Biography
Cale McDowell is a partner in the Austin office of Jackson Walker LLP and a founder of the firm’s investment funds practice. Over the course of almost two decades, Cale has built and continues to lead a multi-disciplinary group that advises investment fund sponsors, institutional investors, operating partners and privately held companies across the full lifecycle of private investment activity. His team supports the firm’s clients from platform creation and fund formation through portfolio transactions, joint ventures and exits. Many of his longest-standing clients regard Cale as a strategic business partner as much as outside counsel. Under his leadership, the practice has grown into one of the most active investment funds platforms in the Texas market, serving clients whose strategies span private equity, real estate, infrastructure, digital infrastructure, credit and opportunistic mandates.
Cale counsels fund sponsors and their principals on the structuring, formation and operation of private investment funds, as well as the establishment and governance of their underlying management platforms. His practice also encompasses mergers and acquisitions, real estate and operating joint ventures, secondary transactions and general corporate matters. He has particular depth of experience in the private real estate fund space and in the design and development of structured real estate securities products, including complex tax-advantaged strategies such as real estate investment trusts (REITs) and Delaware statutory trusts (DSTs). Cale has broad international experience, having represented clients in significant cross-border transactions, investments and fundraising activities across North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
Beyond his practice, Cale is deeply engaged in the Austin business and higher education communities. He formerly served as General Counsel and a member of the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce, and as a board member of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Austin. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of University Federal Credit Union (which he formerly chaired). Cale has devoted significant time and expertise to the University of Texas, where he previously served as Chairman of the Advisory Council for the School of Undergraduate Studies — a body he helped found — and as a member of the UT System Chancellor’s Council Executive Committee, the UT Development Board, the Council of the Texas Exes and the University of Texas Libraries Advisory Council, among many other advisory committees and search committees for senior UT Austin leaders. He is a founding member of the Texas Coalition for Excellence in Higher Education and serves on the Advisory Board of the Charles T. McDowell Center for Global Studies at UT Arlington. The University of Texas has recognized his contributions with the establishment of the endowed Cale McDowell Award for Innovation in Undergraduate Studies, which bears his name and has been awarded annually since 2011.
Education
B.B.A., Finance, University of Texas at Austin
M.P.A., University of Texas at Austin
J.D., University of Texas School of Law
Bar Admissions
Texas
