Lawyerly Lairs: The Real Homeowners of D.C.

Are we too New York-centric in Lawyerly Lairs, our inside look at the homes (and occasionally offices) of lawyers and law students? Perhaps. It makes sense that we focus on Gotham, since Above the Law is headquartered here. But we realize that other cities and states boast great real estate too. Today we'll check out a few Lawyerly Lairs down in my former home of Washington, D.C. -- including the expensive residences of various partners at prominent law firms....

Are we too New York-centric in Lawyerly Lairs, our inside look at the homes (and occasionally offices) of lawyers and law students? Perhaps. It makes sense that we focus on Gotham, since Above the Law is headquartered here. But we realize that other cities and states boast great real estate too (and not just the 3500-square-foot houses enjoyed by the average associate at a Texas law firm).

Today let’s take a trip down to the nation’s capital. We’ll check out a few Lawyerly Lairs down in Washington, D.C. — including the $2 million Georgetown home shown above, recently sold by a former Cabinet member turned law firm partner….

We learned of this transaction from the current issue of Washingtonian magazine:

Lawyer Mickey Kantor and his wife, journalist Heidi Schulman, sold a four-bedroom, five-bath Federal-style rowhouse on Olive Street in Georgetown for $2 million. The house was on the market for nearly a year. A former Secretary of Commerce and US trade representative, Kantor is a partner in the DC office of Mayer Brown. Schulman is a former NBC News correspondent and former board member of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

According to Blockshopper, the buyer was a lawyer too: Gary Messplay (great name), co-chair of the food and drug practice group at Hunton & Williams.

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By the way, write-ups diverge on some details about the house. Washingtonian reports that the house has four bedrooms and five baths, Blockshopper claims that it has five bedrooms and four baths, and Trulia states that it has five bedrooms and four and a half baths. But they are consistent in reflecting, based on the same public records, that Kantor and Schulman took a loss on the sale, having purchased the house in 2007 for around $2.5 million.

Let’s take a look at a few other D.C. deals involving attorneys….

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