Lawyerly Lairs: A Biglaw Partner And His CEO Wife's $12 Million Penthouse Loft

Biglaw partners do pretty well for themselves; Biglaw partners married to CEOs do even better.

82 Greene Street (via Google Maps)

82 Greene Street (via Google Maps)

Biglaw partners do pretty well for themselves. Biglaw partners married to CEOs do even better.

The Sunday real estate section of the New York Times recently covered the fabulous Soho loft of just such a couple, describing the apartment as follows:

Susan Davidson, the chief executive of the Zac Posen fashion house, remembers seeing great potential in the raw, cavernous space offered for sale in a co-op conversion at 82 Greene Street in the late 1980s….

Today the impeccably revamped loft, now a triplex of about 3,200 square feet, can easily be described as rustic chic, retaining some of its early-1870s architectural detail alongside modern conveniences. Ms. Davidson and her current husband, Allen Miller, a corporate lawyer, spent around $4 million to painstakingly transform the space with the help of the designer Todd Klein, and contracted Tyler Horsley to landscape three terraces totaling around 1,100 square feet with plants, flowers and fruit-bearing trees.

J. Allen Miller

J. Allen Miller

Referring to J. Allen Miller as “a corporate lawyer” is, well, like calling Zac Posen “a designer.” Miller is a very high-profile and successful lawyer, currently serving as head of the corporate department at Chadbourne & Parke, where he has worked on multiple billion-dollar deals over the years.

So Allen Miller is a senior partner at an elite law firm, and Susan Davidson is the CEO of a fashion house. Dropping $4 million on the apartment renovation shouldn’t have been a huge problem (and note that they — or rather she, along with her former husband — bought the apartment for less than $460,000, way back in the 1980s).

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Why are they putting up their lovingly renovated apartment up for sale? Like former Skadden partner David Wolin, who traded client whines for making wines, Allen Miller has had enough of city life:

[T]he couple now plan to move to an even older home — a late-1830s house on 30 acres in the Hudson Valley, where entire fruit orchards can be harvested. They are putting the loft, unit No. 5F, just off Spring Street, up for sale. The asking price is $11.75 million, according to Rebecca Edwardson and Bonnie Chajet of Warburg Realty, who are listing the apartment.

What does one get for almost $12 million? Let’s have a look….

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