Michael Schecter Email & Phone Number

King Of Prussia, Pa, Us

I manage the legal department and play a key role in all joint ventures, acquisitions, financings, dispositions, material litigation and I am on the management and investment committees.

One of four founders of DiamondRock Hospitality Company (NYSE: DRH) and member of the Executive Committee that formulated all aspects of acquisition, disposition and capital markets strategies and approved all material transactions. Provided counsel on all aspects of DiamondRock's business and helped guide the company from its formation through becoming a New York Stock Exchange listed Real Estate Investment Trust, owning 20 hotels with an aggregate acquisition value in excess of $2 billion. Served as chief risk officer and chief compliance officer. Responsibility for all aspects of the administration of DiamondRock's headquarters, including technology, securing office space, and human resources, including key role in designing executive compensation programs. Experience included:Sole responsibility for compliance with the U.S. securities laws. Shared responsibility with the Chief Financial Officer for all SEC disclosure and supported the accounting group in ensuring compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley. Regularly advised the Board of Directors on corporate governance matters.Shared responsibility with Chief Operating Officer for handling all aspects of due diligence and personally handled all negotiations on all acquisitions and dispositions. Personally negotiated all hotel management and franchise agreements.Shared responsibility with Chief Financial Officer for negotiating all loan documents and ensuring that the Company was in compliance with such loan documents.Sole responsibility for all aspects of Company's formation, including corporate formation, obtaining office space, procuring IT systems, creating website content and implementing employee health and benefits programs. Shared responsibility with Chief Financial Officer for REIT compliance. Prior to formation, was unfamiliar with the complex tax rules governing REITs; quickly mastered the relevant aspects of the tax law in order to properly structure transactions .

In-house transactional attorney with responsibilities including joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, private equity investments and corporate and project finance. Successful at completing high stakes transactions involving complicated legal, accounting and tax issues. Experience included:Led Marriott's legal team in the acquisition of four facilities that produced coal-based synthetic fuel that qualified for tax credits under Section 29 of the Internal Revenue Code. Led Marriott's legal team in the sale of substantially all of the assets of Marriott's wholesale foodservice distribution division, including selling the assets associated with nine distribution centers to five separate purchasers and negotiating satisfactory termination agreements with all of the major third-party customers of the division.Responsible for negotiating (or litigating) with a party who was attempting to interfere with the sale of Marriott's Senior Living Services business. After negotiations broke down, developed the facts and legal arguments and supervised external litigation counsel who successfully obtained a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction in Maryland restraining the other party from attempting to terminate a core group of operating agreements that were part of the assets being sold and persuaded a trial court (and the state Supreme Court) in Massachusetts to decline to grant to the other party a preliminary injunction, thus permitting the $300 million sale to progress.Developed idea for a law clarifying the legal validity of the management agreements that are at the core of Marriott's business, developed legal theory and individually lobbied the Maryland legislature, which then passed the statute.

Manhattan, Nyc, Us

Co-designed and co-taught a graduate course entitled Equity Finance; at Melbourne University in Victoria, Australia. The focus of the course was U.S. securities regulations and the international capital markets. Guest lectured at Monash University's Melbourne campus on concerns for Australian lawyers raised by the extra-territorial application of the U.S. securities regulations.

Was honored to clerk for Judge Johnson on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Judge Johnson decided many landmark civil rights cases brought in Alabama, including, among others, the Rosa Parks case, the Montgomery to Selma march and the desegregation of the schools in central Alabama.

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B.A., History