Adam Leitman Bailey

Adam Leitman Bailey
Born
Bayside, Queens[1]
Alma materRutgers University
Syracuse University College of Law (J.D.)
OccupationAttorney
Websitewww.alblawfirm.com

Adam Leitman Bailey is an American lawyer who practices residential and commercial real estate law as founder of Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. He was involved in several notable legal cases.[2][1][3][4][5]

The Martindale-Hubbell peer review system gave Bailey an AV rating, its highest category.[6]

Early life and Education

Bailey was born in Bayside, Queens.[1][7] He moved to California at age five and later moved back to New Milford, New Jersey, where he graduated from New Milford High School.[8] He graduated with honors from Rutgers University and Syracuse University College of Law.[9]

During his time at Syracuse Law, he was elected to the Moot Court team. Bailey studied under respected lawyers Travis Lewin and Deborah Kenn. Adam Leitman Bailey received New Milford High School’s Distinguished Alumni Award.[10]

Bailey has been described as a controversial figure in NYC real estate.[11][12]

In 2006, Adam Leitman Bailey represented an 83-year-old Holocaust survivor, Chaim Indig in a homeowner discrimination case. Indig and his son-in-law were rejected by his cooperative board in Brooklyn New York when attempting to buy his apartment - the President of said board then purchased the apartment for himself. Suing based on discrimination, given the fact that Mr. Indig was immobile and unable to speak due to Parkinson’s disease, Bailey prevailed on all claims and Mr. Indig was able to move into his new home.[13]   

In 2008, Bailey formed a non-profit entity known as "Save Harlem" to challenge certain zoning changes being proposed by the City of New York, and to serve as lead plaintiff in a challenge to the proposed demolition of a two-story building at 125th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard, and the development of the site as a shopping center.[1][7][14] Bailey proposed legislation that would prevent the demolition. Early in 2008, Save Harlem, along with several building tenants (forming a group known as the Coalition to Save Harlem) sued, eventually settling for more than $1 million and gaining the right of the tenants to remain in the building.[15]

Park51 was a planned Muslim community center located near the site of the World Trade Center. Timothy Brown, a former firefighter, sued to prevent construction of the community center so close to the site of the September 11 attacks.[16] Bailey represented the community center on a pro bono basis, and in July 2011 the New York Supreme Court held that Park51 would be permitted to build its proposed center.

Trump SoHo New York[17] is a $450 million hotel condominium. In February 2011, several prospective buyers of condominiums in the building, including French soccer star Olivier Dacourt, sued the developers in federal court, claiming that they had been tricked into buying the condos by the "deceptive" sales figures, and that the number of apartments sold at Trump Soho had been "fraudulently misrepresented." The plaintiffs were represented by Bailey. The suit was settled with plaintiffs recovering 90 per cent of their deposits.[18][19] Several years later, the case was described as "a watershed case in the world of condo litigation ... [C]ondo attorneys said that developers are now far more reluctant to disclose sales information to buyers’ attorneys, for fear of legal repercussions if they turn out to be wrong.”[20]

Following the 2007–2008 financial crisis, Bailey used the Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act of 1968 to relieve purchasers of Sky View Parc, a $1 billion condominium complex in Queens, of their contractual obligations to purchase, and obtained the largest residential condominium settlement in New York history.[21][22] The condominium was ordered to refund 75 per cent of the $5 million in down payments to the buyers who backed out of the $50 million project.[23] Bailey has been credited with being the first lawyer to use the law in this fashion,[24][25][26] and he employed the same approach in a later case in an appeal of an adverse trial court decision to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.[27][28][29] Congress later closed the ILSA loophole with Public Law 113-167, which provides an exemption for condominiums from ILSA's registration requirements for all new construction after enactment.

In a well reported familial celebrity case Scarlett Johansson fired her daughter, Melanie Sloan, as her agent and subsequently entered into a realty dispute. Prior to Ms. Sloan's dismissal, she had entered a contract to buy a two-bedroom apartment on West 43rd Street, Manhattan, New York. Using the reasoning that she no longer had the funds to purchase the apartment after her daughter had fired her, Ms. Sloan sued the sellers for her entire deposit back. Bailey represented the sellers, and while Ms. Sloan received a small part of the down payment back with the sellers retained the rest of the monies. The sellers put the property back on the market and it was listed in contract a week later.[30]

In 2014, Bailey represented a condo board at 3 E. 78th St., to successfully halt a proposed NYU's expansion plan. NYU was seeking to connect their fine arts institute to a donated space in the condominium building via a breezeway. While NYU claims the bylaws allow alterations, the board argued it needed their approval. Bailey accused NYU of misrepresenting itself in the application and sought its rejection. Pointing to bylaws protecting the building's structure, as it was designed by American architect C.P.H. Gilbert in 1899, Bailey successfully stopped the NYU expansion.[31]

