Melissa Copley is a Vice Chairman in Newmark’s Chicago office. Since 1988, Copley has specialized in tenant representation with expertise in managing corporate and law firm client relationships, portfolio strategic planning, and negotiating large, complex transactions. She has completed a wide range of real estate transactions including leases, sale/leasebacks, subleases, assignments, building dispositions, build-to-suits, land acquisitions and dispositions, and incentives agreements. Copley provides portfolio strategic planning, workplace strategies, and metrics to align real estate with the client’s core business objectives. These strategic activities coupled with her rigorous and well documented transaction processes yield consensus building, tremendous cost savings, and other benefits for her clients, including attractive rental rates, significant concessions packages, various space and lease term flexibility, minimal capital risk and cost containment provisions, interruption of services protection, maximized tenant visibility and building signage, and non-disturbance in the event of landlord default. Her detailed terms letters and lease comments, which she provides through transaction completion, ensure the heavily negotiated terms are secured.
Copley has completed over $3B in real estate transactions. She has led assignments in over 40 cities worldwide, including the U.S., the United Kingdom, Europe, and Asia. As a result of decades of client portfolio work, she is known in real estate markets across the country, where she has demonstrated strong leadership skills and beneficial transactions for her clients throughout her career.
Copley began her career in 1983 at Citibank N.A. in pension funds in New York City. In 1985, she relocated to Chicago and and was an analyst for RBK Management, a venture capital investment company, while she studied for her MBA in Northwestern University’s Evening Program. In 1988, she was recruited by LaSalle Partners, now JLL, where she became an equity partner and international director. She was a top producer and leader of JLL’s largest tenant representation team, which closed assignments totaling over 20 million square feet, and she founded and chaired JLL’s law firm practice. In 2005, she founded Copley Advisors, which she led for five years. In 2010, she merged her company with Mohr Partners, where she was a managing partner of the downtown Chicago office and led the firm’s law firm practice. In 2014, Copley was recruited to join Newmark as a Vice Chairman in the company’s Chicago office.
Partial Client Assignment List
Law Firms:
- Baker & Hostetler*
- Foley & Lardner**
- Fox Rothschild
- Jones Day
- Katten Muchin Rosenman*
- McDermott Will & Emery**
- Seyfarth Shaw**
- Squire Patton Boggs
Corporations:
- American Steamship
- BlueCross BlueShield of Missouri*
- GATX Corporation**
- PageNet**
- The Prudential Insurance Company of America*
- Ryan LLC
- Sahara Enterprises, Inc.
- Sprint**
- UnitedHealth Group**
*Multiple Assignments
**Strategic alliance, portfolio client
Professional Achievements and Affiliations
- Chairman’s Circle and Top Producer, Newmark
- Most influential Commercial Real Estate Brokers in Chicago, Crain’s Chicago Business
- Commercial Real Estate Hall of Fame Award, Midwest Real Estate News
- 50 Most Powerful Women in Commercial Real Estate, Bisnow
- Elite Women of Influence, Tenant Representation, Globe Street
- CoStar Power Broker
- Hottest Brokers, Commercial Property News
- Founding Member, Executive Women in Corporate Real Estate (EWCRE)
- Member, CoreNet Global
- Member, Lambda Alpha International
- Past Chairman and Board Member, International Association of Attorneys and Executives in Corporate Real Estate (AECRE)
- Member and Past President, The Realty Club of Chicago
- Supporter and Past Corporate Board Member, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Chicago
Education
Copley earned a Master of Business Administration degree with a major in finance and marketing from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from the University of Michigan
Licenses
She is a state licensed real estate broker in Illinois, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, New York, Georgia, North Carolina and Wisconsin.
Speaking Engagements, Teaching and Writing
Copley has been an industry speaker at numerous conferences, including as a panelist at the Real Estate Conference (Re-Con) at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, Crain’s Chicago Business, CoreNet Global, Law Seminars International, Executive Women in Corporate Real Estate (EWCRE), Bisnow and the International Association of Attorneys and Executives in Corporate Real Estate (AECRE). She led the downtown Chicago office panel discussion at the Illinois Real Estate Journal’s Chicago Commercial Real Estate Forecast Conference for five years.
Copley has lectured in real estate economics at Northeastern Illinois University and has taught courses, including with three colleagues “Real Estate Finance” at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management from 1990 to 1992 and with two industry colleagues “Negotiations” at CoreNet Global.
Copley has written about and participated in articles on the commercial real estate market for various publications, including Crain’s Chicago Business, American Lawyer Magazine, Law Firm, Inc. She wrote her own company’s quarterly newletter, The Copley Advisor, for five years. Since the pandemic, Copley has written two whitepapers, which can be found on LinkedIn:
- November 2023: “How Much Office Space Should Tenants Lease in a Hybrid Model”
- November 2020: “How Covid and the Remote Working Explosion Will Impact the Legal Industry”