A Teaching Law Firm - Pace and the Long Island Education Board

For the past 4 years, Lieb at Law, P.C. has continuously pushed the advantages of a teaching law firm, where attorneys are teaching at a New York State Licensed Real Estate School as they develop their careers. The belief has always been that teaching is the best way to learn and it forces attorney educators to know exactly what is happening on the cutting edge of our field. The model isn't original, but instead it is a replica of the medical model.

It seems law schools are catching on as Pace Law School has just launched a "Legal Residency Program" for entry level attorneys.

While the Pace Law School program is geared towards training new attorneys while they provide low cost legal services to the public, as their public statements represent, the Long Island Education Board, a division of Lieb at Law, P.C., is focused on Lieb at Law, P.C. attorneys becoming teachers themselves to achieve the highest level of client services. Therefore, two different aspects of the medical model are being replicated. Its theorized that a combination of the both; whats done in medical school, will be what ultimately results in the best results.

Congrats to Pace and their innovative approach. Your friends at the Long Island Education Board support this endeavor and will monitor your success. Best of luck.

The Empire has Fallen - Baum to Close

In a remarkable piece of news, foreclosure powerhouse, Steven J. Baum P.C. is closing. They have had a tough month first with their photographs mocking homelessness at their Halloween party to being kicked out of the Fannie / Freddie inner circle. Yet, this is a striking day in the history of the foreclosure crisis. Even the king of foreclosure is now homeless, Steven J. Baum P.C. is no more.

To read a NY Times Article, click here.

New York Supreme Court rules Court can continue to sell case information

The New York City Housing Court (“NYCHC”) maintains a database of every matter that passes through its court. “Okay…so what’s the problem with that?” you may ask. Well, a Landlord may obtain this information for a fee from one of the various organizations who purchase this information from the Court. This practice may result in prospective tenants being rejected and/or blacklisted for a housing application due to the Landlord’s perception that the prospective tenant is a “problem tenant” due to the tenant’s name surfacing in a search. However, an attorney has challenged this operation as it paints an incomplete and unfair picture with respect to prospective tenants.

For example, the information obtained does not include a tenant’s reasons behind filing or their ultimate disposition of the case. Meaning, even if the tenants were “in the right” for bringing and/or defending an action, the Landlord is not privy to this information. Instead, the Landlord merely ascertains that the prospective tenant has been a party (it does not even specify whether the tenant brought the action or is defending it) to a NYCHC action and may subsequently unfairly dismiss this tenant as problematic.

As of yesterday, the tenant in Whelan v. Lippman lost the bid to bar the Court System from selling this potentially harmful information to third-party companies by denying the tenant’s motion for a preliminary injunction. The underlying case concerning the “blacklisting” of tenants, however, was not dismissed. We will continue to monitor both the underlying case and any potential appeal of the related case. In the interim, be wary that your potential Landlord may utilize these services when reviewing your application.