The Philadelphia office of Greenberg Traurig added Sherman W. Smith III as a shareholder in its corporate practice.

Smith has built a portfolio practice, advising and representing clients ranging from financial institutions to privately-held businesses and investors to commercial real estate developers.

“Sherman helps further fill out the corporate services this office offers local clients as well as globally-situated ones,” Curtis B. Toll, managing shareholder of Greenberg Traurig’s Philadelphia office, said. “He is a well-experienced middle-market practitioner whose finance knowledge is as comprehensive about private equity issues as it is about real estate matters. We value his local and national relationships with long-standing clients and businesses as well as his commitment to community uplift and know he will play a strong role in further serving the wide range of sectors we continue to cultivate.”

Smith built much of his three-decades-long career at Buchanan Ingersoll as a corporate attorney with a portfolio of clients and transactional matters, sans time spent as associate general counsel for Don King Productions from 1999 to 2002. In private practice, Smith has routinely handled complex matters involving mergers and acquisitions, formation and capital raises of private equity funds, including capital deployment.

“The broad experiences and insights Sherman possesses and deploys enhances our offerings in Philadelphia, advances our strategic growth and furthers our commitment to providing high-level, sophisticated services,” Bruce I. March, global corporate practice co-chair for Greenberg Traurig, said. “He has the acumen to leverage our platform to benefit and elevate our clients and, by extension, our firm.”

Since 2016, Smith has served on the board of directors for the Philadelphia Opportunities Industrialization Center, the workforce and education development nonprofit founded by pioneering civil rights activist and corporate tactician the Rev. Dr. Leon H. Sullivan. Sullivan, who believed in and preached “economic emancipation,” developed the first Black-owned and managed commercial shopping plaza in the United States, served as a Fortune 500 corporate board member and was an early proponent of corporate social responsibility doctrines. In Sullivan’s mold, Smith focuses a considerable segment of his practice on real estate finance work centered on creating opportunities for commercial developers of color. That work ranges from affordable housing to commercial corridor creation and expansion efforts led by nontraditional real estate development and investment teams.

“In Sherman, we have a seasoned lawyer who does not see client service and project profitability as mutually exclusive to creative solutions for civic challenges,” Joshua D. Cohen, co-chair of Greenberg Traurig’s Philadelphia real estate practice, said. “His deep knowledge of the development community in this region — its players, trends and possibilities — will serve this firm and our clients well. We’re excited to have him on the team.”