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Bio
Wendy White is the Chair of the Real Estate Transactions group in Goulston & Storrs’ Washington D.C. office. She counsels clients on joint ventures, development, acquisitions, dispositions and financings of commercial properties.
Her practice includes transactions related to single and multiple sites involving office, hotel, retail, multifamily and mixed use properties.
Wendy’s clients include public and private real estate investment trusts, local, national and international companies with investments in the U.S., as well as nonprofits.
Background
I’ve known Wendy since 1985 when I joined the B.F. Saul Company and she was a young associate at Shaw, Pittman, Potts and Trowbridge, a well known local real estate oriented firm at the time (it is now Pillsbury). She represented two of our correspondent lenders at the time with transactional legal work and was very thorough. Although I had indirect dealings with her I have always respected her abilities and savvy in responding to client needs.
As you will learn, she is a horsewoman, a learned poet and literary scholar, as well as a gifted real estate counsel. She has represented many leading real estate firms and institutional investors both in sale and financing transactions in a wide variety of real estate types. We discuss her family, educational experiences, her career arc and her philosophy which she has customized as her own, which she calls “E3- excellence, engagement and empathy.” She brings all those qualities and more to her work and life.
Show Notes
Current Role
- Role at Goulston & Storrs- Real Estate transactions attorney. Sales and financings. 50% of firm is real estate (5:00)
- Working on Girl Scouts to sell property in Prince Georges County (5:45)
- Working on a school site in DC (6:00)
- Senior facility in Maryland (6:20)
- Workouts earlier in July
Origins & Education
- Grew up in Miami (7:30)
- Mother went to Law School (7:45)
- She met her husband, her Father, at law school
- Had 5 brothers (she was #2) (8:30)
- Very competitive with her brothers (8:50)
- Stories of sports
- Different rules for her than her brothers (9:30)
- Story about “diary” violation by her brother (10:45)
- Public Schools in Miami
- HS class was bigger than entire college (11:45)
- Attended Sweet Briar College (13:45)
- Had Horseback Riding facility that attracted her (14:15)
- Learned “who she wasn’t, not who she was” (14:50)
- She had grown up riding horses in Miami (15:30)
- Riding empowers girls to convey power and confidence to horses and it is a life skill that translates (16:15)
- Find out “who bites and who kicks” translates to relationships with people (18:00)
- Board of college voted to close it 5 yrs. ago, but alumni came in and replaced the board and hired a new President who’s great (19:45)
- She believes the school is a “privileged” place (20:30)
- She transferred to UVA as a Junior to be in a larger college environment (21:00)
- Then transferred back to Sweetbriar for her Senior Yr. (21:50)
- After Sweetbriar she became a secretary to the Dean of the UVA Law School- Didn’t like it (22:20)
- Then went to UC Irvine to get a Masters in Fine Arts (23:00)
- Learned critical thinking and writing skills
- Poetry is a specialized aspect of writing- being economical with words
- Went to University of Miami Law School instead of getting a Doctorate in Fine Arts (27:20)
- Fred Klein, her Miami Law classmate influenced her to come to DC and practice
- Story about a loan with Chevy Chase Bank and Bob Cocker (30:30)
- Never could finish all the work in law school
- Called on and admitted she was unprepared (32:50)
- Enjoyed her time in law school (34:40)
- She says that the “top” law schools “chew people up” (35:45)
Career
- Joined Shaw Pittman after law school
- First boss was Shelly Weisel, who led the department (36:20)
- Story about a mistake she made about replacing the name of a bank in error (37:20)
- He was a great mentor to her (38:20)
- She met her husband through Shelly (38:45)
- Discussed colleagues at Shaw Pittman (40:00)
- Jay Epstien, Fred Klein, Jeff Keitelman, Anne Planning, Debbie Spartin, Diane Richer
- Learned about principles (41:50)
- Merger with Pillsbury, Madison & Sutro (42:00)
- Elevated her to lead the real estate practice in DC of the merged firm (42:50)
- Firm shrank as lawyers left for other firms (43:20)
- She joined Morris, Manning to be with more women and real estate focused firm (43:30)
- She grew to 10 lawyers in one year (45:00)
- Learned how to build a practice at a new firm
- Decided to leave to find better values
- Joined Goulston & Storrs (46:00)
- Developed a philosophy (46:30)
- E3–
- Excellence in work product (47:20)
- Engagement- Need to connect and do well via engagement (47:30)
- Empathy– Need to be empathetic to be engaged to understand where people are coming from (48:00)
