Company of the Month: Through creative innovation and hard work Romer Debbas LLP is growing and expanding

Romer Debbas, LLP recently acquired a seven attorney group from the former firm of Hofheimer, Gartlir & Gross, LLP. The attorneys joining the firm include partners Louis Sherman, Sharon Zimmer and Peter Reiter; counsel Robert Howard and Suzanne Wismer; and of counsel Arthur Michaelson and Jules Levy. Five of the seven attorneys focus on new development projects, commercial leasing, transactions and finance, while two focus on trusts and estates and tax. Romer Debbas, LLP was founded by good friends and partners Michael Romer and Pierre Debbas in January of 2011. Romer and Debbas had met as associates in the real estate department of Kane Kessler, P.C. several years prior and had always dreamt of forming their own firm. After their time as associates, Romer had joined a 150 attorney national law firm as a partner to run its real estate department. Debbas had decided to start his own solo practice at the age of 29 and explore what it was like to have his own firm. After less than a year of being a solo practitioner, Debbas was able to convince Romer that the timing was ripe to pursue their dream and form Romer Debbas, LLP. When the two friends formed the firm, they had a goal of creating a unique real estate boutique law firm that specializes in all transactional elements of residential and commercial real estate. The firm's practice primarily focused on the representation of buyers and sellers of residential and commercial properties as well as several of the country's largest lenders in their residential and commercial real estate lending activities. The firm started with three lawyers and one paralegal. With the firm's expansion over the years and its recent acquisition the firm now consists of 15 attorneys and 10 support staff. In its goal to specialize in all transactional elements of commercial and residential real estate, the firm has added practice areas focused on commercial leasing in representing a number of Fortune 500 companies, several real estate developers in their condominium conversion and rental projects, several co-op and condo boards as general counsel as well as additional commercial lending institutions. The firm also has complimentary practice areas of trust and estates, tax law and immigration law. These areas help the firm in assisting their real estate clientele as well as giving them a competitive advantage in their active representation of foreign national investors. As the landscape of the legal profession has changed over the recent years, the firm structured itself to be very competitive in today's market in its business model. The firm surveyed its competition and noticed that most of the firms servicing their target clientele were either large firms or much smaller firms. There were very few firms in the city of the current size of Romer Debbas, LLP which have such a broad focus on New York City real estate. Our market is the strongest in the country and most of the world and with that comes very unique and complicated aspects for navigating our real estate market. With this in mind, the firm has strategically added several key components and attorneys to its practice. The first year of the firm's operations had only Romer, Debbas and their associate Michael Feldman. In its second year of business, the firm added partners Matthew Melnick and Guy Arad. The firm had encountered several transactions over the years with Melnick and Arad on the other side of the table and saw them as significant pieces to build towards its goal. Through this core, the firm continued to expand its practice areas and client base while at the same time creating a very hard working yet friendly environment where people like coming to work every day. The firm hopes to grow and expand upon its current platform and is very pleased to welcome its recent additions. Romer Debbas, LLP is grateful for its trusted and loyal referral sources and long standing clients for all of their support in helping with the firm's success.