Andrew Eliot Porter

Andrew Porter joined Schatz Development as General Counsel and Chief Operating Officer in July 2006 after working as an attorney in private practice for more than 15 years in Chicago. He graduated from the University of Michigan in May 1985 and enrolled in medical school at George Washington University a few months later. Though he was supposed to be immersing himself in biochemistry, histology, and gross anatomy, he found himself increasingly fascinated by mergers and acquisitions activity, as well as national politics. While his peers were busy memorizing oxidative phosphorylation, Andrew was busy reading the Wall Street Journal. He quickly realigned his career aspirations by studying for the LSAT during his summer vacation, and by August 1987 he was enrolled at Georgetown Law School.

To bridge the gap between medical school and law school, he worked as a commercial leasing analyst at a national real estate firm, and during his summer breaks from law school, he worked first for the Federal National Mortgage Association and then for an established Wall Street law firm. Following his graduation in May 1990, he served as a judicial law clerk for the Honorable James C. Cacheris in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia (which included a brief stint on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit), then joined a national law firm, briefly in the Chicago office before moving to New York City.

He devoted the next several years to defending class action litigation, and he developed extensive knowledge of both insurance and securities law in the process. His wife detested Manhattan, however, and refused to raise children there, as a result of which he agreed to move to the Midwest. He spent the next few years at a local Chicago litigation boutique, then accepted an opportunity with another national law firm, again defending securities class actions. During this period, he met Noah Schatz, who enticed him to join Schatz Development, just as the high-rise condominium tower at 600 North Fairbanks entered the construction financing and development stage.

Andrew handled essentially every legal issue affecting the development, which ranged from papering the capital stack to binding insurance to negotiating and resolving construction contracting issues. He also established a real estate brokerage firm to sell condominium units and served as managing broker, and he negotiated, prepared, and administered leases with office and retail tenants at the adjacent mixed-use Schatz Building. He also developed financial models in connection with the pursuit of potential new acquisitions and assisted with the development and launch of domu, an online apartment listing resource for Chicago renters, which entailed the preparation of a standard form apartment lease and a litany of white papers designed to provide guidance to landlords and tenants alike.