Bilzin Sumberg Welcomes Two New Partners from Among Its Ranks
Miami, FL – Bilzin Sumberg is pleased to announce that Salomé Bascuñan and Dominic (Nick) Valponi have been elected as the firm’s newest partners, effective January 1, 2024. As attorneys in the firm’s Real Estate Group and CMBS and Real Estate Capital Markets Group, respectively, they join the partnership ranks of one of the most widely recognized real estate practices in Florida.
“We are thrilled to announce the addition of our newest partners," says Albert E. Dotson, Jr., Chief Executive Officer & Managing Partner. "Salomé and Nick have showcased their prowess as invaluable advisors to their clients independently, all the while engaging in collaborative work with colleagues across various practices to deliver unparalleled guidance."
Salomé Bascuñan thrives on the intensity and collaboration needed to close a real estate deal. She has broad transactional experience representing institutional lenders, borrowers, investors, and developers in commercial real estate transactions. She handles acquisitions, financing, and development of commercial projects such as hotel, multi-family, office, retail, industrial and mixed-use properties. Salomé is also experienced in the preparation and negotiation of construction agreements and professional design agreements. Beyond her practice, Salomé is involved in community and professional organizations, actively serving as a member of Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW) and Chile-US Chamber of Commerce. She is also a Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD) Fellow.
Nick Valponi focuses his practice on the CMBS loan industry with an emphasis on representing CMBS loan servicers on a variety of business and legal issues involving servicing practices, procedures, and standards, pooling and servicing agreements, mezzanine loans, preferred equity, inter-creditor and co-lender agreements, and REMIC and rating agency questions. Nick has expertise in handling all manner of loan servicing files including loan assumptions, equity transfers, material alterations, partial releases, easements, collateral swaps, cash management, condemnations, loan modifications and SNDA/leasing matters. He also has experience in special servicing and loan servicing of distressed assets including forbearances, deeds in lieu of foreclosure and other loan workouts. In addition to Nick’s extensive practice, he is a member of CRE Finance Council, the trade association for the commercial real estate finance industry.
Over the past several years, the firm’s Real Estate practice group has been recognized multiple times as a “Real Estate Group of the Year” by leading legal news publication Law360, an honor received by a select group of firms nationwide that stand out for preeminent work in the sector. Additionally the firm has won numerous South Florida “Deal of the Year” awards from various industry publications, including Daily Business Review’s Real Estate Transactions award for both 2022 and 2023.
About Bilzin Sumberg
Bilzin Sumberg counsels clients whose business and legal opportunities and challenges span the United States, Canada, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and Asia. The firm’s growth has paralleled that of its Miami home base, a region known for its rich cultural, social, and professional diversity. Bilzin Sumberg stands at the center of virtually every major transaction shaping Florida and is at the forefront of the state’s most pressing economic issues – from infrastructure, transit and mobility, to affordability and the diversification of the state’s economy. Bilzin Sumberg lawyers concentrate on services at the heart of both regional and international commerce, including real estate, land development and government relations, environmental, construction, corporate and securities, finance, joint ventures, domestic and international tax and private wealth planning, antitrust, business litigation, and public-private partnerships. For more information, please visit bilzin.com.
