The World of Co-op and Condo Law Keeps Changing

Change keeps coming to the world of New York City co-op and condo law. In the latest reconfiguration of the landscape, the St. Louis-based firm of Armstrong Teasdale has opened a New York office and staffed it with 16 real estate attorneys who once worked at Montgomery McCracken Walker & Rhoads. 

Joining the new Armstrong Teasdale office here are partners Andrew Brucker, Jeffery Dayon, Saul Mishaan, Charles Palella, Isaac Saufer, Howard Schechter, Julie Schechter, and Phyllis Weisberg. They have decades of combined experience in cooperative and condominium law, leasing and real estate transactions, trusts and estates, and commercial litigation. Eight associates and additional staff members will also join the firm. 

“We saw an interesting opportunity to join a large firm that had no presence in New York,” says Brucker, who has been practicing real estate law for more than 35 years. “What we presented to Armstrong Teasdale was that they could start an office with a group of co-op and condo and real estate lawyers. And they have interesting plans for expanding.” 

Armstrong Teasdale employs 240 lawyers in offices in St. Louis, Kansas City, Denver, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, and Jefferson City, Missouri. Richard Scheff, an Armstrong Teasdale partner who runs the firm’s Philadelphia office, will also oversee the New York office. “This is a brand new venture, and it’s very exciting for me,” Scheff says. “It was my mission to open the Philadelphia and New York offices and explore other opportunities in the East. New York City is a place of tremendous diversity and tremendous opportunity. The lawyers we’ve brought in are the people you want if you’re going to be in New York.” 

“Personally, it’s exciting,” adds Brucker. “We’re like family, and we feel energized.”