Herrick, Feinstein LLP is pleased to announce the expansion of the Firm with the addition of seven lawyers with a focus on cooperatives and condominiums, including partners, Bruce A. Cholst, Andrew B. Freedland, Deborah Koplovitz, Karol S. Robinson and Andrew J. Wagner, senior counsel, Peter I. Livingston and associate, Devin W. Ness. The team brings over 40 years of experience representing the boards of cooperatives and condominiums and management companies throughout the New York metropolitan area.
This addition strengthens Herrick’s existing deep and wide-ranging experience providing counsel to developers, lenders and investors in all types of affordable housing, condominium and shared ownership projects as well as related litigation and restructurings.
Chief Operating Partner, Barbaros Karaahmet states, “We are proud that the Firm continues to grow and attract such high-caliber talent. This highly respected and multi-disciplinary team will be a great additional resource for our clients.”
Belinda Schwartz, Chair of the Real Estate Department added, “Herrick is one of the few law firms in New York that offers the full suite of legal services to clients in the real estate industry, and this team is perfectly complementary to our strengths.”
“Herrick has a strong reputation in all aspects of real estate, especially litigation, bankruptcy and workouts. We are really looking forward to working with such distinguished colleagues,” said Deborah Koplovitz. She added, “We are thrilled to play an important role in the growth of the Firm.”
Bruce Cholst represents cooperative and condominium clients in complex sponsor defect and sponsor arrears litigation, shareholder controversies, commercial and residential nonpayment actions, foreclosure suits, vendor claims and board election disputes. He also counsels clients on corporate and governance issues and negotiates their commercial leases and management contracts.
Andrew Freedland focuses on the representation and counseling of condominiums, cooperatives, sponsors/developers, purchasers and sellers of commercial and residential real estate, and lenders. As part of his practice, he represents property owners and operators in a wide variety of transactional real estate related issues, including leasing, financing, acquisitions and sales. He is also counsel to numerous cooperative and condominium buildings throughout New York City.
Deborah Koplovitz concentrates her practice in real estate litigation and general representation of condominiums, cooperatives and sponsors. She handles construction issues and sponsor-defect cases, vendor disputes, corporate governance issues, foreclosure matters, commercial lease defaults, discrimination claims, hoarding cases, alteration disputes, lease and bylaw defaults and noise complaints. In addition to the specialized areas pertaining to cooperatives and condominiums, Deborah represents lenders in all aspects of loan default issues, and is also a passionate advocate for her clients in many areas of commercial litigation, such as legal malpractice prosecution and defense, civil rights issues, partnerships and business disputes and representation of foreign sovereigns and their heads of state.
Peter Livingston concentrates his practice in cooperative and condominium law, real estate and litigation. He has been retained by both the FDIC and RTC to represent their interests with respect to complex real estate foreclosure matters and related lender liability issues. He has represented cooperative corporations and condominium associations and their boards in both State and Federal Court litigation. Prior to joining Herrick, Peter founded the firm Rosen Livingston & Cholst.
Devin Ness concentrates his practice in real estate, litigation and cooperative and condominium law.
Karol Robinson practices cooperative, condominium and real estate law with a focus on affordable housing, nonprofit organizations and general transactional work. Karol has also been involved extensively in secured and unsecured financing transactions from both lender’s and borrower’s perspective. She also advises clients on compliance with various federal, state and city governmental housing agency regulations. In November 2020, Karol was the recipient of the Lawyers Alliance for New York’s 2020 Cornerstone Award, presented annually to individuals that have made extraordinary contributions through pro bono legal services.
Andrew Wagner has more than 20 years of experience in the industry and handles all areas of real estate litigation, including summary eviction proceedings, brokerage disputes, “Yellowstone” injunctions, foreclosure actions and creditor representation in bankruptcy proceedings. He has also successfully argued numerous appeals before the Appellate Term and Appellate Division, in both the First and Second Departments. His diverse clientele includes both institutional and family-owned property owners, cooperative and condominium boards, managing agents, individual co-op/condo owners, rent-regulated tenants and commercial tenants.
