Head of AG’s real estate finance bureau to join Stroock

“The only thing better than preserving affordable housing… is building it”: Erica Buckley

Erica Buckley to join Stroock & Stroock
Erica Buckley to join Stroock & Stroock

After eight years of public service, the head of the New York State Attorney General’s Real Estate Finance Bureau is making a move to the private sector.

Erica Buckley will join the real estate and government relations practices at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan’s New York office.

The 42-year-old has been with the attorney general’s office for eight years and in 2013 was made chief of the 45-person Real Estate Finance Bureau, which enforces a state law regulating the offer and sale of both co-ops and condominiums. The bureau also focused on affordable housing and monitored landlords and developers receiving 421-a abatements.

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For two years, the office investigated alleged landlord violations of 421a that resulted in 18 settlements with landlords. The landlords agreed to pay more than $5 million into New York City’s Affordable Housing – AG Settlement Fund, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Buckley will focus on the co-op and condo practice at Stroock, and she told the Journal she hopes her background will help developers navigate a complicated regulatory system.

“The only thing better than preserving affordable housing…is building it,” she told the Journal. [WSJ]Dusica Sue Malesevic