Tenant-landlord law veteran to celebrate 50-year career

Real Estate Weekly, May 11, 2005

Daniel Finkelstein, author, teacher and senior partner with the real estate law firm Finkelstein Newman LLP, will begin celebrating a lifetime of law since graduating from Brooklyn Law School in August 1955.

Mr. Finkelstein has represented nearly every major landlord and managing agent in the city of New York during the course of his 50-year career. As one of the city's first practitioners of landlord-tenant law, he has also represented hundreds of tenants, including such celebrities as Andy Warhol and Peter Max.

Daniel Finkelstein is the co-author of West Publishing's two-volume treatise, "Landlord and Tenant Practice in New York," which he co-wrote with Lucas A. Ferrara, a partner at his firm, and with whom he also co-edits Landlord-Tenant Monthly, a law journal published by Treiman Publications.

In addition to his active career as a litigation attorney, the 78-year-old Finkelstein serves as an adjunct professor of law at New York Law School. Previously, he was also an adjunct associate professor of real estate at New York University.

Having served in World War II, Mr. Finkelstein got his professional start in various civil service positions before attending law school. In the early stages of his legal career, he served as the senior real estate manager for the Board of Estimate of the City of New York. In that position, he participated in the site management for such projects as the Lincoln Center, Major Degan and the Cross Bronx Expressways, helping to relocate more than 16,000 families and 6,000 businesses. Later, he worked as an assistant chief law enforcement attorney for the Temporary State Housing Rent Commission.

Finkelstein has received national recognition for his personal and professional achievements, especially for his work with the U.S. Selective Service, for which Certificates of Merit were awarded to him by presidents Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon and Ford. He is also the recipient of numerous honors from the legal profession, including accolades from the New York State Bar Association, the American Bar Endowment, New York County Lawyers Association, the Civil Court of New York and Brooklyn Law School.

Mr. Finkelstein was once nominated to run for state senator, twice for New York City Council and three times for the Town Justice of the Town of Carmel--on both Democratic and Republican tickets.

The year 1964 marked the beginnings of his practice, which culminated with his joining son Robert Finkelstein at real estate law firm Finkelstein Newman LLP.

"I graduated law school in August 1955 and passed the bar March 12, 1956," says Mr. Finkelstein. "This has truly been a most fulfilling and challenging career path for me and with each passing day, it only keeps getting better."