Anne E. Pitter is a Partner in the Corporate, Real Estate and Hospitality Practices of Smith, Gambrell & Russell, LLP.
Understanding her client’s goals and relating to her clients on a personal level. Staying calm in a crisis. Providing seasoned yet down to earth advice. Thinking outside the box. Efficiency born out of the breadth and depth of her knowledge and years of experience. Those are the hallmarks of Anne Pitter’s successful professional legal career.
As both an amateur photographer and a professional attorney, Anne understands the great value in providing both a micro and a macro perspective of her subjects. An avid sports fan, Anne has been described as a utility infielder with the unique ability, thanks to her broad based legal skills and experience, to pitch in and get results for her clients that are practical and often creative no matter what the difficult issues or circumstances are that require legal counsel.
One of the aspects of the practice of law that Anne has always enjoyed the most is the opportunity to gain an in depth understanding about many different industries. As a result, Anne has extensive knowledge in a variety of businesses including media and communications (such as cable television, print, radio and telecommunications), manufacturing, plastics, apparel, hotel operations, cigarette and liquor distributors, sporting goods, amusement parks, insurance brokers, joint ventures of all kinds and private equity and venture capital funds.
Anne’s experience successfully spans several practice areas, including corporate/business law, real estate law and bankruptcy/creditors rights law.
In the corporate/business law area, Anne has represented both family owned businesses and global enterprises, institutional and private lenders as well as borrowers and both investors and sweat equity partners. Anne is proficient in all types of secured and unsecured credit arrangements including factoring, trade finance, and letters of credit, syndicated loans, intercreditor agreements and all manner of guaranties. She also has vast knowledge in the areas of mergers, acquisitions and dispositions, joint ventures, partnerships and limited liability companies, employment agreements, covenants not to compete and confidentiality agreements, licensing and distributorship agreements and intellectual property issues, computer hardware and software contracts, master service agreements and statements of work, and all nature of routine matters for middle market companies.
In real estate, Anne’s practice covers transactional real estate, including buying, selling and financing of real properties (mortgage and mezzanine loans and structured finance transactions for both lenders and borrowers), the use of special purpose and bankruptcy remote vehicles, hotel management and brand/flag agreements, construction projects and loans and the representation of real estate investors in significant real properties. Anne has also negotiated leases big and small for offices, commercial businesses, restaurants and related good guy guaranties.
In the bankruptcy/creditors rights area, Anne has acted as a trustee and has represented both debtors and creditors committees as well as individual secured and unsecured creditors in workouts, restructures, reorganizations, liquidations, and auction and other asset sales. Her work in this field also includes debtor in possession (DIP) loans for both borrower debtors and lenders and representing buyers and sellers of distressed debt.
Anne lectures and gives presentations regarding business entities, joint ventures, limited liability company, partnership investment and joint venture agreements, due diligence in lending transactions, third party loan documentation, and UCC and security arrangements and opinions. In addition, she has written articles on the use of special purpose entities and UCC Revised Article 9.
Going above and beyond the legal work, Anne is the Head of SGR’s Women’s Initiative in the New York office, a member of the Firm’s Diversity & Inclusion committee and supervisor and proponent of many of the New York office’s pro bono activities including, most recently, The New York City Bar Association’s pro bono COVID-19 project helping some of New York City’s many small businesses.
Anne received her B.A. from the University of Rochester in 1973, and her J.D. from Albany Law School in 1978, where she was an Albany Law Review editor. She is a member of the State Bar of New York.
Anne is married to Dean Pitter and is a mother of two and a grandmother of two and a granddog. Her son, Ken Pitter, is a graduate of Kent School and Colby College with an MD/PHD from Cornell Weill, the Rockefeller Institute, and Sloan Kettering. Ken married his high school prom date, Meg Barringer, a doctor of physical therapy and they have two children, Logan and Addison. Her daughter, Samantha Pitter, is a graduate of Kent School and Hamilton College with a Masters in Physical Education and Coaching from Boston University. Samantha is the Associate Head Coach for the Harvard Men’s Swim Team, which is consistently ranked as one of the top 25 NCAA Division 1 swim programs. Anne proudly believes that her daughter is one of the very few females (if not the only one) coaching a stand alone men’s swim team in the country. Anne and Dean live in Armonk, New York where Anne retired from being a hockey, soccer and swimming mom to pursue her passion for photography as well as her fanaticism for sports.
Is Your Business Essential
Potential Coronavirus Concerns Regarding Retail and Commercial Real Estate
Marni Konner – President & Creator of Little Maestros
The Current State of Affairs regarding Commercial Real Estate in New York City (SGR Webinar)
The Effects of COVID-19 on the Commercial Real Estate Industry (TerraLex Global Annual Meeting)
The Effects of COVID-19 on the Commercial Real Estate Industry
presented by Terralex Panel Members, including SGR’s Anne E. Pitter