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WitHout reCourse: Harvey, tHe real estate laWyer
tentious, and, of course, would find its cost reflected on Weil Gotshal’s monthly bills to the Portman partnership. The Weil Gotshal lawyers all worked for the extremely imperious Charles Goldstein, one of the most egotistical, powerful, difficult, and detested attorneys in the City. Gold- stein, who would take a limousine virtually each day from the GM Building to the Seagram Building (about one-half of a mile away) to have lunch at the Four Seasons, deigned to appear at two meetings, each time to harangue those present, presumably after he had gotten pres- sure from the office of Governor Hugh Carey, who was the source of Goldstein’s business with the UDC. We will meet Goldstein, who will also ultimately become my partner, again.
Each of the male lawyers from Weil Gotshal wore a blue suit with a white pocket square and a very serious face. As a bargaining tactic, and because I just could not stand being serious all of the time, I took great pleasure in working with my suit jacket off (although, I admit that my lawyerly braces would be on display) and in loosening up the stony opposing lawyers and making them laugh against their will. After a few months, I even got them to agree to hold a negotiating session where the operative rule was that each point would have to be introduced with the name of a relevant rock ’n’ roll hit (other than “Heartbreak Hotel”). Even the City and UDC lawyers played along.
During the summer, the lead female negotiator from Weil Gotshal would invariably wear a low-cut dress and no other lawyerly item of clothing under its top. She would insist on leaning forward across the conference room table every time that she wanted to make a point, one that was usually fatuous but delivered with great conviction and as if she were in charge of the transaction; here was a situation where I was wise enough not to use my sense of humor as a bargaining tactic, but I did take a certain amount of satisfaction in not being cowed by her tactics.
Miraculous as it might have seemed at the time, Weil Gotshal’s and Goldstein’s performances were to be outdone once we were at a point when all parties other than the lenders had essentially agreed upon the language of the ground lease. And it took only one meeting for the out- doing to be done. The agreed-upon ground lease was submitted to the
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