“If You Want to Work in Real Estate… This Is a Great Firm.”
The 2015 Summer Associates discuss their experiences at Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.
AN: My name is Alex Newman, I’m going into my third year at Cardozo Law School here in the city, and this summer I’m interning at Adam Leitman Bailey P.C.
ME: My name is Matt Eichel, I am a 3L at Cardozo Law School and I’m interning at Adam Leitman Bailey P.C.
MA: My name is Michael Altman, I’m going into my third year at Cardozo Law School and I am interning at Adam Leitman Bailey P.C.
Q. What kind of work are you doing this summer?
AN: I’m kind of working with really everyone, mainly litigation and landlord tenant, but I’ve done a little bit of work for everyone. The work I’ve done—huge range, research, writing, putting together documents, kind of everything .
ME: I’ve mostly been working, also with everyone a little bit, but for the most part in landlord tenant and condos and co-ops and ranges from research, I did a lot of drafting work, document production and things of that sort.
AN: I’m working mainly with the transaction department, so I’ll go to closings and do that stuff, but then I’ve also been working a little with the Condo and Co-op department doing research, putting documents together and writing some stuff up for motions.
Q. Are the attorneys at Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. approachable to you?
AN: Yeah, definitely. The attorneys are happy, if you ask them any questions, to answer them. They are all approachable, you can walk into anyone’s office.
ME: All of the attorney’s doors are open, and even if they’re not, they say “Knock on the door” and they’ll let you in and answer any questions you have, and just are very forthcoming on what they want you to do and making sure you’re doing it and getting something out of this.
MA: Yeah, whenever I’ve been given an assignment ,if I have any questions, especially when it something I’ve never seen before or done before, everyone is always happy to answer and help me work through it.
Q. Who have you been working with during your time at Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.?
MA: I’ve ben working with Rosemary in transactions, and coming in I had somewhat of an understanding, but through working with her I’ve been able to get practical experience, and she’s been great answering any questions and showing me how it actually works in the real world.
AN: I’ve worked a lot with David, and he’s been very helpful, more so even that some of the other lawyers he’s very good at explaining exactly what he’s asking me to do, and especially some of the procedural aspects, which you don’t really get the explanation of in law school. He’s very good at explaining what we’re doing and why we’re doing it and what kind of effect it may have on the case down the line.
ME: So I think the first person that gave me work here was Rachel, and ever since then she’s sort of been a mentor to me. Whenever I have questions, even when its about something I’m not doing for her, she’s always there to answer and give me some guidance on, and I’ve done a wide range of things for her—from drafting, to calling politicians to research, so I’ve gotten the most experience from her, and I’ve definitely seen her as a mentor.
Q. Have you had the opportunity to go to court with the attorneys?
ME: I have. It was great experience. The other time I was there observing for a client, the client sent me to court to observe a on a matter that we weren’t part of but it affected our case so I just went in there and took notes, but yeah, it was great experience.
AN: I went to court a few times, with a couple of different attorneys mostly just observing, but it was good experience. One time we got to got meet with the Judge-in-Chambers, so we got to see what that was like, which was new for me.
Q. How was your experience working at a small firm like Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.?
ME: I definitely think that working at a small firm really threw us in the deep end and put a lot of responsibility on our shoulders because it’s a such a small firm, so there’s a lot of things that very few people are trying to do so they need the help. So, I definitely, I got a lot of experience, and I think that I got a lot of experience doing different things that I wouldn’t have been able to do at a larger firm.
Q. How has your experience as an intern at Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. affected your career goals?
MA: I thought, going into the summer, I did want to do real estate, and I think that this has reinforced that. So in the future this is what I am going to pursue with classes and looking for future jobs.
ME: I thought I wanted to do real estate, but I didn’t know what that really meant besides like the basic property law class I took in my first year of law school, but definitely working here has reinforced, now I understand what real estate attorneys do on a daily basis and it interests me.
AN: I don’t know for sure what I want to do but I definitely have an interest in what I’ve been working on. Also a lot of the work I’ve been doing has transferrable skills from work I’ve done previously and presumably work I’d do in the future even if its not real estate, so I think regardless it’s been helpful that way.
Q. Would you recommend this experience to other students?
MA: Yeah I would, I mean, getting the chance to work just in real estate but still in different fields of real estate, whether it’s transaction, litigation, different types of litigation, it is definitely something that if you’re interested in working in this area, it’s helpful.
AN: I would agree with that. I think, I don’t really know what my expectations were coming in, but I was just looking for experience in general and I definitely got that both in terms of what a firm was like, which I really hadn’t experienced before as well as more substantive actual work
MA: Yeah, I didn’t really now what to expect coming in, I had never worked in a law firm before. So, I just kind of came in to see what it was like, and it was definitely positive, but it wasn’t really compared to anything I had thought of.
ME: If you want to work in real estate, I feel like the attorneys here are great, they’re helpful, and there are lot of different areas of real estate that you can test out whether it’s transactional, litigation, landlord tenant, condos and coops, leasing, whatever it’s here for you and if you want to get a feeling of what that actually means, this is a great place.
AN: I agree, especially if you want to do real estate, this is a great firm because it does all aspects, so you can really try a little bit of each one and see if there is a specific niche that is better for you.
ME: It definitely met my expectations. I wanted to gain experience, one working in real estate law and two just working in a law firm environment, and after this that I have an understanding of what it’s like to work in a law firm and I now have understanding of what real estate law means, and its increased my interest in pursuing a career in it possibly.