Adam Leitman Bailey

Background

Bailey was born in Bayside, Queens. He moved to California at age five and later moved back to New Milford, New Jersey, where he graduated from New Milford High School. He graduated with honors from Rutgers University and Syracuse University College of Law.

Notable cases

In 2008, Bailey formed a non-profit entity known as "Save Harlem" to challenge certain zoning changes being proposed by the City of New York, and to serve as lead plaintiff in a challenge to the proposed demolition of a two-story building at 125th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard, and the development of the site as a shopping center. Bailey proposed legislation that would prevent the demolition. Early in 2008, Save Harlem, along with several building tenants (forming a group known as the Coalition to Save Harlem) sued, eventually settling for more than $1 million and gaining the right of the tenants to remain in the building.

Park51 was a planned Muslim community center located near the site of the World Trade Center. Timothy Brown, a former firefighter, sued to prevent construction of the community center so close to the site of the September 11 attacks. Bailey represented the community center on a pro bono basis, and in July 2011 the New York Supreme Court held that Park51 would be permitted to build its proposed center.

Trump SoHo New York is a $450 million 46-story 391-unit hotel condominium in SoHo, New York City. In February 2011, several prospective buyers of condominiums in the building, including French soccer star Olivier Dacourt, sued the developers in federal court, claiming that they had been tricked into buying the condos by the "deceptive" sales figures, and that the number of apartments sold at Trump Soho had been "fraudulently misrepresented." The plaintiffs were represented by Bailey. Ultimately the suit was settled, with plaintiffs recovering 90 per cent of their deposits.

Following the financial crisis of 2007-08, Bailey successfully used the Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act of 1968, known as ("ILSA"), to relieve purchasers in Sky View Parc, a $1 billion condominium complex in Queens, of their contractual obligations to purchase, and in so doing was able to obtain the largest residential condominium settlement in New York history. The condominium was ordered to refund 75 per cent of the $5 million in down payments to the buyers who ended up backing out of the $50 million project. Bailey has been credited with being the first lawyer to use the law in this fashion, and he employed the same approach in a later case in a successful appeal of an adverse trial court decision to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Congress later closed the ILSA loophole with Public Law 113-167, which provides an exemption for condominiums from ILSA's registration requirements for all new construction after enactment.

Bailey has been described as a controversial figure in NYC real estate.

Lawsuit Against Bailey

In 2017, Bailey was sued for $25 million by a tenant of a building whose owner had been represented by Bailey. The tenant accuses Bailey of malpractice and claims to have a recording of Bailey threatening him.

Author

In 2011, Bailey wrote Finding The Uncommon Deal: A Top New York Lawyer Explains How to Buy a Home for the Lowest Possible Price. The book gained Bailey the 2012 "First Time Author" award granted by the National Association of Real Estate Editors.

Honors

Bailey was named one of New York’s "Most Powerful Real Estate Attorneys" by the Commercial Observer in 2015.