“Someone Who Is Not Only Our Lawyer, but She Looks out for Us in All Facets of Real Estate.” – Paola Shaddow ATCO General Counsel & Director of Leasing
Q: Could you tell me about your company and what you do?
A: We are ATCO properties and management, we are a real estate company with holdings throughout United States as well as in Europe, and we are owner, manager, construction, leasing, brokerage, full service firm.
Q: Wonderful. And what is your role in the company?
A: I am a General Counsel, Director of Leasing.
Q: In what type of capacity do you work with ALB, PC?
A: ALB PC is our outside litigation firm that we use for tenant issues.
Q: And what does ALB PC do for your company, specifically the type of work?
A: They handle all our down-payments, holdover proceedings, and we’ve been with them for several years now.
Q: It’s a long time. Have you been with any other companies, did it take you a while to find ALB, PC?
A: We actually were with a firm for a long period of time, we had some issues, and we had gone on a search to find out a firm that would be aggressive, that would be attentive and would give us the attention we needed to get our issues resolved. Not necessarily only good, but that try to settle certain claims.
Q: That sounds good. So would you say things have really improved since you’ve been working with ALB PC?
A: Yes, I would.
Q: Wonderful. And have you been in touch with a primary contact with ALB PC?
A: Now my primary contact for a while has been Jamie.
Q: Great. And are there any aspects of Jamie’s work that really helped you to win cases, like is she very responsive to, is she very time efficient?
A: Jamie is someone who, how do I put this…. She’s not only our lawyer but she looks out for us in all aspects of the real estate industry. If she knows that we had any issues, with let’s say the security deposit, she looks up an article and she comes up with: oh she would forward this to me, it was relevant two years ago, she’ll send it to me. So she’s not only working on the cases we had before her, but she’s looking at wholistically, she is teaching us on how not to make mistakes, not to make mistakes again.
Q: So, is that better fitting you?
A: Of course, it saves me money and time, and we don’t do the mistakes again. She’s just that good.
Q: Wonderful to have, she has that out of the box thinking.
A: Yes, a 360 approach in litigation. It’s not just going to court, I think she just wants us to… there are many times when she said, well I think you should settle on this. I could go to court and we can do it that way, or maybe it is in your best interest to try to settle and it would be more cost effective. Or sometimes she understands that it is not only about money but sometimes you have to set an example and she understood that rule as well. She just got this 360 perspective.
Q: Would you in the future be recommending ALB PC to other landlords?
A: We already do that. It’s not in the future, we do that all the time. We actually do that now. We do it now in the present.
Q: Wonderful. So what’s that thing that you say that could potentially…
A: Some colleagues in the industry or administrative parties, they are experiencing issues or having a problem, they need an attorney, you need good people, you need to have someone that has your back. It’s not about money, it’s not about billing, it’s about making sure your company running smoothly and making sure your issues are handled efficiently.
Q: Kind of like a partnership?
A: Yeah, I don’t feel like Adam or Jamie do things to send the bill. There are sometimes lawyers that you’ll see that got this case where they write letter, like two sentences, like: confirming our conversation, the deposition will be held on January 12, we just talk, you sent me an email, a follow up letter. I feel like people sometimes do that. You don’t get that with Adam, you don’t get that with Jamie, it’s a lot of “free” service, all of this would help pull your company along, it’s not all about here comes the bill. I know that they are looking out, not only for my personal interest but ATCO’s interest. And that makes me feel very, very good that when we went out to search for a firm, we have a partner.
Q: That’s fantastic. And do we have your permission to use your fabulous view outside.
A: Absolutely, you can cut out my face and can totally use it, use all you want. You can use Giselle’s face
Q: Is there anything else you would like to add?
A: Adam has a good crew. He should be proud.
Q: Thank you, thank you so much.
A: You’re welcome.