Marlene C. Guzzino
(914) 227-9688
With more than 20 years of experience in commercial real estate, Marlene has represented a diverse client base—including Fortune 100 companies, educational institutions, financial institutions, private equity firms, REITs, developers, and nonprofit organizations—in complex, high-stakes real estate and corporate transactions.
Marlene’s practice encompasses the full spectrum of commercial real estate matters, including portfolio acquisitions and dispositions, development and redevelopment projects, and commercial leasing transactions. She has extensive experience negotiating and drafting all types of commercial leases (including ground leases and triple net leases), purchase and sale agreements, development and easement agreements across a wide range of asset classes, including airports, shopping centers, office buildings, mixed-use complexes, hotels, student housing facilities, and industrial spaces. Marlene has represented owners, operators and tenant in the leasing of office, medical, retail and industrial space having sat on “both sides of the table”.
Among her notable representations, Marlene served as counsel to the redeveloper of the Central Terminal at LaGuardia Airport in the restructuring of the retail and commercial concession leases for the $4 billion, 1.3 million-square-foot redevelopment project. She has also represented a national banking institution acquired from the FDIC by a prominent investor in a $900 million recapitalization, including the restructuring and expansion of a 90-location, multi-state real estate portfolio. Additional matters include advising a premier real estate operating company in a $135 million corporate acquisition with assets spanning a 40-location, multi-state portfolio, and representing a prominent private equity firm in a $32 million sale-leaseback of a multi-state real estate portfolio.
Marlene brings a distinctive perspective to her practice, drawing on significant in-house experience as Deputy General Counsel at a Prominent Real Estate Company, where she managed legal matters for a multi-million-square-foot commercial portfolio. She also served as Legal Administrator in the Office of Retail & Real Estate Counsel at Ralph Lauren Corporation.
Prior to joining the firm, she served as partner in the Manhattan office of a Band 1 Chambers-ranked international law firm, representing retailers, landlords, developers, banks, and educational institutions in commercial leasing, acquisitions, and development transactions. Marlene also held an externship in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio and internship in the United Kingdom Parliament House of Commons.
Recognized for delivering practical, business-focused legal solutions, Marlene is a trusted advisor to boards and C-suite executives on matters of legal strategy, enterprise risk management, and organizational growth. She has been named a “Rising Star” by Super Lawyers magazine (New York Metro Edition) and by the Georgetown Law Advanced Commercial Leasing Institute.
Marlene earned her J.D. from The Ohio State University Michael E. Moritz College of Law, where she was selected for the Journal on Dispute Resolution. She received her B.A. in Political Science, magna cum laude, from Fairfield University, where she completed the Honors Program with distinction and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa and Alpha Sigma. Marlene also studied abroad at Oxford University at St. Catherine’s College.