Real Estate Lawyer

My board and building use Rosen and Livingston. We're a Fifth Avenue building. They're worth checking into.

Your question is too broad. Simply because a 700 lawyer firm has a real estate department, it may be renowned for it's commercial work and have no expertise in residential buildings. Coops are another animal altogether. I doubt that a "white shoe" law firm is what you want anyway. Their fees would likely be disproportionate to the problem within a week. Many partners now charge upwards of $1000/hr with some top-tier firms charging out their partners at $2000+/hr. A boutique firm specializing in coop litigation might be more what you want. If you are prepared to spend the kind of money a "white shoe" firm would cost, then you likely have friends, acquaintaces or business contacts who are lawyers who can ask around for you or put you in touch with large firm contacts who can direct you to what you need. You don't get "the best real estate litigator in Manhattan" by posting on this forum. It's like asking who the best oncologist in Manhattan is.

OP - what is the nature of your disputes with your board. And why do you feel you need a prestigious white shoe law firm?

Please name one firm that has a partner charging a legit $2000/hr please. The $1000/hr barrier was only crossed in the last few years. I really doubt anybody charges a straight up $2K/hr. I'm sure you can find an example where a success fee/sweetener pushed a bill over $2000/hr, but I'm willing to bet no firm tries to charge $2K straight up.

I hate to just give away business, but to answer the question: the highest caliber large firm that has specialists in real estate litigation and that will represent a non-landlord is (I believe) Stroock, Stroock & Lavan. You almost certainly don't need to go there for your problems, but if you believe a firm's letter head is more important to accomplish your goals than the quality, efficiency, and value of representation, then by all means - go ahead.

Kylewest, point taken. Mel, the nature of my dispute is this. I have an incompetent board and a criminal for a super who are making it impossible to live in my apartment. The super trashed my apartment and destroyed my new furniture, and is making my life miserable. He has done this to other people in the building but the board didn't do anything about it. The management company is a big one, and I am pretty sure the Managing Agent is in collusion with the super. This is why I want a white shoe law firm. I just don't want any one though. I've worked at Cravath and it's a great firm but I know that some powerhouse law firms are known for their real estate litigation and some are not. So I was trying to figure out which are the best real estate law firms/lawyers for real estate litigation.

Original Poster - your situation sounds like trespass, invasion of privacy, theft (destruction of goods)... uhhhhmmmm have you thougth about filing a police complaint? In any case.... if you are considering pursuing a civil claim or at least a threat of one... you have worked at Cravath - then either you are a lawyer or know lawyers that might be better able to refer you to someone... have you tried that? You might be better off getting a lawyer to refer someone that someone on this board...

I'm sorry to hear about your troubles, OP. I still don't understand why a white shoe law firm is necessary or even advisable, but that's your choice. Seeing Cravath or, say, Skadden on letterhead will simply not make a managing agent tremble in fear. By the way, if by "powerhouse law firms" you mean a Cravath or a Skadden, there simply are no such firms that are known for real estate litigation that will represent a non-landlord (as far as I know). Stroock has a good reputation but, as far as the name game goes, isn't really in the same league. However, a veteran managing agent (and the agent's counsel) will see a Cravath-type name on a pleading and will laugh, because such firms frequently have no idea what they're doing when it comes to co-ops and condos.

The good news is that there is a fairly large real estate litigation community. Many of them are very, very good, and make just as good a living, if not a better living, than partners at huge firms. I would be happy to refer you. If you like, you can e-mail me at streeteasymel@gmail.com.

Best of luck to you. By the way, be sure to take photos of damaged property before undertaking any repairs!

Mel offers very good suggestions and points. It's beyond the scope of your inquiry, but there are reasons the largest firms would be very reluctant to represent an individual in such a dispute. You'll find what you need through Mel's suggestions, though.

As for starfish's comments, all I will say is that you are wrong about fees at the very top tier of NYC's firms. I'm not going to parse the details, but $1000/hr doesn't even touch what the hourly rate of the very elite works out to.

