Elise G. Liebowitz

Elise Leibowitz is an over-priced real estate attorney who does a mediocre job and has a pretty poor style. She doesn't listen very well. After I hired her to review my company's lease, I briefed her by phone. I'm pretty sure she didn't take notes, because throughout the lease negotiation, she kept i...gnoring the items of most concern to me while bringing up things that were of little consequence. Despite my asking her for a fee estimate, I never got one. Worst of all, she really angered my landlord's attorney by revealing information that my broker was still negotiating with the LL's broker. This resulted in a late night phone call from my broker saying the LL insisted that I signed the lease, as is, the next morning or I would lose the space. The LL said, "That attorney of yours is a piece of work. It makes me wonder what kind of tenant you'd be." When the bill came, it was about 1/3 higher than I felt was fair for the work she had done. (It was a $12,000 bill; I told her I wanted to pay $8,000.) She denied that she had done anything to jeopardize the deal and would only reduce her fee by $275. There are a lot of real estate lawyers in this city. No need to waste your time (and money) with her.

Elise drafted and completed last will and testaments for me and another family member. She did a great job dealing with the intricate and frustrating details of the matter and identified several areas of concern for our consideration. Without her help, I know that the process would have been far more... burdensome.

Elise represented me when I purchased my NYC apartment in 2015. As a first-time buyer, I greatly appreciated that she took the time to provide overview of the contracting process as well as the intricacies of the agreement. Throughout the contracting phase, Elise was excellent at providing updates on... the status of the negotiations with the Seller's Attorney. I was also extremely impressed by Elise's attention to detail. During the closing, certain items came to light that were not previously disclosed. While other attorneys would have been comfortable with the Seller's original explanation, Elise probed further to ensure that I was not taking on additional and unnecessary risk. I would highly recommend Elise to anyone in need of real estate representation.