Jesse!

One of LA’s top real estate lawyers is being honored by the Jewish Federation on May 13 during its Real Estate and Construction Division dinner at the Hyatt Century Plaza; however, he is so modest, you may not recognize him in the picture he provided.

This is uber-lawyer Jesse Sharf at age 19 in his senior year of college at Penn. He'd been abroad his previous year (a semester in Israel, then backpacking in Italy, France, and England), lost his ID, needed a new one, and did not have time for a shave or haircut. Little did he realize, he says today, that this picture would represent him at his peak—at least in terms of facial hair. (Looking back, he misses the hair on the top of his head as well.) He found the picture a few years ago in a box of his mother's—he remains close to his parents and actually had lunch with them yesterday.

Here's the dignified Jesse today (whom we snapped with son Jeremiah and wife Stacy bookending him with college roommate and famed pollster Frank Luntz). Having grown up in the Fairfax area of LA, Montreal, and Fort Lee, NJ (yes, that Fort Lee), he's been at law firm Gibson Dunn for nearly 28 years and co-chairs its 90-lawyer real estate department. His own practice consists of representing investors, lenders, and operators on all types of real estate and capital market transactions. Last year was the busiest ever. 

But Jesse finds time for charity and is on half a dozen boards. One of his passions is the Jewish Federation; he's a board member and former chair of its Real Estate and Construction division. He says he feels completely unworthy of the upcoming honor, but is doing it to give his parents "nachas" (look it up) and help raise money for the Federation which he so strongly supports. Here's information on the event if you want to support it, too. Oh, and it's one heck of a networking event.