2016 Women in Real Estate: Megan Gillen

Name: Megan Gillen

Title: Member/Partner

Firm: Bond, Schoeneck and King PLLC

Email: [email protected]

Years in real estate: 17 years

Phone: (516) 267-6313

How did you get your start?

Commercial and residential clients of the firm

What recent project or transaction are you most proud of?

A recent transaction involved the purchase of an abandoned restaurant on the brink of tax lien foreclosure with complex financing arrangements, a dedication of a roadbed the town didn’t actually own (only discovered after the dedication), a rather complicated first-time hook-up to the waste disposal across town, a Hatfield and McCoy dispute with a neighbor over a right-of-way; SLA problems; myriad title issues and a raccoon infestation!  Transactions that begin with so many moving parts are much like solving a Saturday New York Times crossword puzzle–you start by solving “easy ones,” then things get tough and you’re unsure it will ever be completed. But you plug away, one step at a time, letting things percolate until the solution rises to the surface. It always does.  In the end, you’re left with a unified whole and a strong sense of satisfaction, which is how I felt when I left that closing! 

Who or what has been the strongest influence on your career and why? 

That is a tie between my 92-year old father who encouraged me throughout my life to spend my career doing something I loved because it would never feel like work (that is from a man who knew he wanted to be an airline captain from the age of 7); and my law partner, Bernie Kennedy, who gave me the opportunity to love practicing law following a 17-year career in modern dance, and who has taught me so much.  I cannot say the practice of law does not often feel like work, of course, but the rewards and satisfaction of meeting the challenges and accomplishing whatever it is a client needs makes me forget it was ever work at all!  I learn so much by the example of these remarkable men– to work hard, play hard, not take myself too seriously and always try to do the right thing.