Christopher D. Bell advises and represents real estate lenders, borrowers, and developers on transactional and regulatory issues, with a concentration on financing transactions involving government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) such as Fannie Mae.

Prior to joining Ballard Spahr, Mr. Bell practiced for more than 10 years at Fannie Mae, a GSE chartered by Congress to support the secondary mortgage market. As the agency’s Associate General Counsel of Housing and Community Development, he served as Fannie Mae’s lead attorney for affordable housing transactions and secondary market construction loan participations and syndications. His experience includes a variety complex real estate finance transactions, including those involving mortgage-backed securities, bond credit enhancement, mezzanine debt, senior housing, and pool purchases.

In addition, Mr. Bell served as lead counsel for Fannie Mae’s corporate charitable arm, the Office of Community Investment and Engagement, where he provided legal counsel regarding grant documentation, intellectual property rights, procurement, audit, and compliance matters.

Mr. Bell has years of experience with form loan documents, requirements for Delegated Underwriting and Servicing (DUS) lenders, and product enhancement review and design.

Additionally, Mr. Bell has represented clients, both as in-house corporate counsel and as outside counsel, in the full range of real estate matters, including sales, acquisitions, foreclosures, zoning, land use, development cooperation agreements, retail and office leasing, bond purchase agreements, easement agreements, development conditions, and proffers.