Atlanta – Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell announces the addition of a well-known real estate practice team in its Atlanta office.

Aasia Mustakeem is joining Locke Lord as a partner, leaving her role as practice group leader for the Atlanta Real Estate Finance and Development Practice Group of Powell Goldstein. Moving with Mustakeem from Powell Goldstein are attorneys Crystal Cook and Janice Island.

“We are excited about adding someone of Aasia’s caliber to our Atlanta office. Aasia has been recognized as a leading real estate attorney in the Southeast, and she has a broad real estate practice that will be integral to our firm,” said Michael Coleman, Managing Partner of Locke Lord’s Atlanta office.

Mustakeem will bring a strong real estate presence to the Atlanta office. She practices in the area of commercial real estate, including the representation of developers, purchasers and sellers in connection with the acquisition, disposition and development of office, hotel, retail, industrial and mixed-use projects. She also has significant experience representing both landlords and tenants in negotiating commercial leases, lenders and borrowers in secured loan and workout transactions, and the representation of companies and institutions nationwide in the ownership, operation and finance of corporate-owned real estate. Clients include institutional lenders, national and international office, retail, and hotel developers, and individual, corporate and foreign investors.

“I am excited about the opportunity to join a firm with such a strong national real estate practice and a terrific footprint,” stated Mustakeem.

Also joining the Atlanta office are Crystal Cook and Janice Island. Cook practices primarily in the areas of financial products and real estate law. She has experience in real estate and lending transactions, including various aspects of real asset restructuring and financing, negotiating leases, analyzing complex acquisitions and timberland acquisitions and dispositions. She has worked for two of the Big Four public accounting firms, where she developed a concentration in real estate partnership taxation. Island concentrates her practice in real estate finance and development. Both Cook and Island have experience planning, forming and advising nonprofit organizations.

This expansion increased the number of attorneys in Locke Lord’s Atlanta office to 46.

Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell LLP is a full-service, national law firm of more than 700 attorneys with offices in Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, London, Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York, Sacramento and Washington, D.C. LLB&L was formed on October 2, 2007, after the combination of Texas-based Locke Liddell & Sapp PLLC and Lord Bissell & Brook LLP, a national firm headquartered in Chicago. With an expanded geographic scope, and a national reputation in complex litigation, regulatory and transactional work, Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell is focused on achieving client success as a team. Among LLB&L's many strong practice areas are appellate, capital markets, corporate, class action litigation, employee benefits, energy, environmental, financial services, health care, insurance and reinsurance industries, intellectual property, labor and employment, public law, real estate, REIT, tax and technology.