Cristina Arumi | Washington, D.C. | Hogan Lovells

Cristina Arumi

Partner Corporate & Finance

Arumi Cristina

Cristina Arumi
Arumi Cristina
  • Overview
  • Experience
  • Credentials
  • Insights and events
quote mark

Cristina Arumi [is] a key resource regarding capital markets transactions and M&A involving REITs.

Legal 500 US 2022

For over 20 years, Cristina Arumi has been focusing her practice on the tax aspects of capital markets and M&A transactions involving real estate investment trusts (REITs), real estate funds, and joint ventures in addition to tax components of foreign investment in U.S. real estate.

She regularly advises both public and private REITs, including mortgage REITs, closely held real estate companies, real estate funds, and non-U.S. real estate investors on a variety of matters. She has worked on multiple transactions involving mergers and acquisitions, the formation and initial public offering of UPREITs, REIT conversions, rollup transactions, downREIT transactions, and public debt and equity offerings.

Cristina also advises a number of REITs on ongoing operating matters, including compliance with tax protection agreements in the course of subsequent transactions and refinancings, and has years of experience representing clients in requests for private letter rulings from the IRS, as well as experience representing REITs and taxable REIT subsidiaries undergoing IRS audits.

Cristina advises non-U.S. clients – individuals, foreign pensions, and sovereign investors – of the U.S. tax implications of investments and operations in the United States, including the Foreign Investment in Real Property Tax Act (FIRPTA). She also advises both U.S. and non-U.S. clients regarding U.S. tax implications on a variety of cross-border transactions.

Before re-joining Hogan Lovells in March 2019, Cristina was a principal of Ernst & Young LLP's National Tax Department for six years. Prior to that, she was a partner and the global leader of the Tax practice area at Hogan Lovells. During her initial 17 years at the firm, Cristina advised on the tax aspects of many of the most complex and high-profile real estate-related transactions in the industry.

quote mark

'She is terrific, she's incredibly bright and hard-working.'

Client quoted Chambers USA 2024

Representative experience

Representation of a U.S. operating company in connection with its internal reorganization and multibillion dollar equity carve-out.

Representation of two U.S. operating companies in connection with one taxable spin-off and one tax-free spin-off.

Representation of two non-U.S. pension plans, one sovereign, in connection with real estate investments and joint ventures in the U.S.

Representation of a specialty finance company prior to and in its initial public offering, later REIT conversion, and subsequent conversion to a non-REIT.

Representation of Trizec Properties in its US$8.9bn acquisition by Brookfield Properties and The Blackstone Group and of CarrAmerica in its US$5.6bn acquisition by The Blackstone Group.

Representation of GE in its US$2.2bn acquisition of Trustreet Properties.

Representation of Trizec Properties in its participation with GE in the US$4.8bn acquisition of Arden Realty.

Credentials

Education
  • LL.M., Georgetown University Law Center, 1996
  • J.D., Duke University School of Law, 1995
  • B.A., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1992
Bar admissions and qualifications
  • District of Columbia
Memberships
  • Member, Tax Section of the American Bar Association
  • Member, National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts

Recognition

REITs: Tax (Nationwide), Band 1

Chambers USA

2020-2024
Tax (District of Columbia)

Chambers USA

2022-2024
Real Estate: Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), Recommended

Legal 500 US

2020-2024
Tax: U.S. Taxes: Non-contentious, Recommended

Legal 500 US

2020-2023
Tax: International Tax, Leading Lawyer

Legal 500 US

2022-2023
Tax: International Tax, Recommended

Legal 500 US

2020-2021