Michael B. Gerrard

Michael B. Gerrard, director of Columbia Law School’s Center for Climate Change Law, traces his passion for environmental protection back to growing up in Charleston, West Virginia, a city dominated by major chemical manufacturing companies like Union Carbide and DuPont. As a child, he lived on the banks of the Kanawha River, where large amounts of toxic chemicals had polluted the water and air.

After graduating from Columbia University, Gerrard worked for a local environmental policy group, which reaffirmed his interest in environmental protection. Believing that the most effective work in the field was being accomplished by lawyers, he entered New York University Law School in 1975 with the goal of becoming an environmental lawyer. (more…)

Ross Moskowitz

Ross Moskowitz’s legal career, focused on land use and real estate development, has provided him with the chance to work on both sides of the public/private partnerships used to promote the City’s economic development. This experience has served him well in leading the Real Estate Group at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP.

When asked how he became interested in land use and development, Moskowitz explained that after graduating from New York Law School he worked for a solo practitioner specializing in land use law who “taught him the ropes.” The experience was invaluable, but it was a “one person shop,” and Moskowitz soon found himself looking for more. In 1987, he decided to branch out and accepted a position at Stroock. Over the next few years, Moskowitz honed his land use skills helping developers and institutional investors navigate through the City’s land use process. In 1992, Moskowitz was introduced to the world of public/private real estate transactions while assisting the United States Tennis Association build its National Tennis Center in Queens. (more…)

Engineer filed falsified documents for two addresses. The Department of Buildings filed charges against engineer Leon St. Clair Nation after discovering that he submitted a false application to alter the second floor of a building that did not have a second floor, and that he also submitted plans with altered photographs for two separate properties. Buildings specifically charged St. Clair with violating the City rules by knowingly or negligently submitting false or misleading documents to Buildings. After a hearing at OATH, the Buildings Commissioner ordered that St. Clair’s self-certification privileges be revoked. The Commissioner also ordered that, for a period of two years, Buildings refuse to accept any application or document submitted by St. Clair. The Commissioner found authorization for this additional penalty in a section of the newly-enacted construction code, which authorized such steps to protect the public.

St. Clair filed an article 78 petition, claiming that the Commissioner lacked the authority to impose the additional penalty because the construction code provision that allowed Buildings to refuse his submissions for two years had been enacted after the acts with which he was charged. (more…)

Architect self-certified applications with incorrect zoning. Architect David Nagan was hired in 2004 to prepare a zoning analysis for two adjacent lots in Queens. Nagan determined the lots were in an R3 district, which allowed for the construction of two, two-family semidetached homes with a common wall along the lot line. In April of 2005, the City Council rezoned the lots to R3X, a zoning district that prohibited semi-detached homes. About six months after the zoning change, Nagan submitted two self-certified applications to Buildings for permits to construct both semidetached homes. Buildings granted the applications, and construction was completed in 2006.

After Buildings performed an audit, it determined that the zoning designation for each application was incorrect and petitioned to have Nagan excluded from the self-certification program. The petition cited a recently enacted Administrative Code amendment that required mandatory sanctions against an architect who submitted two incorrect self-certified applications within a 12-month period. At his hearing, Nagan argued that the recently enacted amendment should not retroactively apply to the applications he submitted two years before the amendment was passed. (more…)

Buildings’ suspension of license pending criminal trial overturned by OATH. On October 29, 2008, Testwell Laboratories, a licensed concrete testing laboratory, and V. Reddy Kancharla, a licensed site safety manager, were indicted on charges of enterprise corruption, grand larceny, scheme to defraud, offering a false instrument for filing, and falsifying business records. The next day, the Department of Buildings imposed pre-hearing suspensions on both, claiming that their conduct created imminent jeopardy to the public safety. Subsequently, Buildings filed a petition to suspend Testwell and Kancharla’s licenses, participation in the self-certification program, and professional filing privileges until the criminal case was resolved. Buildings claimed that Testwell and Kancharla violated the construction code by making materially false statements, participating in fraudulent dealings, and demonstrating negligence, incompetence, or disregard of the code. Buildings submitted only the indictment as evidence for the suspensions.

OATH ALJ Tynia Richard dismissed the charges, ruling that an indictment was not grounds for license suspension under the construction code and could not be considered evidence to prove the allegations. Even if considered evidence, the indictment could not provide the standard of proof required at OATH for license suspensions. Finally, Richard found that Buildings was authorized to suspend licenses and self-certification privileges prior to a hearing for no more than five days provided there was a finding of imminent jeopardy. Buildings was not authorized, however, to suspend the professional filing privileges without a hearing. (more…)