- E3–
- Believes Goulston brings these characteristics
- Cites a story about a former partner passing away and how the partners recited testimonies about this deceased partner that were reverent and it reinforced her willingness to join the firm (49:00)
- Developed a philosophy (46:30)
Practice of Law
- Lawyers are conservative by nature and are introverted typically (51:30)
- Should be a “supporting role” in helping clients (51:50)
- Litigation was a “different animal” (52:45)
- Migrated to real estate law and liked it immediately as it is problem solving (53:15)
- Characteristics of good lawyers
- Collegiality with other attorneys on both sides (54:15)
- Get deals done (54:30)
- Works hard to find common goals with adverse counsel (56:30)
- Clients want to make deals
- Cites a case in Texas about a portfolio deal in Houston with Crescent Realty (57:30)
- Contract to purchase company (not real estate) that became successful, but her being the only woman in the room (59:00)
- Reference to A Man in Full, by Tom Wolfe
- Business development (1:05:00)
- Once fired a client due to the client’s treatment of her associate (1:06:30)
- Doing transactions at Goulston with a wider range of clients (1:07:50)
- People behave better in a mixed crowd (1:09:30)
- Relationships are critical- Advice to young attorneys (1:10:30)
- Make relationships (1:10:50)
- Wine Down Society (Linda Rabbit, Janet Davis) (1:11:10)
- Group of women that help each other (1:11:50)
- Includes 16 women- Linda Rabbitt, Debbie Ratner Salzberg, Anne Planning, Diane Hoskins, Jodie McLean, Sharon Oliver, Becky Owen, Sadhvi Submaranian (1:12:00)
- Wendy inspired Sadhvi to be President of CREW (1:14:00)
- Cites story with partner Tim Watkins at Ritz Carlton Hotel in Houston (1:16:30)
- Danced after working too hard at a bar
- Met Jodie McLean on the CityVista deal in Columbia, SC and their attorney where she stepped into the negotiations to close the deal (1:14:30)
- Discusses Jodie’s framework (1:20:30)
- Reference to Ray Ritchey (1:22:45)
- When Wendy had her twins in 1990, Shaw Pittman didn’t have business for her to do, so Ray hired her to step in at BXP to do the real estate legal work (1:23:50)
- She considered working in house with a real estate company, but wanted the flexibility of focus and at partner level she wouldn’t have found employment outside a firm (1:25:30)
- She believes that legal practice business will change such that less space will be used and a lot more remote working; however, there will be meetings (1:26:00)
- Can’t invest in real estate through firm clients (1:32:00)
Non Legal Involvement
- CREW involvement- Introduced when she was a young lawyer by Geraldine Pilzer (1:33:00)
- Got into other organizations to “grow”
- Washington Real Estate Investment Trust Board Member (1:36:00)
- Ed Cronin, CEO of WRIT asked her to be on the board
- Growth experience on the board
- Enjoyed the mechanics of board leadership and business issues
- Left Board when Paul McDermott came in and joined Goulston & Storrs
- Sara Grootwasink Lewis (Former CFO of WRIT) (1:38:00)
- Board of Economic Club of Washington (1:39:00)
- David Rubenstein was a lawyer at Shaw Pittman when she started there (1:39:50)
- He did some research for her father who hired Shaw Pittman to do some work and David showed her his work and she marked it up (1:40:30)
- David asks questions like a girl (1:42:00)
- David Rubenstein was a lawyer at Shaw Pittman when she started there (1:39:50)
- ESG issues- she recognizes that the law is set in many of the tactics (1:43:40)
- She is a supporter of “women supporting women” (1:44:00)
- People are comfortable with “sameness” and realize that change needs to be made (1:46:00)
- Need to be intentional with change both racially and gender based (1:46:45)
- Women tend to be more “relationship driven” (1:47:40)
- Story about Indira Nooyi (CEO of Pepsi) who wrote letters to young employees’ parents to report about their children’s performance (1:47:50)
- Family is first and relationships in work and giving back is very important (1:50:20)
- Boys & Girls Club
- Girl Scouts (1:51:00)
- Can address “less affluent” families to help growth with the young girls
- Camp CEO
- She is doing two “pro bono” transactions for them (1:53:30)
- Advice for her 25 yr. old self- “Set goals earlier and be bolder” (1:55:50)
- Make relationships (1:56:45)
- Prioritize early in life (1:57:00)
- Boys In the Boat
- Billboard- E3 (1:58:00)
Postscript
- Tom Amos cites the quote about “women” (1:59:00)
- CREW discussion (2:00:00)
- Discussed Icons Webinar (2:02:00)
- Personal touch of leadership from the webinar
- Each speaker personalized the pandemic impacts
- Compassion by each speaker were poignant
- Overwhelming demand when people are comfortable to return to retail engagement
- Real estate industry resiliency is key
- Potential membership for podcast listeners
