McGuireWoods has recruited seven finance lawyers from New York real estate boutique Cassin & Cassin, creating a real estate finance team for the firm in Manhattan.

In one of its largest expansions in New York, McGuireWoods hired as partners Thomas Lansen, who joined the office last week, and Dennis Mensi and Alice Youngbar, who joined in November. Associates coming with the group include Kathleen Barth, Thomas Patalano, Alexander Hakopian and Scott Rader. All are in New York except Barth, who is in Century City.

Meanwhile, a potential eighth lawyer from Cassin may join the firm by the end of the year.

The group, recruited by Lucas Group, represents lenders in commercial and apartment building mortgage loan transactions. Their clients include large and small investment banks, commercial banks, hedge funds and private equity firms, said Mensi, adding their practice has been very active this year.

“2017 has been a great year for us in our practice and has been on par with some of the years before the housing crisis,” Mensi said. “Notwithstanding a fourth-quarter move, we've been able to hit the ground running and start with a healthy pipeline.”

While it's difficult to forecast 2018 due to any possible regulatory changes, “clients are optimistic” and “transactions are still occurring,” he said. “Next year our clients have lofty goals,” Mensi said, declining to be more specific.

Mensi represents institutional lenders originating loans that are pooled and sold as commercial mortgage-backed securities and represents lenders originating loans for sale to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Youngbar also represents lenders in financing properties through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac multifamily loan programs. Lansen represents banks in their origination of commercial real estate loans intended for securitization or other sale on the secondary market.

Mensi, who said he left the firm on amicable terms, said he had been at Cassin for 21 years, including as an equity partner on the firm's executive committee. He said Cassin “was essentially a boutique real estate firm” that sometimes had to refer out complete transactions or certain parts of transactions that it couldn't handle. At McGuireWoods, which has about 1,000 attorneys and 23 offices, the group doesn't need to refer work in bankruptcy, corporate and tax, he said.

“We can tap into various resources and various offices,” he said.

Noreen Kelly, managing partner of McGuireWoods' New York office, said the firm was seeking to hire a real estate group because it previously didn't have any attorneys in the practice in New York.

The new additions come as McGuireWoods, which announced new leadership last week, plans to move to a new office in February at 1251 Sixth Avenue, from 1345 Avenue of the Americas. The firm will have roughly similar office space, about 45,000 square feet, but will have more attorney offices under a more efficient floor plan, Kelly said.

Currently, the firm, which opened its New York office in 1999, has about 50 attorneys in the city. The new office will accommodate about 60 to 75 attorneys, Kelly said, adding McGuireWoods is seeking to hire individuals and groups in financial services litigation, mergers and acquisitions, private equity, debt finance, real estate, municipal finance and trusts and estate.

Speaking on the seven departures, a Cassin spokesman said the firm is “sorry to see them go” and wishes them well.

In a brief interview, boutique senior partner Joseph Cassin said he didn't believe the departures would have an effect on firm business. He noted the firm has added several attorneys in the last few months, including Rand Boyers Peppas, who was a partner at DLA Piper. Meanwhile, the firm has hired three attorneys who will start in January, including two in Texas and one in New York.