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CroWninG aCHieveMent: Harvey, tHe General Counsel
when he was talking “bricks and mortar” and, somewhat more impor- tant, money, of which he told me there was a fair amount on the horizon. Partnership structure, tax law, subtlety of any type, not his thing; good grammar, not his strong suit. He was an investor in Coronet Capital. Many sentences started with the phrase “Long story short. . . .” As I ulti- mately learned, his style was smooth when it had to be and gruff when he was dealing with subordinates or subcontractors. He was openly dis- dainful of attorneys (most businessmen are), and his basic solution to problems in negotiations was to cure them through the indelicate and relentless application of impatience and pressure. He really believed it (and he wasn’t entirely wrong) when, once there was any glitch, he would say, “Let me just get them all in a room; I can get this thing closed. Just keep the damned lawyers out of it.” He was a type with which I had had some familiarity, a type that over the years I could talk to, and a type that over time would remark that I was more of a businessman than any lawyer with whom he had dealt (only, he didn’t say “whom”). There was, underneath it all, a warmth, a consistency, and very little BS.
Arthur worked primarily with contractors who were employed to renovate buildings and with the acquisition, sales, and management sides of the co-op business. (Coronet had a six-person Management Department, which managed the outside management companies.) He worked very well with me and would turn to me when a deal of any magnitude (such as the disposition of a large pool of apartments) was in play or when litigation of any type was threatened. As I said, we hit it off in our first meeting, which was a relaxed and casual event. Our relation- ship would get even stronger once I was working side by side with him inside the office, especially when, three years or so later, things got rocky in the organization. I liked Arthur.
Next was Stuart Schultz, a young Princeton grad who had left his family’s mortgage banking business to receive tutelage at Norman’s feet and who was the point man on the new lending side (after Norman would initiate the deals). Stuart, perhaps the most wired ultra-A-type young man with whom I had ever dealt on a consistent basis, ended up being very reliant on me, and we worked together very well. I became
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