AREAS OF PRACTICE

Condominium & Cooperative Representation

• Reducing common charges/maintenance while building a reserve system;

• Inventing and devising an agreement/process to quicken foreclosure process to either get common charges paid or the property into new unit owners hands.

• Lowering expenses by negotiating better contracts, mortgage refinance terms, credit line acquisitions;

• Seizing upon new laws that allow savings for using certain materials or standards;

• Ensuring that both the building and the board are adequately protected using our insurance attorneys combined 60 plus years of insurance experience;

• Revising and upgrading outdated corporate documents inhibiting a building's effectiveness in governing itself and its residents' conduct

• Creating offering plans, bylaws and house rules that anticipate and prevent problems as well as provide for a amicable and smooth process for governance.

Aggressively pursuing avenues of revenue, tapping grants from local and federal governments, utilizing tax breaks and grants, following programs to efficiently manage a building and pursuing other programs and techniques, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. has enabled its clients to become models of management profiled in the New York Times (click here to view articles) and Habitat magazine (click here to view article) for their policies.

These methods and others have enabled Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. to achieve record breaking savings and successes for cooperatives and condominiums.  In one case, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. got a cooperative client a record breaking $21 million grant from the combined resources of City, State, and Federal governments.

Full Service Real Estate Firm

Our attorneys have over 80 years combined  experience representing cooperatives and condominiums in New York.  Our proprietary leases, offering plans and bylaws have been lauded as the best around and the industry's best.  Our model laundry room lease (click here to view lease)  has been adopted as the model lease by the real estate community and Blumberg Forms (click here to view our Blumberg Forms).  As either general or litigation counsel for cooperatives, condominiums, HDFCs, and shareholders/unit owners, we pride ourselves on our ability to assist all buildings, unit owners, and shareholders with their real estate needs. The satisfaction of our clients comes from our ability to give practical advice, and to guide prudent decisions, giving full weight to both legal and business and economic considerations. With regards to cooperative and condominium litigation, our success comes from our ability to win at trial, obtain favorable settlements, and to prevent situations escalating towards litigation.

Customer Service and the 24 Hour Rule

Client satisfaction starts with our customer service. Our AV-rated and award winning law firm responds to all emails and phone calls within 24 hours. Upon request, we provide you with weekly or daily updates of all of your pending matters. Almost all of our attorneys live in the metropolitan New York City area, enabling them to attend building meetings and be available at your convenience. This responsiveness and hands on attentiveness allows us to prevent costly litigation by pinpointing potential issues before they become serious problems.

Litigation

As one of New York's premier real estate litigation firms, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. has participated and prevailed in some of the most important condominium and cooperative cases of the new millennium, as reflected in numerous published and unpublished decisions on novel legal issues. Our attorneys' impressive success record in hundreds of trials places the firm's performance among the very best in the profession.  

Among these cases we have achieved the following results:

• In Lorne v. 50 Madison,  making new law, the Appellate Division found condominium boards not liable for repairing newly constructed building and that the obligation to repair remains with Sponsor.

• In Sky View Parc v. Onex Real Estate, Adam Leitman Bailey P.C. reached the largest settlement in condominium history, awarding the contract vendees millions of dollars.

• In 40 West 67th Street v. Pullman,  Adam Leitman Bailey P.C. concluded a case and settled outstanding issues where a shareholder was evicted from its cooperative for bad behavior.

• In 710 Park Avenue v. Feld, the courts determined whether a board of directors could restrict whether a shareholder could run for the board of directors based on educational requirements.

• In Sinensky v. Rokowsky, the Appellate Division determined whether an applicant/non-shareholder has the standing to sue a board of directors for discrimination

• In Kahn v. 230-79 Equity, the Appellate Term determined a cooperative's liability for making repairs to a unit. 

• In Anonymous v. 812 Fifth Avenue, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. prevailed in obtaining the return of a down payment for a rejected cooperative purchaser.

Collections/Unpaid Common Charges/Maintenance/Foreclosures

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. provides one of the most outstanding cooperative landlord-tenant practices and condominium collection practices in New York City.  Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C is one of four law firms with cooperative landlord-tenant practices in the entire state of New York to earn an AV® Martindale-Hubbell Rating and is the only law firm in the State of New York to have both an AV Rating and a lawyer with a Super Lawyer ranking.  Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. is the only law firm in New York City with cooperative landlord-tenant practice attorneys named by the internationally esteemed Chambers and Partners among "New York's Leading Real Estate Lawyers. Chambers & Partners noted that Adam Leitman Bailey makes his "debut in the rankings following enthusiastic praise for his expertise in landlord and tenant litigation. A tenacious and confident litigator who is quick-witted in court and respected by the judges." 

The collective experience of our team has been responsible for winning landmark decisions in cooperative landlord-tenant law and condominium unpaid common charges cases.  Our attorneys have won over a thousand cases in housing court, including over 250 appellate court cases, many at the highest court, The Court of Appeals. Besides participating in some of the most important landlord-tenant decisions during the past decade, our attorneys have written some 90 books on landlord-tenant law, including encyclopedias and the Housing Court Reporter, a twenty-five year collection, organization, and analysis of over 50,000 landlord-tenant cases used by most regular housing court practitioners and all landlord-tenant judges.

On the forefront of condominium foreclosure litigation, we invented a plan and devised an agreement to either get unpaid common charges paid or to push the foreclosure process to save months and even years in the foreclosure process to get the unit into a paying owner's hands and the chance of redeeming any equity in the home to pay outstanding common charges.  To learn more about this process click here.

Newly Constructed Condominium Buildings, Housing Fund Development Corporations and Mitchell-Lama Developments

Please click here to learn more about our representation of Newly Constructed Buildings.

Please click here to learn more about our representation of Mitchell-Lama Developments.

Awards, Rankings and Honors

Our successes have led to the highest honors and awards from the bar and ranking organizations.  We are the only cooperative condominium law firm under 30 attorneys that has received and AV® Martindale-Hubbell rating, Super Lawyers honors and selection into  the Registry of Preeminent Lawyers.  In addition, our success as cooperative and condominium general counsel earned our firm recognition in "Who's Who in Real Estate" by Habitat Magazine.

During the past three years, the internationally esteemed Chambers & Partners repeatedly selected Mr. Bailey as one of New York's Leading Real Estate lawyers, hailing Mr. Bailey as a "tenacious and confident litigator who is quick-witted in court and respected by the judges."  Chambers & Partners noted that Bailey is "an extraordinary practitioner who gets great results" quoting a client on Mr. Bailey's "ability to anticipate things before they happen."

Real Estate Weekly noted that "Adam Leitman Bailey has made a name for himself with his success winning cases in the courtroom," and that he is famous for his "condominium representation."  The New York Real Estate Journal declared Mr. Bailey to be "one of New York's best real estate attorneys."   The New York Times praised his "novel" strategy in one case and remarked that in another "Bailey fought on... grinding through excruciating detail and obscure Perry Mason moments." "After Mr. Bailey's firm used a forgotten statute to prevail in a landmark federal case, the Wall Street Journal quoted a prominent New York developer's attorney calling the holding a "game changer" affecting real estate nationwide.  Dateline NBC referred to Mr. Bailey as "aggressive, tenacious and smart" in asking Mr. Bailey to share his negotiating secrets on its nationally syndicated television program.