Geoffrey R. Mazel, Esq.

Geoffrey R. Mazel is a founding partner of Hankin & Mazel, PLLC, located in midtown Manhattan and Great Neck, NY. Mr. Mazel graduated from St. John's University School of Law and received his B.A. from the State University of New York at Binghamton, where he graduated with honors. His practice has been devoted to real estate law, with extensive experience in cooperative and condominium law, litigation, and sales and acquisitions. Mr. Mazel counsels several dozen cooperative and condominium boards of directors and managers, encompassing over 10,000 units of co-op and condo housing, including many of the largest co-op and condo boards in the City of New York and the metropolitan area.

He has vast experience in all aspects of real estate transactions. Included in his experience is representing a co-op board in a $53 million refinance of its underlying mortgage, the largest loan of that nature by the National Cooperative Bank at the time. Additionally, Mr. Mazel has counseled and represented co-op and condo boards on all issues that come before them, including corporate governance, contract negotiations, transfers, and all aspects of litigation.

Mr. Mazel lectures frequently before the bar and co-op/condo groups on real estate and co-op/condo issues. He has chaired and instructed many Continuing Legal Education seminars for the Bar Association of the City of New York, American Land Title Agency, Lorman, and the Queens County Bar Association. Mr. Mazel has also lectured before the Council of New York Cooperatives & Condominiums and the Federation of New York Housing Cooperatives & Condominiums.

Mr. Mazel has published numerous articles and is frequently quoted on real estate and co-op/condo issues in a wide variety of publications, including the Mann Report, Habitat Magazine, the North Shore Tower Times, the Queens Courier, and the Cooperator. He has been a frequent guest and co-host on the 88.1 WCWP radio show "Taking Care of Business," discussing real estate and related issues.

Mr. Mazel, along with his partner Mark Hankin, Esq., serves as a legal adviser to the President's Council for Co-ops & Condos, an organization representing over 100,000 units of cooperative and condominium housing. In this position, Mr. Mazel has lobbied and met with numerous elected officials to help draft laws and policies affecting shareholders and unit owners at co-ops and condos. In May 2011, he testified before the New York City Council in support of the efforts of co-op and condo owners in their fight against exorbitant real estate tax increases by the New York City Department of Finance.

In addition, Mr. Mazel has served as an adjunct professor at the New York Institute of Technology teaching the real estate paralegal course; has served as President of Glen Oaks Village Owners, Inc., a 3,000-unit cooperative in Queens, NY; and is a former member of the Committee on Cooperative and Condominium Law of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York and former Chairperson of the Steering Committee for the Federation of New York Housing Cooperatives and Condominiums. He has served as co-chairperson of the Cooperative/Condominium Law Committee of the Queens County Bar Association alongside his partner, Mark Hankin, Esq.