ROBERT D. BICKFORD, Jr.

ROBERT D. Bickford, Jr. is a partner in the New York office of Kelley Drye & Warren LLP. He was chair of the Real Estate practice group from 1992 through 2014, and from 1992-2011 and 2013-2018 he served as a member of the firm’s Executive Committee.

Bickford focuses his practice on transactions relating to different types of real estate assets throughout the U.S., representing both domestic and foreign investors. He represented an Ireland-based investment fund in forming a joint venture with a U.S. hotel management company and the acquisition of a portfolio of four hotels in the U.S., including related structured acquisition financing. Subsequently, Bickford successfully negotiated the restructuring of the loan with the hedge fund that acquired it from NAMA.

Recent highlights include handling the sale of a significant hotel asset in Baltimore ($135 MM).

Bickford has been selected by Best Lawyers in the Real Estate Law area from 2010-2022. He is also a New York Super Lawyer as named by Super Lawyers magazine (2008-2013, 2018-2022), and was named a Real Estate MVP by Law 360 in 2016.

Bickford earned an AB from Georgetown University, and a JD from Fordham University School of Law.

Bickford’s mother was a Duffy, and his maternal grandmother a Mungovan. Both his grandparents were first generation Americans, born of parents who emigrated from Co. Sligo.

Bickford likes to joke that he enjoys the best of both worlds – a British last name and an Irish soul. His heart lies in Ireland, though, which he visited for the 26th time in June of 2022.

To borrow from JFK, on his historic visit to Ireland as president during 1963, “It is not the country of my birth, but it is the country for which I have the greatest affection.”