Founding Partner
Mark L. Hankin is a founding partner of the firm. His practice focuses primarily on the representation of clients in real estate and corporate litigation with a concentration on cooperative and condominium representation. As a skilled litigator, he regularly handles a wide variety of trials and hearings before the federal and state courts of the State of New York; arbitration tribunals; the New York State and New York City Divisions of Human Rights; and mediations.
Mr. Hankin served as an officer and member of a board of directors of a housing cooperative, which inspired his entry into the practice of cooperative and condominium law. As general counsel to a multitude of cooperative and condominium boards, he provides hands-on advice and guidance regarding the corporate and non-corporate structure of the client; review and revision of offering plans, by-laws, proprietary leases and occupancy agreements, and rules and regulations; statutory and case law developments; review, revision, and drafting of construction, management, and service agreements affecting the buildings and lands; and management and operational advice and guidance on labor, employment, tax, and insurance issues.
Mr. Hankin is a graduate of S.U.N.Y. at Stony Brook with a B.S. in Political Science and an M.S. in Public Administration. He received his Juris Doctorate from Syracuse University. He is admitted to the practice of law in the States of New York (1984), New Jersey (1984), and Florida (1985). Mr. Hankin is a member of the New York State Trial Lawyers Association; the American Trial Lawyers Association; the New York State Bar Association (a member of the Committee on Cooperatives & Condominiums); the Queens County Bar Association (co-chairman of the Committee on Cooperatives and Condominiums); and the Nassau County Bar Association (a member of the Real Property Committee).
Mr. Hankin and his partner, Geoffrey Mazel, Esq., have fostered an amicable relationship with local, state, and federal representatives of housing cooperatives and condominiums in order to address current and future changes in the law which affect cooperative and condominium living. Some of the issues addressed have included legislation over a shareholder bill of rights, the expiration of ground leases, and the manner and procedure whereby the NYC Department of Finance calculates the assessed value of cooperatives and condominiums. In January 2010, Mr. Hankin and Mr. Mazel were appointed as legal counsel to the President's Council of Cooperatives and Condominiums (PCCC), a lobbying group composed of approximately 75 presidents of cooperatives and condominiums in the City of New York.
Mr. Hankin has been featured and contributes legal opinion relating to cooperative and condominium issues in the Queens County Bar Journal, the Federation of Housing Cooperatives and Condominiums, Habitat Magazine, and the Cooperator.