As a partner in the firm’s Real Estate Practice, Linsey Cohen draws upon more than 25 years of experience in all areas of real estate, including retail, office and multifamily. Her deal-making experience strikes the strategic balance between risk and executing her clients’ vision. Linsey represents developers, owners, investors, property managers and entrepreneurs with property interests in Chicago and throughout the United States.
Linsey has an indefatigable business acumen that keeps good deals alive, even in the most complex negotiations. In handling sophisticated commercial real estate acquisitions, dispositions, financing and leasing transactions, Linsey advises an impressive roster of clients, including:
- One of the nation’s largest drugstore retailers, which she helps execute its plans for strategic store development through leasing, acquisition or, when appropriate, repurposing assets
- Philz Coffee, a neighborhood-centric, hand-crafted coffee maker, assisting its strategic nationwide expansion
- A discount supermarket chain with an aggressive nationwide expansion, negotiating leases, serving as outside counsel for all company lease administration matters and serving as outside counsel for various other real estate matters
- A Pennsylvania-based national media company and radio network, advising on office leases, tower leasing and acquisitions, dispositions, sales and vendor agreements.
- Several telecom companies, counseling on master site agreements, leases and amendments and risk assessments
- 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
Linsey prides herself on her “business-first” perspective, learned early in her career while she was an in-house counsel, 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 their 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 named a “Best Lawyer” by U.S. News for 2024. 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, as a “Notable GenX Leader in Law” by Crain’s Chicago Business and was named to Connect CRE “2021 Lawyers in Real Estate”.
