Michael T. Sillerman

Land use attorney Michael T. Sillerman is often teased by his co-workers that he won’t work on a project unless there is a Pritzker Architecture Prize winner onboard. Although Sillerman doesn’t think that’s entirely true, he admits that his favorite part of being a land use attorney is how it overlaps with his love of architecture. As co-chair of Kramer Levin’s land use department, Sillerman typically spends as much time talking to architects and city planners as he does with other attorneys.

While Sillerman believes that there was “a certain serendipity” to becoming a land use attorney, the lifelong resident of the Upper West Side credits the influence of his mother, a former civic campaigner, and his early exposure to issues of public welfare and its intersection with City government. After studying reform movements in New York City politics at Cornell University and then teaching junior high school, Sillerman attended Columbia Law School. He started his legal career as a litigator at Paul,Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. A major turning point in Sillerman’s career occurred when he became the executive assistant to then- City Council President Carol Bellamy and learned the finer details of the City’s complicated land use process. (more…)

Leroy Comrie

Council Member Leroy Comrie, Chair of the City Council’s Land Use Committee and representative of Queens’ 27th District, is not afraid to raise his voice or make his opinion known. For the most part, however, Comrie is known as a quiet, thoughtful, and fair-minded civic leader.

Comrie was born in Jersey City, but he was raised in the same southeast Queens community he now represents. His parents, Jamaican immigrants, helped spark Comrie’s interests in politics and government. After studying political science at the University of Bridgeport, Comrie returned to Queens and became active in local government. He served simultaneously as district manager for former Council Member Archie Spigner and as president of his local school board. When term limits forced Spigner to yield his seat in Council, Comrie was elected to replace his mentor in 2001. (more…)

Mark Weprin

Council Member Mark Weprin, the newly elected representative for the 23rd District and son of the late State Assembly Member Saul Weprin, admits that he is no expert in land use law. When Weprin first learned that he would inherit the position of chair of the Zoning & Franchises Subcommittee from fellow Queens Council Member Tony Avella, he pulled out the same land use hornbook he used in law school and started reviewing major land use decisions.

Born, bred, and still living in eastern Queens, Weprin grew up in a political family. His father, Saul Weprin, was a State Assembly Member for 23 years and rose to the position of Speaker. Though Mark Weprin himself had no ambition to run for public office, he was elected to replace his father in the Assembly following Saul Weprin’s sudden death in 1994. In the Assembly, he passed 62 laws involving mainly consumer affairs, education, and criminal justice issues. In January, Weprin replaced his brother, David Weprin, as representative for the 23rd District in the City Council, which includes the Queens neighborhoods of Bellerose, Fresh Meadows, Floral Park, and Oakland Gardens.Weprin views the position as an opportunity to deliver for his constituents on a more local level. (more…)

Richard Bearak

Richard Bearak, Director of Land Use for Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, had originally intended to be an architect. But as an undergrad at the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT), Bearak unexpectedly developed an interest in city planning. After receiving a degree in Architectural Technology, Bearak was admitted to Hunter College’s urban planning graduate program in 1981.

Upon finishing school, Bearak worked in the private sector designing subdivisions and clustered developments in southwestern Connecticut. He later joined the staff of the Department of City Planning’s Queens Office for three and a half years, followed by the Department of Housing Preservation and Development while obtaining a degree from NYIT in architecture and becoming a licensed architect. In December 1993, he left to work in Brooklyn Borough President Howard Golden’s land use office as a senior planner. Bearak was later named the office’s Deputy Director of the Planning and Development Unit, and he continued in that position under Markowitz. In July 2009, Markowitz named Bearak the Director of Land Use. (more…)

Albert K. Butzel

Albert K. Butzel did everything he could to avoid going to law school. After graduating from Harvard College, Butzel spent a year in Paris trying to become, as he put it, Ernest Hemingway or F. Scott Fitzgerald. He made a deal with his father, who was an attorney, that he would go to law school if he did not succeed as a fiction writer. About a year later, Butzel enrolled at Harvard Law School.

Having grown up in the rural town of Birmingham, Michigan, Butzel had a natural predilection for the open country that soon turned into an interest in land use law. At Harvard, he took a summer job with Professor Charles Haar, an authority on land use law. Together, they analyzed the zoning regulations of various state governments. (more…)