Samuel B. Moskowitz

 
 

Practice Focus and Experience


Sandy Moskowitz practices in the Real Estate, Business, and Litigation areas. He has extensive experience in a broad range of real estate matters, including all facets of condominium law, resolution of title issues, real estate litigation, leasing, development, conveyancing, and mortgage lending. Over his 37+ year legal career, Sandy has developed an acknowledged expertise in both residential and commercial condominium development, operation, and financing. In 2016, Sandy was appointed editor of the Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education treatise on condominium law, for which he had previously served as a contributing author.

Sandy’s practice also concentrates on real estate and business litigation, entertainment law, and the representation of closely held businesses, for which he serves as general counsel and advisor. Since its inception in 2004, Sandy has consistently been named a Massachusetts “Super Lawyer” from a poll of Massachusetts attorneys published in Boston magazine and in New England Super Lawyers. Sandy is also peer review rated “AV® Preeminent™” by Martindale-Hubbell, the highest bestowed rating given.

Representative Matters


  • Won summary judgment and subsequent appeal in a precedent-setting Supreme Judicial Court case successfully defending the development of, and title to, a 40-unit condominium with an aggregate market value of over $20 million after an adjacent condominium claimed to own its land.
  • Won summary judgment in Land Court successfully defeating a challenge to the allocation of percentage interests between a condominium’s restricted, affordable housing units and its market rate units.
  • Won summary judgment in Land Court successfully defending a 400-unit condominium against an abutter’s claim of an access easement that would have disruptively cut through the condominium’s common areas.
  • General and litigation counsel to primary condominium in a two-tiered, luxury high-rise, mixed-use condominium, containing almost 400 units in downtown Boston, including its representation in a complex, derivative suit alleging construction defects.
  • Won a Land Court summary judgment and prevailed in Appeals Court defending a condominium association's right to control common area landscaping over objection of unit owner, whose view was blocked.
  • Representation of developers in creation of residential, commercial, and mixed-use condominiums, including preparation of intricate condominium documents dividing management responsibility between residential and commercial owners.
  • Title claims work for individuals, mortgagees, and title insurance companies resolving missing interests, faulty deeds, defective foreclosures, improper documentation, and boundary disputes.
  • Title agent for national title insurance company.
  • Representation of over 40 condominium associations of various size and composition, including high-end, mixed-use and complex multi-tiered condominiums.
  • Litigation of title, ownership, boundary, easement, and restrictive covenant disputes; adverse possession claims; challenges to condominium development schemes involving phasing, land withdrawal, and affordable housing issues; and condominium construction defect cases.
  • Representation of closely held businesses in day-to-day matters, business and succession planning, and inter- and intra- company disputes.
  • Negotiation of entertainment and licensing contracts covering creation, production, ownership, and distribution rights in broadcast, network, internet, and multi-media industries.

Representative Reported Cases


  • In re Riley, 459 Mass. 645 (2011) – Submitted amicus brief for Supreme Judicial Court decision ruling that a law firm must continue to represent a client after the firm’s lawyer handling the case left the practice of law and the client could not find another attorney to represent him.
  • Knott v. Racicot, 442 Mass. 314 (2004) - Supreme Judicial Court decision abolishing the ancient common law doctrine presuming validity of contracts signed "under seal." Though decision was limited to option contracts, Court noted that logic of decision applies to other types of contracts as well.
  • Queler v. Skowron, 438 Mass. 304 (2002) - Supreme Judicial Court decision giving developers flexibility to use phasing and land withdrawal techniques in developing condominiums (overruling Levy v. Reardon, 43 Mass.App.Ct. 431 (1997), which limited those rights).

Professional


  • Distinctions: Peer Review AV® Preeminent™ rated by Martindale-Hubbell, the highest bestowed rating; Massachusetts Super Lawyers, 2004-2005, 2007-2018.
  • Admitted: Massachusetts; Alabama; United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts; Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts.
  • Member: Boston Bar Association, (Elected Member of Council, 2005-2008; Member, Public Service Committee, 2005-2012; Chairman, Real Estate Section, 1993-1995; Chairman, Condominium and Cooperative Committee, 1991-1993; Co-Chairman, Real Estate Pro Bono Committee, 1998-2008; Member, Real Estate Steering Committee, 1991-2010); Real Estate Bar Association for Massachusetts; The Abstract Club (Appointed Member); Community Associations Institute (Member, Attorneys' Committee); Omicron Delta Epsilon (international economics honor society); NAIOP Massachusetts.

Community Involvement


  • Board of Directors of Greater Boston Legal Services (2008-present), Vice President of Board (2016-present), Board's Program Priority Committee (2008-present), Board’s Executive Director Search Committee (2011), and the Board’s Executive Committee (2011-present).
  • Chair of the Equal Justice Coalition of Massachusetts (2010-2013), which conducts an annual Walk to the Hill lobbying campaign to support state funding for civil legal aid. Prior to that, served as a member of the Equal Justice Coalition Legislative Committee and, from 2007 to 2010, the appointed Co-Chair of its Private Bar Advisory Committee.
  • Successfully led a Real Estate Bar Association task force that worked with the justices of the Land Court on a bill, enacted in 2014, giving property owners the right to voluntarily withdraw land from the Massachusetts Torrens registered land system (2012-2014).
  • Served as the Boston Bar Association's representative on the Land Court Committee on Registered Land Guidelines assisting the Court in its 2009 publication of updated and expanded "Guidelines on Registered Land."
  • Served as chair of the Boston Bar Association's Real Estate Section and, for almost 20 years, as a member of the Section's Steering Committee.
  • From 1998 to 2008, served as Co-Chair of the Boston Bar Association's Real Estate Section Pro Bono Committee, which created and operates the highly regarded Lawyer for the Day Program at the Boston Housing Court (where volunteer lawyers advise unrepresented individuals with evictions and eviction defenses). In 2000, Sandy received the Denis Maguire Pro Bono Award for this work.
  • Awarded 2006 Adams Pro Bono Publico Award by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court for his work creating and operating the Boston Bar Association’s Lawyer for the Day Program at the Boston Housing Court.
  • Elected member of the Boston Bar Association Council from 2005 to 2008.
  • Appointed member of the Advisory Group to the Expanding Access Working Group, an adjunct to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Steering Committee on Self-Represented Litigants, established to create "unbundled" legal services pilot projects designed to expand access to attorneys.
  • Former legal services attorney for Birmingham Area Legal Services and still a member of the Alabama bar.

Publications and Speaking Engagements


News


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