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Curtis A. Wood is a founding and managing partner of Wood, Rafalsky & Wood, a ten-year-old firm with offices on Wall Street and in downtown Brooklyn. The practice provides general corporate law, litigation and real estate and health care counsel to a variety of corporate clients.

Wood has represented lenders in secured and unsecured transactions including construction and permanent loans for commercial properties such as office buildings and shopping centers. Versed also in cooperative and condominium matters and commercial leasing, Wood has advised developers on the new construction and renovation of multifamily housing, helping them to be complaint with regulations and federal tax credit programs.

"I first became interested in this area of law while serving as president of the Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation from 1977 to 1982," Wood said. "In that period, we acquired a good deal of property, renovated housing for middle-income families and for commercial use and managed a shopping center and theater."

Municipal Securities is another focus of Wood's practice, through which he has served as counsel for both issuers and underwriters. He has represented corporations, general and limited and not-for-profit institutions in a range of transactions including partnerships, contract drafting and negotiations.

"I've worked with government entities and authorities such as the Port Authority and the Housing Authority," Wood said. "In order to finance projects, they'll issue bonds underwritten by investment firms. I make sure the process stays within federal regulations."

Wood, whose Wall Street office was closed for a few weeks after the World Trade Center tragedy, lives in Brooklyn with his wife Claire, who is also a partner in the firm, with his children.

A Memphis native, who grew up in Texas before attending Columbia University School of Law, he is gratified to have found a niche in the town he has come to call home.

"I am proud that we are a minority-owned firm doing sophisticated corporate and real estate work here in New York City," he said.