Squeezing Developers For Lucrative Payouts On Behalf Of Rent-Regulated Tenants Asked To Vacate Their Apartments All In A Day's Work For NYC Tenant's Lawyer; 'Trumping' Current Republican Presidential Candidate Among His Earliest Conquests

A recent story in Crain's New York Business featured New York City lawyer David Rosenholc and the role he recently played in scoring a $25 million payday on behalf of two holdout tenant/clients in exchange for their agreement to vacate their apartment and allow for a big real estate developer to move forward on a major redevelopment project.

• [T]ishman Speyer made the prudent choice. It settled—and in the process made one of the biggest payouts ever to tenants who refused to give up their apartments. Of course, the two holdouts didn’t get all the money. Their attorney, David Rozenholc, walked away with a third of the sum.
  
  Although the $25 million settlement was just an unknown footnote in a much bigger real estate transaction, it shows how lawyers are able to use the state’s court system to extract multimillion-dollar paydays for tenants who block development.
  
  Mr. Rozenholc, who has spent the past 40 years defending renters and negotiating huge settlements for them, is widely regarded as the king of this area of law.
  
  “He’s the most feared tenant attorney with respect to development sites,” said Ben Shaoul, a major residential developer. “I don’t think he has ever lost a case.”
  
  In the world of real estate, where developers must rush to build projects in time to capitalize on sunny economic conditions before a downturn, lawyers like Mr. Rozenholc don’t need to actually win in court to triumph. Instead, victory can come by simply forcing lengthy delays.
  
  Developers, faced with having to slug it out in front of a judge for months or even years, often drop cases or pay up, even if they think they can win in the long run.
  
  That’s especially true now. With developers shelling out more cash than ever for parcels, setbacks are costlier than ever, and exorbitant tenant buyouts are increasingly viewed as the price of doing business in New York. Which is why Mr. Rozenholc believes the astronomical settlements will only get bigger.
  
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  Mr. Rozenholc disputes the notion that he’s doing anything unethical. He insists that it is landlords, not tenants, who have the upper hand in court and that he must use every approach at his disposal to even the playing field.
  
  “If General Motors is in a lawsuit, they hire the best lawyer, who raises every single legal argument he can,” he said. “But when you do it for the underdog, people complain.”
  
  
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  One of his earliest victories came over self-proclaimed perpetual winner Donald Trump. Mr. Trump spent five years in the 1980s trying to empty out 100 Central Park South, tear it down and build a luxury condo tower on the site. Instead, Mr. Rozenholc blocked the evictions, and Mr. Trump was forced to take a consolation prize, converting the building’s unoccupied apartments to luxury dwellings. The case, which ended in 1986, sent a highly prominent message to landlords that they would not be able to steamroll Mr. Rozenholc in court.
  
  Mr. Rozenholc hit a career apex in the mid-2000s, when he secured $17 million and a $1-per-month luxury apartment for life for a holdout tenant to leave the Mayflower Hotel, which was being demolished to make way for 15 Central Park West. The case is thought to be the biggest-ever payout to a ­single tenant.
  
  “I like to win,” Mr. Rozenholc said. “Winning was more important to me than making money. And that’s why I have made a lot of money.”

For more on who some consider the king of  tenant's attorneys in New York City, see Meet the lawyer who has become the most feared tenant attorney in New York. David Rozenholc is only getting started (Developer pays two tenants $25 million to vacate their apartments).