Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. represented owners of a Manhattan cooperative apartment who contracted in June 2021 to sell the apartment to sophisticated buyers, securing a standard 10% deposit on signing. The purchase contract contained standard terms, including an unconditional approval from the sellers’ co-op board. The apartment in question had previously been outfitted with central A/C and Full Article…
About John Desiderio
John M. Desiderio, Partner and Chair of the Real Estate Litigation Practice Group, has been a practicing attorney in New York City for over forty years. His practice is concentrated in cooperative/condominium representation, real estate litigation, title litigation, mortgage foreclosures, and counseling in antitrust and trade regulation matters.
John M. Desiderio is rated by Martindale-Hubbell as “AV Preeminent” signifying the “Highest Possible Rating in Both Legal Ability and Ethical Standards.” Mr. Desiderio has been rated “AV Preeminent” by Martindale-Hubbell for over 30 years and has been named a Super Lawyer in the New York Metro Area.
Mr. Desiderio received his A.B. degree from Fordham University in 1963, an LL.B. degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1966, and an LL.M. degree from New York University School of Law in 1969. He served as a Captain in U.S. Army Intelligence from 1966 to 1968.
From 1969 to 1980, Mr. Desiderio was an Assistant New York State Attorney General under Attorneys General Louis Lefkowitz and Robert Abrams, and from 1972 to 1980 he served as Chief of the Attorney General’s Anti-Monopolies (now Antitrust) Bureau. He entered private practice in 1981 and represented clients in antitrust, Civil Rico, real estate, and general civil litigation. From 1989 to February 1999, he was a member of a prestigious litigation firm.
He has extensive experience in conducting and defending depositions and in conducting trials and arguing appeals in both New York State and federal courts.
Mr. Desiderio has extensive litigation experience in representing both landlords and tenants in commercial and residential real estate litigation. His cases in this area have involved issues relating to ownership of title to property, the right to enforce contracts of sale, landlord obligations to furnish habitable dwellings, tenant obligations to meet conditions of their tenancy, and the applicability of common law and statutory warranties to newly constructed or converted condominium and cooperative apartments. Mr. Desiderio also leads the firm’s American with Disabilities Act defense practice.
The “Irreparable Harm” Conundrum in Obtaining a Preliminary Injunction
Situations arise every day requiring attorneys to commence an action seeking court intervention to obtain immediate provisional relief, “respecting the subject of the action,” to protect a client against actions, in violation of the client’s rights, by a person, who is either threatening, about to do, doing, or procuring or suffering to be done, actions, Full Article…
The Surfside Condo Collapse: Lessons for New York
The disastrous collapse in Surfside, Florida of the 40-year-old Champlain Towers South condominium tower should set off alarm bells in New York City, wherein it is estimated there presently are more than 1 million buildings, many of which are more than 100 years old, including several in Manhattan that were converted to cooperative apartment buildings Full Article…
Another Hard Fought Victory by Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. for a Townhouse Developer under RPAPL § 881: By Digging In and Investigating and Uncovering an Insurmountable Amount of Evidence, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Gave the Court Only One Path To Follow
In RLM TH LLC v. 162 East 70th Street Trust LLC, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. succeeded in a Real Property Actions and Proceedings Law (“RPAPL”) § 881 proceeding commenced against a neighboring homeowner, after Respondent refused to negotiate in good faith with Petitioner concerning, inter alia, construction on a shared party wall between Petitioner’s and Respondent’s townhouses on Full Article…
Co-op and Condo Owners’ Right To Inspect: An Update
With orders to stay indoors, and residents working at home and boards tasked with deciding on how to run their buildings making important decisions on how to avoid spreading the deadly virus, heightened tensions and heated moments between shareholders and owners and their boards naturally reached new levels. One of the tools used to engage Full Article…
Adam Leitman Bailey Defeats Neighbor’s Attempt for Restraining Order Halting Construction in the Name of Adverse Possession
Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. recently defeated an emergency motion for a temporary restraining order by a neighbor seeking to permanently enjoin Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s client, a Westchester developer, from any construction on a new subdivision adjoining the neighbor’s property. The proposed action, brought by Order to Show Cause, in an attempt to blackmail the Full Article…
Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Obtains Complete Agreement Between Landlord, Commercial Tenant, and Landlord Shareholders to Resolve Dispute Over Lease Renewal and Negotiation of a New Rent Schedule
In 2017, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. was approached by the President of a Landlord close corporation, whose shareholders (including the president) are all cousins, to assist in negotiating a new lease with the present Tenant of an 18 story building in mid-Manhattan, whose management had missed the deadline for exercising the Tenant’s right to renew Full Article…
How to evict commercial tenants in 2021 despite the moratorium
By Adam Leitman Bailey and John M. Desiderio This article addresses and updates the law 15 years later on the self-help remedy that enables commercial landlords to regain possession of leased premises from tenants in material breach of one or more lease covenants. As demonstrated below, courts continue to enforce its proper use, as it Full Article…