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…
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.
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…
Residential Building Laws of the COVID-19 Pandemic
Adam Leitman Bailey and John Desiderio look at the short and long-term legal implications and issues affecting residential living during COVID-19 pandemic. By Adam Leitman Bailey and John M. Desiderio | June 09, 2020 The COVID-19 pandemic has confronted building owners, managers and boards of New York City rental, condominium, and cooperative-owned buildings with operational challenges that few, Full Article…
Adverse Possession and Tenancies in Common
Adam Leitman Bailey and John M. Desiderio*, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C., New York, NY The law of adverse possession is deeply rooted in the common law and its elements are generally well-known to practitioners. However, adverse possession rules, as applied to tenancies in common, are less often encountered by practitioners, and the statutory language itself Full Article…
Preparing Practitioners for the Next Disasters
By Adam Leitman Bailey, Dov Treiman and John Desiderio This article gives practical advice to lawyers to help their business clients and building owner clients best prepare for the effects of catastrophic disasters, natural and man-made. Introduction In the United States of America, the number of natural disasters has gradually increased. Most of the costliest Full Article…
Q&A: Unexplained Repair Fees
Q. My sister lived in Co-Op City in the Bronx. She passed away in July 2017, and I became voluntary executor of her estate. She kept this apartment spotless, and did not make any changes, except adding a light shine-coat to the living room floor. When the inspector went to check apartment and we did the Full Article…