Law360, New York (January 24, 2012, 12:17 PM ET) -- One consequence of the hangover following the real estate market’s post-Millennium over-indulgence is that many partygoers have become more self-reflective. Many real estate investment managers and their institutional investor clients seem more thoughtful about the pros and cons of the different relationship constructs for raising and deploying equity capital.

Admittedly, a fair bit of the introspection is being driven by market forces. A manager’s inability to raise a new fund or an institutional investor reacting to its latest legacy portfolio headache can be powerfully sobering. Nonetheless,...