Real estate lawyer Adam Leitman Bailey has gone up against some of the city’s biggest
builders and in the process emerged as one of the most controversial figures in the industry
Adam Leitman Bailey
From the June issue: No one ever accused Adam Leitman Bailey of having low self-esteem. “I think we may be the best real estate law firm of our time,” he says on a recent Monday morning, in a corner office at 120 Broadway with framed newspaper clippings about his eponymous firm on the wall. At a table across the room, a summer intern uses a pen to edit the last chapter of his book, “The Insider’s Guide to Buying a Home and Making Money in Real Estate,” which is currently being shopped to editors.
Forty-year-old Bailey is constantly in motion. “I have more energy than any human I’ve ever met,” he says, toggling between the three computer screens on his desk.
The phone rings.
In the rapid-fire staccato that developers all over the city have come to dread, Bailey tells a client: “I needed that engineer’s report yesterday… I think you’re going to lose your case now. Good luck with that.”
He hangs up. “Tough love,” he says. “We treat every case like the end of the world. Like if you lose, you’ll be put to death.” [more]
