James Barkley provides strategic counsel to clients concerning their real estate needs and objectives, drawing from his experience as the longtime general counsel and secretary of Simon Property Group, Inc., the world’s largest public real estate company. While at Simon Property, Jim helped the company grow from a $2 billion privately held company into a Fortune 100 public real estate company operating across multiple platforms in the US and abroad. These platforms included retail malls and outlet centers, community/lifestyle centers, hotel/residential ventures, and other business units that allowed the company to adapt to changing market conditions and opportunities.
During Jim’s tenure at Simon, he helped structure and complete more than $45 billion of company portfolio and single property acquisitions. He also helped create and implement governance initiatives at the company and supervised the fully integrated legal, risk management, tax, and internal audit functions. This work included addressing compliance with real estate investment trust requirements, reviewing and drafting investor reports and company proxy statements, and administering the company’s risk management program.
Jim has been a longtime member of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers and has frequently spoken on real estate topics. Jim is also a member of the Board of Visitors of Indiana University’s Robert H. McKinney School of Law.
