Gary S Lachman

Biography

Gary S. Lachman was raised in Scarsdale, New York, before moving to North Carolina to attend college at Duke University. Upon graduation, he continued his education at University of Denver College of Law where he received his Juris Doctorate. He remained in Denver and practiced real estate law there until 2006. Opportunity presented a move to the Washington D.C. area where Mr. Lachman developed Lake Arbor, one of the first large-scale master planned communities in suburban D.C. Originally planned by the son of William Levitt, developer of Levittown on Long Island, New York, Lachman re-positioned the dormant project originally called "Newbridge" into a haven for successful upwardly mobile young families. An award-winning community shopping center, a dramatic high-rise apartment building, a championship 18-hole golf course, and extensive recreational facilities to attract he thousands of upscale homes built by national builders such as Ryland, Ryan, Pulte, Winchester, and US Homes. Upon completion, Mr. Lachman re-entered the community building high-quality single-family homes. His company, Thoroughbred Homes, built many high-end production and luxury custom homes in the Washington, DC suburbs from 1991 - 1997. As a private developer he developed over 50 million square feet of residential land and buildings.

Mr. Lachman accepted a position with the U.S. Department of State as International Real Estate Portfolio Manager and leader of the New Embassies and Consulates group at the Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations. He negotiated and managed the development of projects above €800 million globally and was responsible for the negotiation and acquisition of 40 new embassies and consulates worldwide. He is remembered at the State Department for, among other things, his interesting approach to international negotiation. In one former Soviet state, he negotiated the acquisition of a crucial security setback property in exchange for a Barbie doll and a Tonka truck.

Lachman spent 2006 - 2014 practicing international law with a focus on mergers and acquisitions in Istanbul, Turkey. He represented a number of US public companies traded on the NYSE and NASDAQ in connection with their establishment of subsidiaries in Turkey and entering into joint ventures with Turkish companies. In the course of his law practice, he became an expert on the advantages of situating foreign companies in Turkish Free Trade Zones.

Mr. Lachman served as an associate professor of International Real Estate at the Johns Hopkins University, Edward St. John real estate program at the Carey Business School [1] teaching a graduate level course in International Real Estate Investment and Development in Emerging Markets. He also taught business communication and law classes at Koç University in Istanbul [2] and was a lecturer on cross cultural communication and negotiation in the College of Business Administration at Kuwait University. For a number of years, Mr. Lachman taught a seminar on negotiation techniques at The Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland for their American Law program. [3] as well as serving as an International Real Estate Consultant to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Government of the Republic of Poland. He assisted with their acquisitions and disposals of diplomatic facilities in the U.S. and throughout the world.

In addition to business, Mr. Lachman was an avid and nationally ranked polo player. In 1980, he founded the Perkins Shearer/Denver Symphony Annual Polo Cup in connection with his tenure as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Denver Symphony Orchestra. Lachman organized and played in what originated as a single match and grew into an annual tournament that raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Denver Symphony Orchestra. Unbeknownst to its current organizers, this event grew into what is now called the Denver Polo Classic, a major fundraiser for children's’ charities.[4] Lachman maintains solid ties to Duke University, having served on several of the Advisory Boards, including the Board of Visitors of the Duke University Medical Center, the Duke Heart Board, and the Duke Eye Center [5]. He combines his involvement with Duke and his teaching background with Johns Hopkins 2000–2006 by providing college counseling to foreign students wishing to attend university in the United States. Gary is currently continuing his support of classical music by serving on the Board of Trustees of The Palm Beach Symphony.

Gary Lachman is Of Counsel in Greenspoon Marder's West Palm Beach, Florida office [www.gmlaw.com] where he works as the senior real estate and M&A lawyer. Mr. Lachman has enjoyed a 30-year distinguished career as an international attorney combined with vast experience related to entity and transactional structuring. His practice focuses on international mergers & acquisitions, asset protection, and real estate law.

Lachman was a contributing journalist for the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review with weekly columns – "The Consultant's Corner" and "The Law Office" - and is the author of the book Real Estate Investment, Development, and Law in Emerging Markets originally published by PEI Media. Lachman has also written a book on a more personal subject. A cancer survivor himself, he wrote the book, Beating the Alternative (Amazon, 2010) to reflect upon and communicate the lessons learned from this experience. Gary donates the profits from this book to colon cancer research, and provides some of the leading cancer institutions with free copies to distribute to their patients. This book is one of the few resources that provides cancer patients with a "no holds barred" account of what to expect during treatment and the absolute necessity for being your own best advocate. Gary Lachman is currently working on his fifth novel. Titled "FRIENDSHIPPING", it is the story of a man who finds himself through the love of his friends from all over the world.

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