In an ambitious plan to reconfigure a four-apartment house in the Chelsea district of New York City, into a home, former owners of the Mets, Sterling Equities Planning were rejected by the city Landmarks Preservation Commission. Adam Leitman Bailey represented both a next-door neighbor Adriana Cisneros, and the local block association. Successfully stopping the development, Bailey later told the Wall Street Journal “Now the owners can spend more money on the Mets rather than building a McMansion in a neighborhood where it doesn’t belong.”[32]

On May 3, 2019, Bailey was suspended from practicing law for a four-month term. The suspension was imposed for undignified conduct (including telling a party suing Bailey's client that he "should commit suicide") and for threatening criminal charges to obtain an advantage in a civil matter.[33]

Philanthropy

Bailey established the “Raymond 'Hap' Harrison” scholarship in 2008, named after his former high school track coach. Since then, he has given four-year academic awards to 17 students: 10 from New Milford and seven from New York City schools.[34]

Entertainment

Bailey wrote three scenes for the 2014 Ramin Bahrani movie, 99 Homes. As a result, the attorney foreclosing on homes in the movie, played by Jonathan Vane, was named “Lawyer Bailey”.[35] Bailey also appeared on an episode of Dateline NBC investigating the art of persuasion.[36]

Books

In 2011, Bailey wrote Finding The Uncommon Deal: A Top New York Lawyer Explains How to Buy a Home for the Lowest Possible Price. The book gained Bailey the 2012 "First Time Author" award granted by the National Association of Real Estate Editors.[37]

Bailey has written a children’s book, Home, which was named a Silver winner in the category Picture Book/Early Reader by Literary Classics.[38]

Honors

Bailey was named one of New York’s "Most Powerful Real Estate Attorneys" by the Commercial Observer in 2015.[39]

Bailey was named one of New York's Top Real Estate litigators by Chambers & Partners in 2021.[40]

