John Ferguson knows a lot about real estate, and he might know even more about commercial real estate fundraising. Ferguson serves as co-chair of law firm Goodwin's global real estate group, whose practice is divided about 60 percent U.S. investment and 40 percent into countries across Europe and Asia. For the last 26 years, Ferguson’s focus has been representing investment managers who raise private capital for real estate investment. Ferguson sat down with Commercial Observer to discuss his career and the heady world of big-ticket commercial real estate fundraising and investment strategy. "As is often the case in practicing law in a business context, things that start out as really novel, cutting-edge things, over time, tend to become more normalized and commoditized. The market is always looking for the next new thing. I think that’s happening and probably will happen to the private fund world in our lifetime."