Lisa Lim ’90, a partner at Akerman LLP, was interviewed by New York Real Estate Journal about her work in real estate finance and development, economic development, and affordable housing.
Who inspired you to join the CRE Industry?
I am a native New Yorker. I have been the lead counsel on a number of 80/20 projects that have helped to revitalize and develop rezoned sections of New York City. I have been lead counsel on significant large scale developments and capital projects that have brought economic development and innovation to New York City and New York state. These projects include Cornell Tech, New York Genome and the Harlem Children Zone. It is the process of getting complex deals done under pressing time frames so that a project with a public purpose can get financed, completed and utilized that drives me.How do you hold your own in a negotiation?
I try to see the transaction from different vantage points. Like a chess match, I try to predict what the other side will ask for so I can best position my client in a negotiation.What is the best advice you have received, and who was it from?
My parents encouraged me to lead and not to blindly follow others. This set the groundwork for me to think independently for myself from a young age. This was later reinforced by my liberal arts education at Wellesley College and legal training at Fordham Law School.