Page 431 - WhyAsInY

WitHout reCourse: Harvey, tHe real estate laWyer
other basic real estate documents, it was too narrow to impart to me the guts of commercial real estate. Those “guts” would come from Flora Schnall—and from, of all things, house closings.2
Because I was the junior attorney in the department, it fell to me to “close” the unprofitable (for the firm) acquisition and disposition of homes for people whom the firm represented (“clients”), for officers of companies that the firm represented (also, “clients”), and, occasionally, for partners in the firm (who tended to act like “clients”). That might not seem like much, and it really wasn’t, but it gave me something that being a litigation associate did not: continual contact with real, live clients and lawyers, both of whom, I learned through time, presented challenges.
(George became the head of the firm’s very small Real Estate Department when its then head, who had been having an all-too-public affair with his secretary, was forced to leave. At the time, Nat, George’s father, and Flora, about whom more later, were the other partners. After Bill Friedman left, there was only one other associate whom I remember: Ira, who essentially earned his living by sitting on George’s couch and listening to George’s phone calls, before filling out forms that generally
taught, I would insist that students raise their hands if they did not know the meaning of a term or phrase that I used. They never did (raise their hands, that is). That would be true even if I said that “frennelbuttling” is very important and then added that “frennelbuttling” would be on the final. I know that you will raise your hand, maybe both of your hands, if the meaning of what I’m describing escapes you. And that you will definitely consult Webster’s for the meaning of frennelbuttling.
Here’s my first “technical” explanation: You probably know it, class, but, in case you don’t, a “mortgage” (a word the etymology of which is a “dead pledge”) is a piece of paper in which the owner of property agrees that if the lender to whom he owes money is not paid, that lender can then use the courts to seize ownership of the borrower’s property (that is, to “foreclose” the mortgage). It creates a “lien” on that property. A “second mortgage” is the same, except that (gen- erally) the lender who holds it will not get paid unless the lender that holds the “first” mortgage gets paid first. When people say that they want to get a mortgage, they are actually saying that they want to borrow money and give, not get, a mortgage; it is the bank that gets the mortgage.
2. At a “closing,” people on each side of a transaction sign and exchange papers and, usually, money, and they enter into a new relationship, thereby finalizing the deal in the manner that they had previously agreed to in a written contract; at least, that’s the goal. Sometimes they also fight a lot first. Most times, they shake hands at the end.
• 413 •