James D. Augustyn

Jay represents private equity sponsors, developers, capital providers, and other institutional and non-institutional investors in commercial real estate, real estate finance, and other related transactions. Jay advises clients in the structuring, negotiating, and documenting of all aspects of commercial real estate transactions, including financing, acquisitions and dispositions, joint ventures, leasing, and development of various property types located throughout the United States. Jay has also counseled clients on the real estate aspects of large private equity and corporate transactions.

Jay advises clients on fund formation and investment matters related to the federal Opportunity Zone legislation and other federal, state, and local programs to improve the efficiency of project financing.

Prior to joining Taft, Jay was a real estate partner at an Am Law 10 law firm where he represented a self-managed integrated commercial real estate investment and asset management company organized as a public real estate investment trust in the acquisition and disposition of over 100 hundred industrial, warehouse, and office properties in the U.S.

Jay earned his JD, cum laude, from the University of Illinois School of Law in 2008. He received his Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Michigan in 2000, where he participated in Naval ROTC.

Following college, Jay first served as a main propulsion division officer aboard USS NASSAU (LHA 4). He then went on to act as Navigator and Combat Information Center Officer aboard USS CAPE ST GEORGE (CG 71), where he was deployed to the Eastern Mediterranean to support Operation Iraqi Freedom. In 2004, Jay was assigned to the Navy Operational Support Center Chicago, where he served as Training Officer and Executive Officer for two years before completing his active duty.