[ JENNIFER GOODRICH COIA ] SMALL COMPANY: Paolino Properties LP | General counsel
Coia primed to take on legal challenges BY JENNA PELLETIER | Contributing Writer
AS IN-HOUSE GENERAL COUNSEL at Providence-based real estate firm Paolino Properties LP, Jennifer Goodrich Coia walks into her office every morning not knowing exactly how she will be putting her legal expertise to use that day. Coia oversees all legal matters at the firm, which has a diverse portfolio of retail, commercial, residential and hospitality properties in Rhode Island and beyond. “One day I could be working on a $16 million closing,” Coia said. “But then I might get stopped to discuss how to handle a tenant who is smoking in one of our apartment buildings. Anything you could imagine that could come up related to owning and managing property can wind up on my plate.” Coia, who has worked for Paolino Properties for about three years, estimates that she oversaw the legal aspects of roughly $75 million of purchases and sales over the past year. These INSTRUMENTAL ROLE: Jennifer include the $18 million sale of 200 Narragansett Goodrich Coia, general counsel at Parkway Drive in East Providence and the Paolino Properties LP in Providence, $6.55 million acquisition of The Westminster played a large role in the company’s Square Building at 10 Dorrance St. in Providevelopment of the 1887 Exchange dence, which had been in receivership. Building into The Beatrice luxury hotel. She also played a large role in Paolino PBN PHOTO/DAVE HANSEN Properties’ development of the 1887 Exchange Building into The Beatrice luxury hotel, which is also home to Bellini restaurant by to know everyone personally, whether I work Ignazio Cipriani of the New York Cipriani with them daily or just rarely. Because people restaurant family. Her work included applycome to me for advice, I feel it’s important to ing for historic tax credits, reviewing conmake an effort to get to know them as people.” tracts with contractors and subcontractors, Coia says she’s especially proud of the and negotiating a management agreement way she helped the firm and its retail tenants with the restaurant group. navigate the early months of the COVID-19 In addition, Coia provides legal advice on pandemic. human resources issues and hires outside “We had to work very counsel when needed for closely with tenants to specialized projects. amend their leases to pro“It is rare for one emvide for terms that could ployee to touch all areas help them get through the of the company, but that’s difficult time,” she said. “I what Jennifer does, and she was certainly not on the does it with grace, energy, front lines at a hospital, but passion, confidence and, I felt like I was on the front above all, dedication to her lines of the retail collapse.” work,” Paolino Properties Coia grew up in NarraManaging Partner Joseph gansett and graduated from R. Paolino Jr. said. Georgetown University Coia says she especially JENNIFER Law Center before working values interacting with the at the Washington, D.C., firm’s approximately 50 GOODRICH COIA and New York offices of the other employees. Paolino Properties LP multinational firm Holland “My office is probably general counsel & Knight. She returned to [the company’s] most visitRhode Island when her son ed,” Coia said. “I try to get
‘I don’t think many attorneys are as happy as I am to go to work every day.’
and daughter were young. After her children were born, Coia stepped away from the full-time workforce for many years. “It was very scary to leave a job at a top law firm, but I didn’t feel that I could do my job, with all of the hours involved, and be a great mom to young children at the same time,” she said. Once her kids were about 10 years old, she started taking on freelance and contract legal work, and eventually returned to the full-time workforce with her role at Paolino Properties. Coia first met Paolino in 1989, when he was mayor of Providence and she interned in his press office. They kept in touch, and in recent years, she reached out to see if Paolino’s firm needed additional legal help. Coia says she’s grateful that he didn’t view the gap in her resume as a negative. “He believed in me and was willing to give me an opportunity to prove myself, which I have,” she said. “I love my job. It’s a difficult profession, with a lot of burnout, and I don’t think many attorneys are as happy as I am to go to work every day.” n
www.pbn.com | C-SUITE AWARDS 2022 n PROVIDENCE BUSINESS NEWS | APRIL 2022 | 17
