Matthew J. "Matt" Norton

Matt Norton maintains an international practice and concentrates his practice in the areas of corporate and real estate related transactions and financings, cross-border investment, and commercial and residential real estate development, with a particular focus on resort and hospitality transactions and projects. He has recently or is currently assisting clients with the sale, acquisition, development, repositioning, and/or financing of projects in the United States, Caribbean, Latin America, Europe, Middle East, and Asia. He is a founding partner of the firm’s Charleston, SC office and spearheads the firm’s global Resort, Hospitality and Leisure practice area and South Carolina real estate practice. He also co-chairs the firm’s Caribbean Practice Affinity Group and has worked extensively throughout Latin America and the Caribbean basin. Mr. Norton has significant experience in hotel law, including the preparation of hotel management agreements, franchise and license agreements, along with handling the sale, acquisition, and financing of hotels. He regularly represents clients in structuring and documenting resort, urban, and other planned and mixed-use communities, which may include condominiums, condo hotels, shared ownership products, private clubs, golf courses, hotels, beach amenities and clubs, marinas, spas, and public use spaces. Additionally, Mr. Norton has significant experience in handling transactions that involve the sale, acquisition, financing, and development of resorts and golf courses. He has represented clients in more than 60 golf course transactions and represented a publicly traded golf REIT for 10 years. Mr. Norton is included in Chambers and Partners USA: America’s Leading Lawyers, Woodward/White’s The Best Lawyers in America, South Carolina Super Lawyers, and has maintained a Martindale Hubbell AV Rating since 2001. Mr. Norton is also very active in the Urban Land Institute where he is currently the Chairman of the ULI South Carolina Advisory Board and Vice Chair of the ULI Recreational Development Council (Red Flight), a national product council focusing on the resort real estate and hospitality industries. He is also a member of AFIRE - the Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate, an Advisory Board Member of the HVS Caribbean Hotel Investment Conference and Operations Summit (CHICOS), and International Bar Association. Chambers and Partners USA 2013 says that Mr. Norton ”has an international commercial real estate practice with notable expertise on developments in the resorts and hospitality industry. A source says: ‘He really gives great advice. He has a very good understanding of what is in the best interest of clients, and fights for what we may need for the future.’"