer and affiliates in the sale of an office building in Hawaii for $71,000,000.00.

Representation of lenders for over thirty years in hundreds of millions of dollars of commercial real estate loan transactions.

Represented what was, at the time, the commercial mortgage division of the largest bank in Michigan in financing the expansion of an existing hospital and construction of a new satellite hospital.

Representation of developer-borrowers in numerous securitized mortgage transactions in excess of $25,000,000.00 each. 

Areas of Practice
Lending & Secured Transactions
Real Estate Law
 
Bar Admissions
Michigan, 1967

Education
B.A. University of Michigan, 1963

J.D. University of Michigan Law School, 1966

Honors and Awards
Listed in Best Lawyers in America for over 17 years.

Recognized in Chambers USA America's Leading Lawyers for Business 2004 Client's Guide.

Professional Affiliations
Admitted: State Bar of Michigan, United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.

Michigan Bar Association.

Metropolitan Detroit Bar Association
 
Civic Organizations
Bloomfield Hills Little League (Former Baseball Coach)

Board Memberships  
Franklin Hills Country Club (2001 to present; Vice President, 2003 - 2004; President, 2004-2006)

Farmington Hills Police Benevolent Association

United Cerebral Palsy of Metropolitan Detroit (Past Board Member)