Jaqueline Ryu.
Jacqueline Ryu, 33
Associate at Kramer Levin
In terms of high-profile deals, it doesn’t get much loftier than Vici Properties’ $17.2 billion acquisition of MGM Growth Properties. Jackie Ryu is hard at work on the behemoth transaction, which has been underway throughout the pandemic and its myriad challenges — including, in Ryu’s case, working from home for a time with a 2.5-year-old child.
“It’s fascinating to represent Vici and be on the forefront of it all,” she said. “It’s a massive deal, and, once the transaction closes, Vici becomes the biggest gaming REIT in the industry, so it’s all very exciting.”
A first-generation lawyer, Ryu’s parents came to America for college and grad school. Today, her father is a professor and her mom teaches English to Korean seniors at the local YMCA. “It’s really cute, because she teaches them nursery rhymes so that they can sing them with their half-American or American grandkids,” she said.
At Fordham law school, Ryu didn’t have an immediate pull toward real estate, but knew from the get-go that she wanted to pursue transactional law. That instinct was soon underscored during a role at Nixon Peabody, where working within the firm’s affordable housing practice sparked a newfound passion for property. She began looking for other real estate-strong firms, and Kramer Levin was “top of her list.”
Ryu joined the firm in 2016 and never looked back. In fact, she’s worked on several of New York City’s top deals since, including the financing and development of Hudson Yards on behalf of the joint venture of Mitsui Fudosan America, Related Companies and Oxford Properties, and the $1.6 billion redevelopment of the Farley Post Office Building into Moynihan Train Hall on behalf of Related, Vornado and Skanska.
“What’s great is that we’re generalists, so we get to do everything,” she said. And, while developers constitute a large percentage of Kramer Levin’s clientele, Ryu doesn’t play favorites between the leasing, acquisition or financing transactions she works on.
“We like partnering with the developer and helping them through the whole property life cycle — from the idea of, ‘I think I can turn this plot of land into something great,’ to a completed project. It’s really satisfying.”—C.C.
