Our client’s projects are often complex. To provide the exceptional service our client’s deserve, our real estate attorneys partner with attorneys in our other practice groups, including 
construction, environmental, economic development, bankruptcy and creditor issues, utilities, and general business (entity formation, contracts, etc.). Our real estate attorneys also have unique knowledge and specialization in specific areas of real estate law.  For example, in New York we possess one of the largest, oldest, and most sophisticated co-op and condo law groups, and one of our attorneys is well-known in the area of Loft Law. In New Jersey, we have specialties in real estate-related work in certain industries including wireless communications, hotels, solar energy, convenience stores and electric charging stations.  In Pennsylvania, we offer a full range of title services to our clients. This level of knowledge coupled with our deep commitment to our real estate clients allows us to provide advice and counseling on every legal facet regarding real estate.

Members of the Real Estate, Finance and Land Use Group are active in real estate Boards and Associations, including the Commercial Real Estate Women, Somerset County (NJ) Business Partnership, National Cooperative Business Association, and the Co-op Innovation Fund, which is dedicated to broadening the use and understanding of cooperatives.  We are also pro bono counsel for the Coordinating Council of Cooperatives.

• Condominiums of all sizes and economic levels.
• Cooperatives of all sizes, including a unique expertise in regulated cooperatives such as Limited-Dividend and Mitchell-Lama cooperatives.
• Owners of all types of commercial properties, including office, retail, warehouse, and industrial properties.
• Financial institutions in all facets of lending, refinancing, restructuring, and enforcement.
• Professional managing agents in the representation of real estate entities.
• Developers in all facets of acquisition, zoning, permitting, approvals, buildout and sale of properties, plus related financings.
• Real estate investment entities and trusts.
• Landlords and tenants in leasing and related transactions.

We provide a full and complete range of legal and advisory services to real estate entities, including representing our clients in any form of litigation, administrative hearings, or arbitrations.  The firm is also able to provide advice and representation on any corporate, tax, estate, or other legal issues related to real estate.  We work collaboratively with our clients to formulate long-term solutions and planning to maximize the client’s objectives and to minimize the problems and risks associated with those goals.  We expect our relationship with our clients to be long-term and based on educating our clients on how to secure the best outcome for them.

Land Use and Zoning

Our practice group also includes commercial and residential land use and zoning and real estate development law.  We have obtained many real estate development permits and approvals, including complex and contested matters, for real estate developers, commercial and industrial property owners and tenants, warehouses, office buildings, manufacturing facilities, shopping centers, restaurants, bars, hotels, gasoline stations, convenience stores, residential housing, electric vehicle charging stations, solar energy providers, commercial electricity battery storage, and wireless telecommunications.  Our lawyers regularly appear before municipal, county, state, and other government land use and related boards, agencies, and commissions on many kinds of development applications.  We help clients successfully navigate and obtain the complex, time-consuming, and often frustrating morass of permits and approvals required for all kinds of modern real estate developments.  We also represent government entities in land use and zoning and real estate development matters.

Cooperative (“Co-op”) and Condominium Practice

The Firm represents cooperative and affordable housing corporations as well as luxury cooperatives and condominiums in all facets of their operations, assisting the boards of directors, officers, and managers in best practices, corporate governance, and their legal responsibilities.  Our counsel assist clients in the negotiation and execution of all forms of contract from multimillion dollar capital projects to simple service agreements, and in the review and implementation of the cooperative’s or condominium’s documentation such as the by-laws, articles of incorporation and other governing documents.

We also represent clients in all forms of dispute resolution, be it administrative, litigation, or arbitration in courts from small claims to federal court. Our attorneys handle the varied and unique issues and disputes that arise in the condominium and cooperative housing environment, both the internal dispute between shareholders and unit owners and the wide range of external litigation affecting our clients.  When these disputes arise, our experienced attorneys represent clients in negotiations and, if necessary, litigation. We work proactively to create policies, rules and other documents and procedures to prevent and limit potential problems and liabilities and to protect our condominium and cooperative clients should litigation arise.

We have a unique and special practice in the establishment and preservation of middle income and Mitchell-Lama government-assisted cooperative housing.  Our firm was instrumental in developing legislation and the ongoing regulation that governs Limited-Dividend cooperatives.  We have represented one of the major developers of this type of housing, dealing with all relevant government agencies in the planning stage, dealing with contractors in the construction stage, and drafting documentation governing the relationships between the cooperatives and shareholders.