24Jul 2023 by Charles E. Price
Abraham Leser’s 111 Livingston Delinquent on $120M Loan

Abraham Leser’s 111 Livingston Delinquent on $120M Loan

LEGAL
Abraham Leser's firm fell behind on debt payments at 111 Livingston Street after two tenants, Brooklyn Law School and the Legal Aid Society, went on rent strike and sued Leser over delayed maintenance at the Downtown Brooklyn office building. Court records indicate that months of back rent accumulated, possibly hindering the Leser Group's ability to service its debt. Leser became delinquent on the property's $120 million loan in May, then missed June's payment, Morningstar data shows. As of July, Morningstar marked the loan current but the debt remains watchlisted. Louis Solomon of Reed Smith, which is representing Leser in the lawsuit, confirmed that the loan is performing. “The normal operations between the bank and the company are fully in place,” Solomon wrote in an email. The building's occupancy rate dropped…
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07Jul 2023 by Charles E. Price
Vermont Law School opens immigration, criminal justice legal aid clinic downtown

Vermont Law School opens immigration, criminal justice legal aid clinic downtown

LEGAL
Vermont Law and Graduate School now has a larger presence in downtown Burlington.The school received a $975,000 federal grant, secured by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., to combine their immigration legal aid clinic and broader justice reform work into the Center for Justice Reform Clinic, which will be in their new downtown Burlington office.The office, on the fourth floor of 126 College St., officially opened June 22, a milestone marked by a ribbon cutting and speeches by the mayor, the president of Vermont Law and Graduate School and the dean of the law school.Mayor Miro Weinberger and Rod Smolla, president of Vermont Law and Graduate School, cut the ribbon to officially open the school's downtown location. The office will be the home of the school's new Center for Justice Reform Clinic,…
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14May 2023 by Charles E. Price
Legal Aid Caught Smuggling Weed Into NYC’s Rikers Island

Legal Aid Caught Smuggling Weed Into NYC’s Rikers Island

LEGAL
If you're trying to become a lawyer, sneaking contraband into Rikers Island isn't the best way to get started. The New York Post reports a Legal Aid Society staffer was busted for trying to smuggle weed and tobacco to a Rikers Island inmate. Thanks to a drug-sniffing dog, Tatyana King, who was posing as a lawyer, was charged with illegal possession of contraband in a prison. King was arrested while trying to visit Shyanne Patterson, an inmate accused of attempted murder. Riders Island guards searched her belongings and found bags of marijuana and tobacco. GlobalVillageSpace legal-aid-staff-caught-smuggling-weed-into-rikers-posing-as-lawyer-sources/">says she tricked correction officers last month and signed in as a staff lawyer for Legal Aid, New York's largest nonprofit legal aid, while visiting inmates, however, King wasn't assigned to Patterson's case. According to…
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