By the way, in response to "broadbent": nothing against Rosen & Livingston, but they are about as far away from a very prestigious white shoe firm as it is possible to be.

kylewest, I didn't say $1K was the top (I work with people who charge $1K), but I did say nobody charges $2K/hr. $2K/hr just doesn't happen (again, absent some success/contingency fee).

Just curious Mel, are you an attorney?

Indeed.

Thanks, your insights are helpful.

My pleasure, and thank you.
And just to reiterate - I have nothing bad to say about Rosen & Livingston. But as you may know by virtue of working with them, they are a small "boutique" and not a "very prestigious white shoe firm."

Starfish, you are wrong on fees. You may work with attorneys, but you don't work with all attorneys. And the attorneys I'm speaking about certainly don't work on contingency. Why can't you simply say you aren't aware of fees above a certain amount instead of saying such fees don't exist. What irks me on this forum is people who offer personal, anecdotal experience as general fact.

Kylewest - I have never heard of a standard, or "non-special," rate of 2K/hour for an attorney, although I am not calling you a liar! Can you be more specific? If you don't want to out a specific person/firm, can you point us in the right direction?
Thanks.

Sorry, Mel. I'm done on this one. Not the place to discuss this more than I have. In the end it doesn't matter in terms of this post. Can't imagine coop litiation that is worth even $1000/hr lawyers unless you are Sting.

Would you e-mail me at streeteasymel@gmail.com?
I'm dying to know.
But I agree - although co-op litigation can have very high stakes, the expertise in this area is not to be found at the large "white shoe" firms.

Mel, why don't you just ask aboutready?

I did but she wisely demurred.

I demure, too. Isn't everyday I get to use that word.

"Rosen and Livingston"? - Don't do anything with these people. Very unprofessional and very lazy. They need to clean house in there.

"Rosen and Livingston"? - Don't do anything with these people. Very unprofessional and very lazy. They need to clean house in there.

Who are the best real estate lawyers for this kind of situation?

From the Wall Street Journal

Lawyers Gear Up Grand New Fees
Hourly Rates Increasingly Hit $1,000,
Breaching a Level Once Seen as Taboo
By NATHAN KOPPEL
August 22, 2007

The hourly rates of the country's top lawyers are increasingly coming with something new -- a comma.

A few attorneys crossed into $1,000-per-hour billing before this year, but recent moves to the four-figure mark in New York, which sets trends for legal markets around the country, are seen as a significant turning point.

On Sept. 1, New York's Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP will raise its top rate to more than $1,000 from $950. Firm partner Barry Ostrager, a litigator, says he will be one of the firm's thousand-dollar billers, along with private-equity specialist Richard Beattie and antitrust lawyer Kevin Arquit. The top biller at New York's Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP hit $1,000 per hour earlier this year. At Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP, also of New York, bankruptcy attorney Brad Scheler, now at $995 per hour, will likely soon charge $1,000.

At large firms, billable rates have climbed steadily over the years, since 2000 rising an average of 6% to 7% annually, according to the law-firm group of Citi Private Bank, a unit of Citigroup Inc. But for some time, the highest-billing partners at top big-city firms have hovered in the mid-to-high $900 range, hesitant to cross the four-figure threshold. "We have viewed $1,000 an hour as a possible vomit point for clients," says a partner at a New York firm. "Frankly, it's a little hard to think about anyone who doesn't save lives being worth this much money," says David Boies, one of the nation's best-known trial lawyers, at the Armonk, N.Y., office of Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP.

A select group of attorneys began billing at that rate before this year, such as Stephen Susman, a founding partner of a Houston firm who has tried big-ticket cases around the country, and Benjamin Civiletti, a former U.S. Attorney General under President Carter and a senior partner at Washington, D.C-based Venable LLP. And in London, top attorneys bill at rates that, when converted, can hit almost $1,500 an hour.

Original Poster - feel free to e-mail me at streeteasymel@gmail.com and I'd be happy to refer you to any number of excellent real estate litigation groups.