Black Spruce Management Josh Gotlib Discovers Secret Recording

Landlord Josh Gotlib says a “secret recording” made by his partner’s widow debunks her accusation that she was tricked into signing over her late husband’s interests in their real estate business.

Natalia Legg — the widow of Black Spruce co-founder Oliver Legg — sued Gotlib and his company Black Spruce Management in 2023 claiming that Gotlib tricked her into signing transfer agreements handing over her husband’s shares.

Oliver Legg died of cancer in May 2015 at the age of 43. Following his death, Natalia was planning to return to Switzerland with her daughter to live there. At that point, she claimed, Gotlib took over control of Black Spruce and the family trust where Oliver had placed his membership interests for the benefit of his wife and daughter.

Natalia said Gotlib told her that the assets in the trust were losing money, and that as a fiduciary he wanted to move them out of the trust. But she claimed that he actually wanted to move them to benefit himself.

She said he invited her to dinner to sign transfer agreements to ratify the move.

“Shortly before Natalia left New York, Gotlib invited Natalia to dinner at his home. Casually, Gotlib produced the transfer agreements and told Natalia that she needed to sign them before she left New York with her daughter only shortly thereafter,” her attorneys wrote in her complaint. “Seizing on Natalia’s vulnerability, Gotlib employed deception and false reassurance to trick Natalia into quickly signing the transfer agreements.”

Natalia said she had no knowledge of the transfer agreements before the dinner. But now Gotlib says that Natalia was fully aware of what she was signing, and he says that he has proof.

In a new filing, Gotlib’s attorneys say that in discovery they obtained a “secret recording” Natalia made at the office of her lawyers at Kramer Levin in May 2015. The recording shows, he claims, that Natalia’s attorneys explained to her that Oliver had agreed that Gotlib would take over management of the money-losing assets.

“For this particular assignment [Gotlib] is going to have me, my firm, draw up the necessary agreements to commemorate what he and Oliver had agreed to because then we’re reducing it to writing, because he needs that to administer the trust properly,” the recording said. “So that’s why that’s happening.”

Gotlib said that the recording shows that Legg’s central argument — that Gotlib lied and tricked her at a dinner — is wrong. He also says that since she was aware of the agreements in 2015, the time to file a lawsuit under the statute of limitations has expired.

Gotlib filed a motion to have the case thrown out.

One of Natalia’s attorneys, Nate Goralnik from Quinn Emanuel, disputed Gotlib’s interpretation of the recording. He said that the case belongs in arbitration, and that Gotlib’s motion was a ploy to try and divert the case back into court and into the public eye.

“The whole motion reeks of an attempt to make this about what the lawyers did or what they should have done, instead of what the case is about,” he said.

But Gotlib attorney Todd Soloway of Pryor Cashman said that Natlia put the issue in the court when she filed her lawsuit.

“The case would’ve never seen the light of day but for the misstatements made to the court about Natalia Legg’s awareness of the transactions that were being effectuated,” he said. “The secret recording proves that.”

Black Spruce is one of the largest multifamily landlords in Manhattan. The company seemingly came out of nowhere in 2021 when it made headlines for buying the American Copper Buildings for $850 million.

Gotlib followed that up with a deal to buy a portfolio of apartment buildings from the family of the late Sheldon Solow for $1.75 billion in partnership with Meyer Orbach.

Gotlib and Orbach just recently sold a stake in some of the properties to Scott Rechler’s RXR in a deal valuing the buildings at $435 million.