Page 456 - WhyAsInY

Why (as in yaverbaum)
whose business centered on the creation and syndication (sale to many purchasers) of interests in transactions that are referred to colloquially as “tax shelters.” Tax shelters are transactions that were structured solely for the purpose of helping wealthy, high-earning investors defer or avoid income taxes. The syndication of tax shelters was a business decidedly lacking in the glamour or, to me, the importance of real estate development.
Participating as intensely as I had in the development of the Times Square hotel had been, as I said, a very heady experience. Not only was I out front in a very sophisticated transaction, but I was also a partici- pant in what I believed to be an important undertaking, one that was in the public eye and destined to be very beneficial to New York City. I had found myself thoroughly identified with the goals of the project and with the client, and that mattered to me. (I had the same type of feeling when I represented a group of developers who sought to construct mul- tifamily residences in the early stages of Battery Park City, even though, in retrospect, I came to believe that at least one of the partners, DIC- Underhill, was mob-controlled: It was a concrete company that was subsequently indicted for rigging bids in connection with the construc- tion of the Javits Convention Center.) I was quite flattered to have been singled out to be in charge of the real estate aspects of the new, huge, and, to the firm, very important projects for Integrated, but while I became caught up in the sophisticated aspects of the tax syndication practice and remained a captive of my need to do the best possible job, I could derive no satisfaction from the goals of this new client.
There is a tendency for attorneys to become identified with their clients, not just because the canons of ethics require fidelity to the cause but also because, on some level, it is psychologically necessary. When one starts in practice, identifying with the client is not an issue. All that counts at that time is doing a credible job or, more baldly and (to be polite about it), not screwing up, so the young lawyer moves from task to task doing the best that he can and hoping to hang on and learn from experience. Client identification is not then a concern or even a real
• 438 •