Page 439 - WhyAsInY

WitHout reCourse: Harvey, tHe real estate laWyer
parties had been working hard and negotiating for weeks. As would often be the case, disputes were plentiful, but they were soluble with money, provided that people did some constructive yielding. In this case, there was just not enough money in the room to make all of the parties happy—not, that is, without asking many of them to pay more or, conversely, to “take a haircut.”
Both our client and Simpson Thacher’s refused to take less but did agree to defer their right to receive payment, provided that they would be paid in full, with interest, and that the payment obligation would be secured by a mortgage on the property. We were told that that was satis- factory to Karp. The Simpson Thacher client took the position that it would take nothing less than a fourth mortgage. Flora told me that Glick was willing to take a fifth position, but I demurred, probably making my first business decision/recommendation for a client. I could think of no argument that supported the Simpson client’s position that it be given a higher lien position than that to be accorded to us (note the equating of the lawyer with the client by saying “us,” something that all commercial lawyers tend to do), and, as it turned out, neither could the Simpson Thacher partner. Thus it was that there would be only one new mortgage position, the fourth; it would be shared, in proportion to the amounts owed, and I would spend until about 10:00 p.m. at my first real closing successfully negotiating my first junior mortgage papers and my first “participation agreement” (against a Simpson Thacher partner!), some- thing that I had never heard of before I had entered the closing room. The agreement dealt with, among other things (which commercial law- yers say when they mean inter alia—but for the same reasons), who got which moneys (and when), and who could force a lawsuit to be brought against the property owner. So went my first real commercial closing.
Le Havre, the property the sale of which I had just witnessed, was located at the base of the Whitestone Bridge in Bayside, Queens. Devel- oped in the early sixties, it was originally called Levitt Houses, after its first owner. The developer, Levitt, had seen fit to advertise his rentals (and his own name) by erecting atop the most visible of the buildings two extremely imposing freestanding letters, L and H. Prior to the
• 421 •