Sarah O. Jelencic is a real estate partner and business lawyer with Foley & Lardner LLP. Sarah has experience in multi-family, office, mixed use and retail development and financings, including private placements, joint venture agreements (investor, developer and sponsor), new market tax credits, tax incremental financings, multi-tiered financings, workouts, condominium and homeowners association documentation, declarations of covenants and restrictions (residential and commercial), acquisition and sales of real estate (developed and undeveloped), including membership interest transfers, leasing (landlord and tenant), management and leasing agreements and tax-free exchanges.
Affiliations
Sarah is a former member of the board of directors for Wisconsin Commercial Real Estate Women (WCREW) and the Association of Women Lawyers. She currently serves on the board of directors of Journey House, Inc., a nonprofit organization providing adult education, job placement and after school programs and is a member of the multi-family green council of the Urban Land Institute.
Education
Sarah is from Macon County, Illinois and graduated, cum laude, from the University of Illinois, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. A magna cum laude graduate from the University of Michigan Law School, Sarah served on its Law Review and was elected to the Order of the Coif.
Recognition
Sarah has been Peer Review Rated as AV Preeminent®, the highest performance rating in Martindale-Hubbell® Peer Review Ratings™ system and is listed in the 2006-2022 editions of Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business in the practice area of real estate. She was recently recognized by The Legal 500 for her work in the area of real estate (2015). She was also selected for inclusion in the 2006-2016 lists of Wisconsin Super Lawyers®. Sarah has been selected by her peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America© in the field of Real Estate Law (2007, 2010-2023) and was named the 2017 Milwaukee Real Estate Law “Lawyer of the Year.” In addition, she was selected in 2010 as one of Wisconsin Law Journal’s “Women in the Law” recognizing her achievement of excellence in real estate law and her positive influence on other women pursuing legal careers, encouraging women to seek advanced opportunities within the profession. Sarah is also a 2009 recipient of Foley’s Carl Hitchner Mentor of the Year Award, presented annually to recognize outstanding mentoring to our young attorneys.