Baltimore Sun interviews Jim Hanks on Maryland’s leading position as the preferred legal domicile for REITs

Venable partner Jim Hanks was interviewed for a September 4, 2015 Baltimore Sun article on Maryland’s leading position as the preferred legal domicile for real estate investment trusts (REITs). More than 80% of all publicly registered REITs are formed under Maryland law. Venable’s REIT Practice Group, headed by Jim, advises over half of this 80%. The preference for Maryland is largely a result of the state legislature moving early to create REITs as a separate form of doing business after Congress approved tax privileges for property businesses in 1960. Since then, many amendments to the Maryland statutes have further improved Maryland’s leading position among REITs.