“They have an enormous both breadth and depth, which is of expertise, not just the depth, but the experience as well… you’re confident that there isn’t going to be any blowback or negative consequences once you close the deal.” – Robert Lobel, President of Bell Rock Development Group
I’m Robert Lobel, president of Bell Rock development group. We engaged Adam to represent us on a fairly large real estate transaction in the city – the acquisition of a bulk apartment deal, and Adam has been terrific throughout. We knew of Adam and his reputation in the marketplace. You know, in New York reputation is everything. And, of course, our counsel as well, our lead corporate counsel, recommended that we use Adam. So that was a nice stuff tail. Do you know, as you can imagine, we’ve worked with a lot of law firms in New York, you know, some of the largest, some of the biggest, some of the smaller ones. And Adam gave a lot of particular attention to the deal. One of Adam’s colleagues, Rachel was absolutely excellent as well, she did a lot of the nuts and the bolts, you know, what we look to in counsel for a deal is not just the legal expertise, but we also like them to be our psychologist on the deal as well. I don’t think a lot of you know, acquisition guys and Development Guides are going to admit that but when one is doing a deal, where, you know, New York has very bare knuckles, it’s full contact, you know, real estate deals in New York, it’s full body contact sport. And you know, when you’re in the ring battling, and there’s a recalcitrant group on the other side of the table, it really helps to be able to talk issues through, not just the technical and the legal issues and the the deal structural issues, but also the psychology behind things. And it’s also very important to keep one’s own emotions in check. And Adam did help me to keep a cool head at times when I was ready to strangle. You know, in every deal there, there gets to points where there’s a lot of frustration, where the other side is being obdurate and obstinate, and you’re not getting what you want. And, you know, being able to talk those things through with one’s counsel, who in essence, are not just your legal counsel, but they’re deal advisors, the great lawyers, also deal advisors. And I think Adam is, you know, one of the few that is able to do that, especially in his niche. So that was important when the other side doesn’t give you what you want. The question is, how do you get it? And you don’t want to give extra economics? You know, it’s always easier to get things when you overpay for them. But when you don’t want to overpay for them, the question is how do you get what you want, at the right price point. And you know, Adam was great as it related to that. We had an option to buy these apartments, you know, when we acquired the particular option, the strike price on the option was lower than what the market price is today. So that really tells you all you need to know about why this deal was very, very tough. And why the other side, were not happy to do this particular deal, because we had a option, which was in our favor, price wise and not there. So we wanted to do it in such a way where both sides felt like they were getting a good deal. And where you know, the best deals are often where you do walk away from the table with some sort of camaraderie with the other side of the table. It’s not always easy to achieve. But those tend to be the best deals because as my dad always taught us, me and my brothers, good business is only good business, if you can do it with the same people twice. So you always want to have a happy outcome, you want to be able to look at the other side and say, we’d be very happy to do another deal with them. And they have got to be able to say the same thing about you. So it’s a balancing act. And it’s tricky. It’s tricky. They definitely helped us work towards achieving that. No doubt about it. As I said earlier, that’s part of the psychological aspects of the deal. And that’s one of the important things that a very good lawyer brings to the deal such as Adam did. Their knowledge of all the rules and the regulations, the legal aspect of the deal. That’s the first thing, and within, as I say, this particular field, they have an enormous both breadth and depth, which is of expertise. And that’s important, not just the depth, you know, to be able to dig into all the, the minutiae of the legal and make sure you’ve got the right agreement, but the breadth, meaning the experience as well, whereby you can get the documents and everything to a point where you hope, but you’re also confident that there isn’t going to be any blowback or negative consequences once you close the deal. That often happens in a deal. And I think that one of the things that I loved about Adam was his enormous knowledge of litigation. As I say, New York is a very bare knuckles place to do real estate. And people here are not shy. They very litigious. Adam knows exactly how to craft the documents to a point where you have minimal exposure or risk of litigation. So that was great. You know, as I say, good business is only good business when you can do it with the same people twice. We would definitely use Adam again. And we were very, very happy with the service and the warmth and the respect with which we were treated and with which our deal was treated. So the answer is indubitably, yes.