Donald Isken
Attorney, Morris, Nichols, Arsht & Tunnell
Wilmington, DE 19899
Phone (302) 351-9222
Property Types
Retail
Markets
Philadelphia
Bio
Don is a member of the Commercial Law Counseling group and heads up the Firm’s commercial real estate law practice.
During the past 37 years he has gained a national reputation representing prominent property owners and developers, financial institutions and governmental entities in every facet of their transactional real estate law and land use regulation needs. Many of his clients are among the most well-known real estate developers and institutional lenders locally and in the United States and include Toll Brothers, Ryan Homes, Trammel Crow, G.E. Capital, JPMorgan Chase, Prudential Insurance, M&T Bank, Wilmington Trust, Citizens Bank, The Delaware River and Bay Authority, The Port of Wilmington, and The State of Delaware.
Don regularly engages in matters involving site selection and land acquisition, obtaining land use and project approvals and permits, securing government grants, tax credits and loan financing, development of transportation and utility infrastructure, hiring of construction project managers, architects and contractors, and oversight in project sales and leasing. He was a member of the team that assisted The State of Delaware with its development of the Wilmington Riverfront district, one of America’s premiere examples of successful urban renaissance, through a public-private partnership, of what was once an abandoned and dilapidated industrial part of the City of Wilmington.
In 1990, Don became one of the youngest attorneys ever to be invited for membership into the prestigious American College of Real Estate Lawyers. He is a top-ranked Delaware real estate lawyer in Chambers USA: Guide to America’s Leading Lawyers for Business. Listed in The Best Lawyers in America for more than 20 years, and in 2014 Best Lawyers named Don “Delaware Lawyer of the Year” for Real Estate Law. He has been selected for inclusion in Delaware Super Lawyers. Major media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal and USA TODAY solicit and report Don’s opinions about current perspectives on issues such as the U.S. subprime and mortgage foreclosure crisis.
