Lawyerly Lairs, Real Estate

Lawyerly Lairs: Skadden Royals Sell Their Palatial Pad For $11.8 Million

The sellers, who sold to one of the nation's richest families, made a multimillion-dollar profit on the deal.

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Is our nation’s giant asset bubble about to pop? Some smart lawyers seem to think so, at least based on their efforts to unload high-end real estate. For example, David Rozenholc, whose Upper East Side mansion we previously profiled, has put his house back on the market — for $29 million, just a million below its prior asking price, as noted by Hana Alberts at Curbed (thanks for the shout-out to ATL, by the way).

Just around the corner on Park Avenue, another wealthy lawyer successfully sold his eight-figure home. Here’s the news, from the New York Times:

The week’s runner-up [for most expensive residential sale], at $11,756,625, according to city records, was a meticulously renovated apartment on the 11th floor of 983 Park Avenue, a 14-story red brick and limestone building erected near 83rd Street in 1925 and designed by Schwartz and Gross, one of the most prolific residential architects in Manhattan in the early part of the 20th century.

The buyers of the four-bedroom four-and-a-half-bath co-op unit, No. 11C, which carries a monthly maintenance of $7,518, were Samuel A. Tisch and his wife, Eliana. Mr. Tisch is the grandson of Laurence A. Tisch, a founder of the Loews Corporation.

The residence, which sold for 4.5 percent above its $11.25 million asking price, was fully refurbished by the sellers, Alan and Kim Hartman, who bought the apartment in 2004 for $5.85 million.

The Tisches are one of the nation’s richest families, but here at Above the Law, we’re more excited about the Hartmans. The Times piece doesn’t disclose what Alan and Kim Hartman do, but a quick Google search unearths their engagement announcement:

Miss [Kimberly] Winston, 29, is the director of administration and facilities planning at EJV Partners, a financial information-services company in New York. She graduated from Tufts University and received an M.B.A. from New York University. Her stepfather [Earle Yaffa] is the managing director of the New York law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. Ms. Winston is also the daughter of the late Maj. Charles C. Winston 3d.

Mr. Hartman, 28, is an associate at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. He graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania and received a law degree from Harvard University. His father is an independent manufacturer’s representative for the Dallas International Apparel Mart in Dallas.

That was in 1993, and more than 20 years later, Earle Yaffa is still the managing director of Skadden. Those who have followed SASMF’s rise over the years are well aware of the major role he has played in the firm’s growth and success. So Yaffa’s daughter marrying a Harvard Law grad turned SASMF associate would have been viewed at the time as a Skadden “royal wedding.” (Cf. the recent Wachtell Lipton “royal wedding” — the February marriage of Samantha Lipton, daughter of founding partner Marty Lipton, to WLRK litigation partner Kevin Schwartz.)

Also more than 20 years later, Alan and Kimberly Hartman are still married. Congratulations to the Hartmans; working at Skadden probably doesn’t correlate positively with marriage longevity, so their achievement is especially impressive.

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But Alan Hartman spent just four years at Skadden, before moving on to the greener pastures of investment banking. He worked for 15 years in M&A at Merrill Lynch before joining Centerview Partners, his current professional home.

So yes, just like so many attorneys featured in Lawyerly Lairs, Alan Hartman didn’t wind up as the owner of an amazing abode by practicing law. Sure, the Hartmans bought the apartment for a lot less than $11.8 million — but there aren’t many lawyers, including Biglaw partners, who could have dropped almost $6 million on an apartment back in 2004.

And then the Hartmans spent hundreds of thousands, or maybe millions, on what the Times describes as a “meticulous[]” renovation. Let’s have a look, shall we?

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