Matthew J. 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 member of the firm’s advisory council in his capacity as the firmwide Practice Area Leader for Real Estate. He is a founding partner of the firm’s Charleston, SC office and spearheads the firm’s global Resort, Hospitality and Leisure practice area. He also chairs the firm’s Caribbean Practice Affinity Group and has worked extensively throughout Latin America and the Caribbean basin.

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.

Mr. Norton has significant experience working in hotel law, including the preparation and negotiation of hotel management agreements, franchise and license agreements, along with handling the sale, acquisition, and financing of hotels.

Additionally, Mr. Norton has extensive experience working with public REITS and has handled a significant amount of transactional and development work for both a publicly traded golf REIT and publicly traded medical office REIT.

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 a member of the ULI South Carolina Governance Committee 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 international organization focusing on foreign real estate investment in the United States. Further, he is a founding Advisory Board Member of the HVS Caribbean Hotel Investment Conference and Operations Summit (CHICOS) and has extensive experience working on resort and hotel projects throughout the Caribbean. Finally, he is a member of the Real Estate and Leisure Industries Sections of the International Bar Association.

Mr. Norton is a graduate of Dartmouth College and the University of South Carolina School of Law, where he was the Editor in Chief of the South Carolina Law Review.

K&L Gates LLP.

K&L Gates is a fully integrated global law firm with lawyers located across five continents. Our broad global platform allows us to guide clients through the legal challenges inherent in the ever-changing international landscape. The deep latticework of relationships across our offices and practices enables our clients to respond to diverse legal issues and risks through the services of one law firm with a single communication.

K&L Gates represents leading global corporations in every major industry, capital markets participants and ambitious middle-market and emerging growth companies. Our lawyers also serve public sector entities, educational institutions, philanthropic organizations, and individuals. We are leaders in legal issues related to industries critical to the economies of both the developed and developing worlds – technology, manufacturing, financial services, health care, and energy, among many others.