“Seyfarth’s experience with Ms. Copley has yielded tremendous cost savings to our Firm. Ms. Copley helped us create a plan that addressed our needs for ongoing flexibility, revised space standards, and a fresh operating environment to reflect the new economy and utilize technological advancements. We achieved greater results and cost savings than we ever envisioned going into the process. Ms. Copley’s service was exceptional.”

~ Peter C. Miller, Partner and Chairman of the Firm, Seyfarth Shaw

“Melissa Copley, Vice Chairman in Newmark Group’s Chicago office, has represented our company for over 20 years, working with the past four CEOs. She has been a valued and trusted advisor for our company. She has outperformed expectations on every assignment for GATX, and I am convinced that there is no better client advocate in the real estate advisory market today.”

~ Robert C. Lyons, President and Chief Executive Officer, GATX Corporation

“While I have personally been involved in well over 1,000 lease transactions, Melissa’s brokerage services not only exceeded all expectations, but I can honestly report that she proved to be not only the smartest lease broker I have ever worked with, but also the most tenacious, diligent, and hardest working representative that I have ever been involved with. She demonstrated exceptional expertise during challenging times that resulted in a superior lease and relocation for my company that will decrease rent expense while significantly enhancing our office environment. It is with great enthusiasm and admiration of her efforts that I highly recommend partnering with Melissa for any lease transaction, above and beyond the Chicago market. She strives to understand the organization’s true needs, culture and strategic objectives to engineer a solution that aligns with company needs in the current environment, including leveraging her extensive landlord relationships on our behalf.”

~ Robert Wertz, SVP, Chief Real Estate Officer, Ryan LLC

“Melissa Copley is the only broker that I would recommend—can navigate a project in any city in the U.S., or the world—and applies the best economic analysis. She only does tenant representation so there is never any conflict in her support for a client, which translates to the best deal—the most flexibility possible. She also reads every word of every lease (which never happens with brokerage). I have dealt with myriad brokers, but if they want the best, and they should—have them call Melissa.”

~ Linda Mangini, SVP, Chief Adminstraitve Officer and Director of Tax and Private Client Practice Groups, McDermott Will & Emery

“Melissa was clearly differentiated from the others. Melissa brought a strategic ‘business’ mentality and acumen in her approach as compared to the dominant ‘deal mentality’ that we found with other organizations. Melissa was an integral member of my executive team and she understood our business, our strategies and the implications for our real estate investments. Upon completion of every project, formal evaluations from all involved (including Office Managing Partners) were extremely complimentary of Melissa due to her professionalism, style, technical abilities and communications skills. She was universally respected and delivered stellar performance.”

~ Darrell Ohlhauser, Executive Director and COO, Foley & Lardner LLP

“Melissa exceeded all expectations during both negotiations, demonstrating an exceptional level of expertise and a meticulous and efficient approach to her work. She was committed to understanding our organization’s culture and strategic objectives in order to tailor a solution that aligned with our needs in a postpandemic world.”

~ Michael Trawczynski, President & CEO, SMCO Inc.

“Melissa did an outstanding job for us. She brought both a solid strategic mindset to our project and the ability to deal effectively with the fine details of putting a deal together. In addition, during our project, Melissa demonstrated excellent consensus-building skills, which was important because we had a committee involved in the project. She is one of the most intelligent and skilled professionals in the industry, a powerful negotiator and a pleasure to work with.”

~ Doug Daudell, Former Head of Facilities, Peoples Gas/Integrys

“Melissa is smart, strategic and aggressive. These traits, when combined with her ability to synthesize and champion our priorities made her an invaluable asset to Katten throughout the lease negotiation process. We would recommend her to anyone looking for a hands-on, intelligent broker with extensive experience in managing large complex real estate transactions.”

~ Vincent A.F. Sergi, National Managing Partner, and Andrew Sprogis, Executive Director, Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP