Lawyerly Lairs: Daniel Fischel’s Fabulous New Pad
Law professors generally don’t earn as much as Biglaw partners. Legal academic salaries, while generally in the low six-figures, rarely go over, say, $400,000.
But some law profs own very, very nice homes. See, e.g. (in descending order by value):
- Columbia professor Hans Smit ($30 million mansion — yup, that’s seven zeros);
- Yale professor James Whitman ($5.7 million co-op);
- NYU professor Cathy Sharkey ($5.2 million apartment);
- “Feldsuk,” aka Harvard professors Jeannie Suk, who has a new book out that looks quite interesting, and Noah Feldman ($2.8 million mansion);
- Columbia professor Edward Morrison ($2.6 million townhouse); and
- Columbia professor Sarah Cleveland ($2.5 million townhouse).
Sometimes the professors get financial assistance for these purchases from the schools that employ them. But sometimes the professors buy them on their own, without any university help.
For example, as reported in the New York Observer, Daniel Fischel, former dean of the University of Chicago Law School, just picked up an $8.45 million Manhattan pied-à-terre. As breathlessly described by writer Max Abelson, the apartment features “custom electric shades, a steam shower, and a Sub-Zero wine refrigerator.”
Sounds fabulous! Maybe Professor Fischel can donate a weekend in this apartment to the CLF public interest auction?
Fischel’s famous neighbors, plus the story of how he got this rich — being a law school dean pays well, but not that well — after the jump.
Dean Fischel’s apartment is in One Beacon Court, the celebrated luxury condominium that’s home to Beyonce and Brian Williams. And things at One Beacon are looking up, now that the notorious Marc Dreier has left the building.
How did Dan Fischel become this wealthy? Abelson notes that Fischel is “famous for helping gentlemen like Ken Lay, Charles Keating and Michael Milken.” But Fischel didn’t represent them (probably a good thing, since they all got convicted); rather, he testified as an expert witness on their behalf.
Fischel, a law and economics expert, founded Lexecon, a hugely successful economic consulting firm. The firm is now known as Compass Lexecon, and Fischel serves as chairman and president.
His net worth may have been helped, inadvertently, by the plaintiffs’ bar. From his Wikipedia entry:
As an expert witness, Fischel has testified on behalf of Charles Keating, Ken Lay, and Jeffrey Skilling. His work so upset plaintiffs’ law firm Milberg Weiss that they engaged in a vendetta against Fischel and Lexecon, leading to a defamation suit by Fischel and Lexecon that led to a landmark Supreme Court decision about multi-district litigation (Lexecon Inc. v. Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes & Lerach, 523 U.S. 26 (1998)) and a $50 million settlement.
We would happily be defamed for $50 million. Heck, we put up with it every day for free (see the ATL comments).
Moral of the story for law students: pay attention to the law and econ stuff, and maybe someday you too will have an $8 million apartment.
P.S. The Observer article also mentions a recent real estate purchaser by another notable lawyer — Marc Weitzen, chief legal adviser to billionaire Carl Icahn. But that apartment, at $4.2 million, pales in comparison to Daniel Fischel’s place.
Icahn, Icahn! Son’s $2.9 M. PH, Lawyer’s $4.2 M. Condo [New York Observer]
Earlier: Lawyerly Lairs: Marc Dreier’s Penthouse Goes for $8.2 Million
(28) Comments
Comments
First!
Totally thought you were talking about Topanga. Those last few seasons, she was almost as fat as you Mystal.
Edit much? I mean come on, read it over before you post it.
"The firm is now known as Compass Lexecon, and Fischel serves as chairman and president of the firm (now known as Compass Lexecon)."
Only penurious wretches count the money of others. Stop ridiculing obscene wealth and start working.
Lat,
Are you learning your editing skills from Elie through osmosis?
-3
Mystal lives in his mother's basement and slides around the concrete slab like a Walru.
Hans SMIT (not Smith) only paid about $300k for his mansion. And he doesn't live there (he lives in an apartment a few blocks away). When I visited the mansion, Hans's son (a partner at Simpson) lived there.
Yeah, it's worth a lot more than $300k now, and he tried to sell it for $30MM, but nobody actually thinks it's worth that much. Except Hans.
we are counting money, JaKe. We are pointing out egregious selfishness and greed.
James Whitman is an amazing professor. His dad is an obscenely rich investor tycoon, so you can guess why he's able to buy that kind of pad ... not from his YLS salary.
9 - Yup. Click on the link:
"Professor Whitman comes from serious money. His father, Martin Whitman, is a highly successful hedge fund manager (and professor at the Yale School of Management)."
http://abovethelaw.com/2007/09/lawyerly_lairs_back_to_school.php
Fischel also teaches at Northwestern these days.
Isn't that a picture of a building on Harvard's Longwood campus?
JaKe,
Please may I deposit my man spigot in your mouth and anus? There is a dust storm coming and this needs to be done.
Shafeef
Classic line JaKe.
Here's an NY Sun article on the Smit place, i. e. how did a professor buy it. As noted above, he paid around $300K in the 1970's, bought it from the University.
http://www.nysun.com/new-york/for-sale-at-29-million-uptown-a-12-bedroom-8-bath/40212/
PE was once a player. In 1981, he served as an informal adviser to newly elected Senator Al D'Amato. He advised D'Amato and President Reagan on federal judiciary, U.S. Marshal, and U.S. Atty appointments.
At that time, he was quite the comer. There was talk of an appointment to the federal bench, even an ambassadorship during Reagan's second term.
Not sure why he receded on the political scene. Besides attending fundraisers he had virtually no role with Bush 41 and 43. I wonder if he will become more involved now that he is scaling back his law practice.
I hear Bruce Wasserstein's pad is available.
Too soon?
Dear David,
This post is much too factual. I prefer it when you accuse firms of wrong-doing without any factual basis for your comments. I can help you get back to your unethical self. I can teach you how to set up special purpose vehicles in which to dump the type of junk you pedal. The pay is better as well. I am currently indisposed, but you can reach me at the Federal Detention Center in Oakdale.
Your friend,
Andy Fastow
It has a steam shower? Big fucking deal. I built one of those during my free time since I don't have a job.
Fischel is in insufferable douche.
The Lexecon v. Lerach battle is actually pretty interesting for legal geeks. It was a long, drawn out case, and the settlement came only after a jury awarded compensatory damages of $45 million (if my memory is correct) and was then going to decide the punitive award, which could have been substantial given the emails from Lerach that sunk his case (lots of name-calling and basically admitting that Lexecon was hurting his plaintiff work). Fischel was dean at Chicago at the time of the settlement and promised the school some dough, but he was removed shortly thereafter under less than ideal circumstances and I'm not sure if he ever gave any of the money to the law school. Finally, I believe Judge Posner was also one of the co-founders of Lexecon before leaving the company when he went on the bench.
Why is this building considered so desirable, other than in terms of its location? If I were paying $8.5 million, I would want to be in a taller building that would provide me with a view.
Excuse me, but if “custom electric shades, a steam shower, and a Sub-Zero wine refrigerator” are the most remarkable features of an $8.45 million Manhattan pied-à-terre, me thinks Dean Fischel paid too much.
We rather think that the misplaced “awe” here is more the result of the reporter’s misplaced sense of the threshold of stimuli necessary to render him “breathless” that the lack of genuine and more notable attributes of an eight million residence.
Stated another way, a wine frig, steam shower and electric shades ain’t remarkable, as anyone who has stayed, for example, in a half way decent Vegas hotel suite in this decade can readily attest.
No terraces, views, mega square footage, doorman, or multiple parking spaces?
We suspect the subject crash pad, at a cool 8 mill, enjoyed al of the above.
David, you need to expand your horizons—or at least start socializing with a better class of Manhattanites and/or even make it into Manhattan —if only occasionally :).
I was a law professor at U of C too and look at my sweet pad now. Thinking about letting Dan Fischel stand on my lawn holding a little lantern.
Barack x.
Looks like the Clark BioX Center at Stanford to me.
Brown Harris Stevens now lists Smit's mansion for $25 million.
Brown Harris Stevens now lists Smit's mansion for $25 million. More than the price is probably deflated.
Your law school fees at work.