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Is it common practice that a co-op attorney is appointed as a director/board of director too?
Wouldn’t that be a conflict?
Also is it appropriate for the attorney to use the director title when it works for him?
One time he sent a letter to someone in our building and didn’t sign it besides listing himself as the director of co-op and not attorney..,,why if he’s our attorney?
I know the board members were OK with this but to me its odd.
Have you ever heard of this before though?
He’s a non voting board member but I still think it’s odd and to me inappropriate.
I fully agree with Carl from my own experience. For a number of years, one of our board members was also the co-op's attorney of record. This was done in the guise of "saving the co-op money".
On occasion, this caused serious disagreements between he and I due to his conflict of interest. As a board member he had a fiduciary responsibility to the Co-op Corp and its shareholders. But as the co-op's "attorney" he would render legal opinions that favored his side of a disagreement, even when demonstrably wrong. It was uncomfortable and messy.
I'm not sure I understand the significance of being a "non-voting board member". If he can't vote, what is he purpose on the board?
Your co-op's attorney should be completely independent of any connections to the Co-op. He should not be a board member voting or otherwise, he should not be a shareholder, he should not have any family relationship to a shareholder, nothing.
It’s so bizarre because I grew up in a house and work in NYC and just can’t believe all the made up rules/situations. It’s all so loosey goosey. You have people on a board who know nothing about a building and especially the structure and they make decisions.
A common practice for practicality. He can sign documents for convenience sake when sending them on a round trip to the Board is a waste of time and energy.
I still don’t like that. It’s our home and we need to control it and the President or VP should sign documents.
Yes, it's almost like real life! In business you think every board director knows all about structures or anything else about running a company? That's why it's useful to have an engineer on the board if possible to bring some experience to the table.
Unfortunately what I see is that they don’t know anything and think they do and make expensive mistakes.
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I don't like the idea of the co-op's attorney of record being on the Board of Directors. If this person is also a shareholder, there's an obvious conflict of interest. How do you plan to move forward with legal action against this shareholder if a problem arises? And even if the attorney/director is not a shareholder, it's still problematic. They'd need to recuse themselves from voting on whether to engage their services. Otherwise, there's a business conflict of interest. "Do we need to replace light bulbs that burn out? Better call the co-op's attorney for a consultation!"
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