U.S. Members working together to help resolve retail Real Estate ownership dispute
“Unless you are admitted to the Bar of a given State you cannot practice law in the Courts of that State. For those reasons, R&E reached out to Ohio based IR Global member, Kenneth Liffman for assistance”
Rosenberg & Estis, P.C. (R&E) is a single office in New York City based real estate law firm that has many clients with real estate holdings in other U.S. jurisdictions. On occasion, clients request our involvement in non-New York real estate matters. Recently R&E partner and IR Global member, Michael Lefkowitz was asked by a client to represent the client in a real estate ownership dispute and a joint venture with a new partner for a vacant 120,000 sq.ft. retail building in Wooster, Ohio. Although each State and the various jurisdictions within each State have similar rules, ordinances and laws often on a transaction not within the State one generally practices, it is recommended to have local counsel assistance to work through the nuances of that jurisdiction. Moreover, unless you are admitted to the Bar of a given State you cannot practice law in the Courts of that State. For those reasons, R&E reached out to Ohio based IR Global member, Kenneth Liffman for assistance. The transaction required commencement of a partition action in Ohio State Court against a minority owner of the property who refused to sell its interest and refused to spend any money to redevelop a vacant wasting asset. Given Lefkowitz’ relationship with the client, the client was confident that Lefkowitz would retain on its behalf a qualified and efficient local
counsel to bring suit to force the minority owner of the property to either sell to the other owner, purchase from the other owner, or agree to sell the property to a third party through a court-ordered auction process.
Mr. Liffman’s firm successfully commenced suit and efficiently negotiated a settlement after appraisal that resulted in the client purchasing the minority interest. Liffman’s firm additionally assisted R&E in the negotiation with the new joint venture partner as the partnership documents are governed by the laws of the State of Ohio. Recently the property was leased to a major Mid-Western regional retailer and the redevelopment is underway. The collaboration created through the IR Global network between R&E and McCarthy Lebit Crystal and Liffman was seamlessly allowing Rosenberg & Estis, a one office New York based firm, to operate for the client as a multi-jurisdictional firm. We were able to deliver positive and efficient results for the client in a jurisdiction we normally do not appear. Without the IR Global network, achieving such results would have been much more difficult.
Contributing Advisors
