Umar A. Sheikh

Umar Sheikh is a department chair and a member of Offit Kurman's Real Estate Law and Transactions Practice Group.

As Department Chair, Umar is responsible for the day-to-day management of five different practice groups consisting of over seventy-five lawyers located across the entire Offit Kurman platform. Department chairs work through the Office of Managing Principal and focus on practice group management and performance, timekeeper performance and morale, cross referrals, quality assurance/quality control, marketing, and organic growth.

In his legal practice, Umar concentrates on all aspects of real estate law – purchases, sales, financing, development, leasing, evictions, foreclosures, management – and those areas of law that are related to real estate – corporate, tax, asset protection, estate planning and litigation. He regularly represents parties in the purchase, sale and financing of multifamily, mixed-use, commercial and retail properties. Umar also represents family offices, private lenders, private equity firms and borrowers in CMBS transactions.

Additionally, Umar provides outside general counsel services to small and mid-size companies, as well as foreign investors and entities doing business, real estate or otherwise, in the United States.

Umar is well-versed in the principles of Islamic (Shariah-compliant) finance, including the finance of real estate through permitted structures. He has closed numerous transactions under Shariah-permitted structures. Umar has assisted finance companies in building Shariah-compliant transaction documents for use in numerous states for financing both commercial and residential real estate.

Umar currently serves on the Board of Directors for both the New Jersey Muslim Lawyers Association and Muslims for Peace, Inc. He has previously served on the Board of Directors for the Asian American Bar Association of New York. Umar is a member of the American Bar Association, the New Jersey Muslim Lawyers Association and the Asian American Bar Association of New York. He was named a 2022 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Champion for Justice by the New Jersey State Governor’s Jefferson Awards. The New Jersey State Governor’s Jefferson Awards’ honorees achieve measurable impact and represent outstanding acts of public service without the expectation of recognition or compensations. In 2022, Umar was named a Notable Diverse Leader in Law by Crain’s New York Business. Crain’s New York Business identified top law professionals from underrepresented groups who have made an impact in New York in the types of cases handled, clients won and/or pro bono work.