Shelly Weisel, General counsel, SB-Urban
Shelly is a senior statesman of the DC real estate bar. After 40 years with Shaw Pittman and Goulston & Storrs, he moved in-house this April as general counsel to SB-Urban. The company's a JV with Mike Balaban and Frank Saul III, with whom Shelly's worked for more than 20 years. In private practice, Shelly represented clients like BF Saul Co, Boston Properties, HSBC, Chevy Chase Bank and National League of Cities, and deals ranging from Square 54 (the $500M mixed-use Boston Properties project with 500k SF of office space, 85k SF retail, 325 apartment units and a five-level garage) to the renovation and rehabilitation of Shaw District's old Howard Theatre. Shelly grew up in LA and is a double UCLA alum who started his legal career in Beverly Hills at a small entertainment law firm. He joined Shaw Pittman in '74 upon moving to DC (it was 30 lawyers), and spent 29 years building the real estate practice, sometimes heading it, and heading its bankruptcy group as well. His wife, Mindy, is a well-known artist--above they're at a glass exhibit of hers at the Tel Aviv Eretz Israel Museum--with whom he has three grown daughters, 42, 37 and 32, living in New York, Florida and Jerusalem.
