Scramble for Bloomberg's top legal staff reveals competitive nature of real estate hiring in New York firms

According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, several legal members of outgoing New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg would be leaving the public service. Bloomberg is said to give way to incoming mayor Bill de Blasio.

Department of City Planning general counsel David Karnovsky for example, will be joining top law firm Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson after spending the last 15 years of his career at the city agency. Fried Frank is reportedly expecting Karnovsky to begin his career at the law firm in early March.

Karnovsky's new career path at Fried Frank would be complementary to his experience at the New York Department of City Planning, said WSJ. The real estate practice of the law firm has been built mainly by Jonathan Mechanic and is considered to be the largest in New York with 50 lawyers. The real estate arm of Fried Frank has big-named clients like Related Cos., Brookfield Office Properties and Park Tower Realty.

Karnovsky was reportedly also wooed by Kramer Levin LLP as the latter, Fried Frank and other law firms are regularly tapped by developers to help them through the labyrinthian tasks of working on government projects.

Bloomberg said that the city government would be the first choice of law firms to seek top-rated talent in real estate law. However, law firms needed to comply with rules wherein the former public servants should not exercise undue influence. Moreover, lawyers after their public career stints are not allowed to conduct work with their former employer for a year or from working on any issue that they have a personal involvement with during their time in public service for a lifetime.

Nonetheless, recruitment for top lawyers who are experts in real estate is an appeal that law firms do not intend to let go at the moment, as development business had been picking up. According to Real Capital Analytics, land sales in the New York area increase 75% in 2013 as compared to sales the previous year.

Tags

New York City, Department of City Planning, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Bill De Blasio, Department of City Planning general counsel David Karnovsky, Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson

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