Bailey was also recognized in The Best Lawyers in America since 2015 in Real Estate Law New York, New York.[41]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Taylor, Candace (June 1, 2010). "Public Enemy No. 1 for Developers". The Real Deal. Archived from the original on August 21, 2012. Retrieved May 27, 2023.
  2. ^ Orlando, Dan (2015). "Legal ace Adam Bailey breaking the rules to make new ones". Real Estate Weekly. Archived from the original on March 5, 2016. Retrieved August 19, 2015.
  3. ^ Walker, Joe (October 23, 2009). "State Accord Bans Sales of Homes By Developer". The New York Times. Retrieved July 19, 2011.
  4. ^ Grey, Liana (August 1, 2012). "Lawyer not to be judged by his cover". Real Estate Weekly. Archived from the original on September 8, 2012. Retrieved September 10, 2012.
  5. ^ Geiger, Daniel (August 8, 2012). "The 15 Most Fascinating New York Real Estate Cases of the 21st Century". Commercial Observer. Retrieved September 10, 2012.
  6. ^ "Adam Leitman Bailey Lawyer Profile". Martindale. December 23, 2009. Retrieved January 19, 2013.
  7. ^ a b "Should All of 125th Street Be Declared Historic?". The New York Times. February 21, 2008. Archived from the original on June 24, 2011. Retrieved July 19, 2011.
  8. ^ "New Milford Distinguished Alumni". Archived from the original on September 28, 2011. Retrieved July 19, 2011.
  9. ^ "Alumni Career Spotlight Archive" (PDF). Syracuse Law. December 2012. Archived from the original on May 26, 2022. Retrieved May 26, 2023.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  10. ^ digitalhelp (October 12, 2008). "Adam L. Bailey L'95". College of Law. Retrieved November 9, 2023.
  11. ^ Taylor, Candace (June 1, 2010). "Public Enemy No. 1 for Developers". The Real Deal. Archived from the original on August 21, 2012. Retrieved May 27, 2023.
  12. ^ Geiger, Daniel (February 21, 2012). "The brouhaha behind the Ground Zero mosque introduced Adam Leitman Bailey to the world. So what's next for real estate's most public attorney?". The New York Observer. Retrieved May 27, 2023.
  13. ^ "Understanding the Co-op Admission Process - Running the Gauntlet". cooperatornews.com. Retrieved October 6, 2024.
  14. ^ Maria Luisa Tucker (December 4, 2007). "Zoned Out". Village Voice. Archived from the original on October 31, 2014. Retrieved May 27, 2023.
  15. ^ Elkies, Laurie (July 3, 2008). "Harlem Businesses Settle Suit Against Kimco". The Real Deal. Retrieved July 19, 2011.[permanent dead link‍]
  16. ^ Moynihan, Colin (March 15, 2011). "Fight on Islamic Center Flares Anew as Ex-Firefighter Take His Case to Court". The New York Times. Retrieved July 19, 2011.
  17. ^ Kaysen, Ronda (June 6, 2006), "Trump fires up new plan for Hudson Square hotel", The Villager, archived from the original on March 24, 2012, retrieved June 12, 2012
  18. ^ Cuozzo, Steve (November 3, 2011), "Occupy Spring St.: Trump SoHo to give 90% refunds on deposits", New York Post
  19. ^ McIntire, Mike (April 6, 2016). "Donald Trump Settled a Real Estate Lawsuit, and a Criminal Case Was Closed". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved November 30, 2023.
  20. ^ Parker, Will; Samtani, Hiten (October 4, 2017). ""I don't think I'd ever received a letter like it": Read the Trump Soho memo that tripped up a criminal investigation". The Real Deal. Retrieved May 20, 2023.
  21. ^ "Settlement sees 75 percent refunds for Sky View Parc buyers". The Real Deal. June 30, 2011. Archived from the original on December 28, 2011. Retrieved May 20, 2023.
  22. ^ Barbanel, Josh (November 16, 2010). "Buyers Balk, Claiming No Loans". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved July 19, 2011.
  23. ^ Cuozzo, Steve (July 10, 2011). "Condo Can't Do". The New York Post. Retrieved July 19, 2011.
  24. ^ Samtani, Hiten (September 19, 2014). "Senate votes to strike down ILSA requirements for condos". The Real Deal. Retrieved May 20, 2023.
  25. ^ Ugolik, Kaitlin (September 24, 2014). "Condo Law Change Could Cut Red Tape For Developers". Law360. Retrieved May 27, 2023.
  26. ^ Samtani, Hiten (September 27, 2013). "House passes bill loosening ILSA requirements". The Real Deal. Retrieved May 27, 2023.
  27. ^ Barbanel, Josh (September 23, 2010). "Buyer's Remorse Gets Lift". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved July 19, 2011.
  28. ^ Weiss, Debra Cassens (September 23, 2010). "Condo Deposit Decision Could Chill Condo Development Nationwide, Lawyers Say". American Bar Association Journal. Retrieved July 19, 2011.
  29. ^ Raymond, Nate (December 20, 2012). "2nd Circuit says developer does not have to refund deposit". Thomson Reuters. Archived from the original on April 11, 2013. Retrieved May 27, 2023.
  30. ^ "Scarlett Johansson Latest Celeb to Fire Parent". ABC News. Retrieved July 11, 2024.
  31. ^ Chaban, Matt A. V. (June 3, 2014). "Seeking to Expand an Uptown Site, N.Y.U. Finds Itself in an Alley Fight". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 3, 2024.
  32. ^ Barbanel, Josh (September 12, 2016). "Battle Over Chelsea Townhouse Reflects War Being Waged in New York City's Historic Districts". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved November 18, 2024.
  33. ^ Newsham, Jack (April 2, 2019). "First Department Suspends Adam Leitman Bailey for 4 Months". New York Law Journal.
  34. ^ DeVencentis, Philip. "Giving is second nature to New Milford alum". North Jersey Media Group. Retrieved January 3, 2024.
  35. ^ Maurer, Mark (September 18, 2015). "Top real estate lawyer makes silver-screen consulting debut with "99 Homes"". The Real Deal. Retrieved August 14, 2024.
  36. ^ "Adam Leitman Bailey | Actor". IMDb. Retrieved August 14, 2024.
  37. ^ "National Association of Real Estate Editors Announces 2012 Robert Bruss Real Estate Book Award Winners". RealEstateRama. January 29, 2013. Retrieved July 28, 2015.
  38. ^ "2018 Award Winning Books". Literary Classics. Retrieved May 27, 2023.
  39. ^ Schlanger, Danielle (April 29, 2015). "Leading Legals: New York's Most Powerful Real Estate Attorneys". Commercial Observer. Retrieved May 27, 2023.
  40. ^ Bailey, Adam Leitman. "Lawyer profile: Adam Leitman Bailey". Chambers and Partners. Archived from the original on August 10, 2020.
  41. ^ Smulison, Justin (August 16, 2023). "Best Lawyers Over the Years". Best Lawyers. Retrieved March 18, 2024.
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