Proskauer Rose has added a three-partner team with real estate and tax expertise to its Boston office from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr.

Keith Barnett, Sean Boulger and tax partner Robert Burke moved to Proskauer over the weekend, bringing with them decades of experience on major real estate transactions and development projects. Steven Ellis, the firm's chairman, said in a statement that growing the real estate practice, which has about 80 lawyers, is a "strategic priority" for Proskauer.

The moving lawyers have represented investors, developers and operators in joint ventures, acquisitions, developments, leases, sales and financing transactions. Wilmer is larger than Proskauer in terms of overall revenue and it has a larger Boston office than its rival, but Proskauer's profit per equity partner is higher.

Bartnett's old page on Wilmer's website listed work for developers, such as the team behind a planned 60-story tower in Boston's Back Bay; hoteliers, such as the developer of a five-star hotel in Rejkjavik, Iceland; and retailers, which turned to him for help with permitting, acquisition and strategic reuse projects.

Boulger, who is listed on Wilmer's website as the vice-chair of its real estate practice group, has experience with several types of properties, including multifamily housing, offices, senior housing, retail and industrial space. He has helped a public real estate investment trust form joint ventures to fund major office-lab projects in the life sciences hot spots of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and San Francisco, according to his old biography page, and has helped Benchmark Senior Living, a major operator of assisted living homes, with a range of transactions.

Burke, the former chair of Wilmer's tax practice group, "devotes a majority of his practice to issues involving the taxation of partnerships, limited liability companies, S corporations, REITS and other entities treated as 'pass-through' entities," Proskauer said, calling him an authority on investment funds and complex JVs.

Representatives for Wilmer didn't immediately respond to a comment request about the move.

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