Bisola Taiwo, the assistant director and chief of staff for Newark’s Department of Economic and Housing Development, will join Gibbons P.C. as a director in its Real Property Group.
At Gibbons, director is the term used for what is commonly referred to as a partner.
At the Department of Economic and Housing Development, Taiwo led more than 70 employees across five multidisciplinary divisions, managed a high volume of complex redevelopment projects from concept to completion and oversaw day-to-day operations on key initiatives and municipal capital improvement projects.
She also directed a team of outside counsel on negotiations with private developers in connection with routine to non-routine real estate transactions and large-scale development projects, and she structured and monitored the orderly disposition and development of the city’s real estate portfolio in accordance with its redevelopment plans.
Some of Taiwo’s high-profile achievements while working for the city include structuring the deal terms for billions of dollars of new redevelopment projects; managing the pre-development activities and day-to-day aspects of the Riverfront Park expansion project; planning and executing the end-to-end revitalization of 45 undeveloped or underdeveloped parcels in the West Ward, creating more than 200 affordable rental units and 24 three-family homes for sale; and designing the process allocating $20 million in gap financing to subsidize the construction of new, state-of-the-art affordable housing.
Prior to working for the city of Newark, Taiwo was an attorney in private practice in New Jersey. She served as a law clerk to the Hon. Susan D. Wigenton of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, the Hon. Paulette M. Sapp-Peterson of the Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division, and the Hon. Lisa P. Thornton of the Superior Court of New Jersey, Law Division.
Taiwo earned her J.D. from Seton Hall University School of Law and her B.A. from Colgate.
