Adam Leitman Bailey is an American lawyer who practices residential and commercial real estate law as founder of Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. He has engaged in several notable legal cases.
The
Martindale-Hubbell
Martindale-Hubbell is an information services company to the legal profession that was founded in 1868. The company publishes the ''Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory'', which provides background information on lawyers and law firms in the United S ...
peer review system gave Bailey an AV rating, its highest category.
Background
Bailey was born in
Bayside, Queens
Bayside is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens. It is bounded by Whitestone to the northwest, the Long Island Sound and Little Neck Bay to the northeast, Douglaston to the east, Oakland Gardens to the south, and Fresh Meadows ...
. He moved to California at age five and later moved back to
New Milford, New Jersey
New Milford is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough's population was 16,341,New Milford High School. He graduated with honors from
Rutgers University
Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...
and
Syracuse University College of Law
Syracuse University College of Law (SUCOL) is a Juris Doctor degree-granting law school of Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York. It is one of only four law schools in upstate New York. Syracuse was accredited by the American Bar Association ...
.
Notable cases
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. 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.
Park51
Park51 (originally named Cordoba House) is a development originally envisioned as a 13-story Islamic community center and mosque in Lower Manhattan, New York City. The developers hoped to promote an interfaith dialogue within the greater comm ...
was a planned Muslim community center located near the site of the
World Trade Center
World Trade Centers are sites recognized by the World Trade Centers Association.
World Trade Center may refer to:
Buildings
* List of World Trade Centers
* World Trade Center (2001–present), a building complex that includes five skyscrapers, a ...
. Timothy Brown, a former firefighter, sued to prevent construction of the community center so close to the site of the
September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...
. Bailey represented the community center on a pro bono basis, and in July 2011 the
New York Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the trial-level court of general jurisdiction in the New York State Unified Court System. (Its Appellate Division is also the highest intermediate appellate court.) It is vested with unlimited civ ...
held that Park51 would be permitted to build its proposed center.
Trump SoHo
The Dominick, formerly the Trump SoHo, is a $450 million, 46-story, 391-unit hotel condominium located at 246 Spring Street at the corner of Varick Street in the Hudson Square neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It was announced in 2006, c ...
New York is a $450 million 46-story 391-unit
hotel condominium
A condo hotel, also known as a condotel, hotel condo or a contel, is a building which is legally a condominium but which is operated as a hotel, offering short term rentals, and which maintains a front desk.
Condo hotels are typically high-rise ...
in
SoHo
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century.
The area was develop ...
, New York City. In February 2011, several prospective buyers of condominiums in the building, including French soccer star
Olivier Dacourt
Olivier Yohan Dacourt (born 25 September 1974) is a French former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He is also a former French international and is best known for his spells at English side Leeds United and Italian clubs Roma a ...
, 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. Ultimately the suit was settled, with plaintiffs recovering 90 per cent of their deposits. Several years later, however, the case has been described as "a watershed case in the world of condo litigation. * * * ndo 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.”
Following the financial crisis of 2007-08, Bailey used the
Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act of 1968 The Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act of 1968 (ILSFDA or ILSA or "Act") was an act of Congress passed in 1968 to facilitate regulation of interstate land sales, to protect consumers from fraud and abuse in the sale or lease of land. The Act ...
, known as ("ILSA"), to relieve purchasers in Sky View Parc, a $1 billion condominium complex in Queens, of their contractual obligations to purchase, and in so doing was able to obtain the largest residential condominium settlement in New York history. The condominium was ordered to refund 75 per cent of the $5 million in down payments to the buyers who ended up backing out of the $50 million project.
Bailey has been credited with being the first lawyer to use the law in this fashion, 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.
Congress later closed the ILSA loophole with
Public Law 113-167
(formerly the bill ), a United States public law, that is entitled "to amend the Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act to clarify how the Act applies to condominiums," is a bill that was introduced into the United States House of Representati ...
, which provides an exemption for condominiums from ILSA's registration requirements for all new construction after enactment.
Bailey has been described as a controversial figure in NYC real estate.
Suspension of law license
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. The suspension ended in September, 2019, and Bailey was able to return to the practice of law.
Author
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.
Bailey has also written a children’s book, ''Home'', which was named as a Silver winner in the category Picture Book/Early Reader by Literary Classics.
Honors
Bailey was named one of New York's Top Real Estate litigators by
Chambers & Partners
Chambers and Partners (often noted elsewhere as Chambers & Partners) produces international rankings for the legal industry, which is headquartered in London, United Kingdom.
Orbach and Chambers
Orbach and Chambers Publishing Limited was founded ...
in 2021
Bailey was named one of New York’s "Most Powerful Real Estate Attorneys" by the
Commercial Observer
Observer Media is an American online media company. The company was formed through several acquisitions, including acquisition of ''The New York Observer'' in 2007. Observer Media is based in Lower Manhattan, New York City, and was owned by busi ...