With the right counsel, it turns out that you can squeeze blood from a stone, or at least from an intransigent landlord. In an extraordinary turn of events, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. managed to secure an early termination payment in the hundreds of thousands of dollars from the landlords of a foreclosed building in receivership who had previously pleaded poverty.

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s client, a prominent professional practice, had spent millions of dollars building out their space in a high-end Manhattan professional building. After more than 15 years in the space, and with more than four years remaining on their lease, our client’s landlord offered to pay a significant amount to accept early termination and vacate the space within two years. Our client accepted this offer and, without Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s involvement, executed an early termination agreement and stipulation allowing the landlord to pay the entire settlement on vacatur of the premises with no amounts due on signing or escrowed – despite the fact that the practice would have to begin making serious expenditures to secure and build out a new space in the interim with no assurance of payment at vacatur.

In a not-unfamiliar turn of events where a landlord is looking to vacate and speculatively sell a building with a mortgage, the landlord’s lender moved to foreclose on the building, and a receiver was assigned. Our client was rightly concerned about the status of its termination payment and engaged Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. to seek clarity from the landlord and receiver. Not unsurprisingly, the receiver quickly informed Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. that the landlord was unable to make numerous payments and our client would need to wait in the back of the line. This situation, of course, was unacceptable, and Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. spent many hours negotiating with the receiver to secure payment for equipment and furnishings worth hundreds of thousands of dollars that would be left in the space on vacatur and securing its assurance that the landlord would not try and charge our clients for remediating the space.

With these assurances, and the understanding that the landlord was still soliciting buyers for the building, our client vacated and Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. maintained constant communications with both the receiver and landlord concerning the space, vacated equipment and furnishings, and payment in the event the building was sold. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. ’s diligence paid off in spades for our client when the Landlord reaffirmed payment outside of the receivership – upon sale of the building – in exchange for a slight modification of terms in an agreement negotiated for our client by Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. This new agreement allowed our client to take immediate returns and avoid the costs of a lengthy litigation that it may never have secured any payment in light of the landlord’s numerous creditors. This agreement is yet another example of how Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. finds creative

solutions in the most challenging situations and finds money for our clients where others see only impediments.

Eric S. Askanase and Adam Leitman Bailey represented the vacating tenant in this matter.