Neil B. Garfinkel is a graduate of Cornell Law School, where he specialized in the study of Business Law and Regulation and served as an Editor of the Cornell International Law Journal. Mr. Garfinkel received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the State University of New York at Albany, where he graduated Summa Cum Laude and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Prior to forming the predecessor to AGMB, Neil B. Garfinkel was an associate in the Real Estate Department of the law firm of Proskauer Rose Goetz & Mendelsohn.
Mr. Garfinkel is the partner-in-charge of AGMB’s real estate and banking practices.
Neil B. Garfinkel’s legal experience is diverse and his practice focuses on all aspects of commercial and residential real estate, title and banking and lending law. He further advises clients on trust and estates issues and elder law issues as those issues relate to real estate and lending transactions.
Mr. Garfinkel’s clients include national and international banks, mortgage bankers, mortgage brokers, real estate brokers, real estate developers, condominium associations, cooperative corporations, landlords, tenants, title companies, borrowers and purchasers and sellers of residential and commercial real estate.
Neil B. Garfinkel serves as Residential Counsel to the Real Estate Board of New York (“REBNY”), New York City’s leading real estate trade association. In addition to counseling REBNY on the vast array of laws and regulations that affect the real estate brokerage community, AGMB hosts the REBNY Legal Line, a daily legal hotline provided exclusively for residential members of REBNY.
Through his affiliation and participation with REBNY and the Long Island Board of Realtors (“LIBOR”), where he is an active member of LIBOR’s Legislative and Common Interest Ownership Committees and serves as the Co-chairperson of LIBOR’s Legal Assistance Committee, he has become acutely aware of the many issues that face his real estate broker clients on a daily basis. Accordingly he counsels his clients on commission disputes, licensing and disclosure requirements, agency issues, employment and wage laws, strategic alliances and affiliated business relationships and disciplinary actions instituted by governmental entities. Mr. Garfinkel is also a member of the New York State Association of Realtors and the National Association of Realtors.
Mr. Garfinkel similarly counsels his mortgage banking and mortgage broker clients on all aspects of their businesses. His expertise in cooperative corporation law has enabled him to assist national lending institutions in creating cooperative loan programs in New York. Furthermore, Mr. Garfinkel has traveled extensively throughout the country to provide training programs to the employees of his banking clients. He maintains a strong knowledge of the requirements of the secondary mortgage market, which enables him to ensure that the loans closed by AGMB are saleable. Furthermore, Mr. Garfinkel has counseled his clients on loan portfolio acquisitions and sales. He is well versed in the complex areas of federal and state licensing and lending laws and assists his clients in obtaining banking and broker licenses, as well as structuring affiliated business relationships under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. Mr. Garfinkel sits on the board of directors of the Empire State Mortgage Bankers Association and is a member of the New York Association of Mortgage Brokers, the Community Mortgage Bankers Forum, the Mortgage Bankers Association of New York and National Association of Mortgage Brokers.
Neil B. Garfinkel’s practice has become increasingly focused on the real estate and financing needs of the “senior” community. He has represented reverse mortgage lenders for many years and he has witnessed the reverse mortgage product evolve into an important financial option for seniors. He assisted the nation’s largest reverse mortgage lender in creating one of the only reverse cooperative lending programs in the country. Mr. Garfinkel maintains the prestigious CSA (Certified Senior Advisor) and SRES (Senior Real Estate Specialist) designations and is a member of the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association.
Mr. Garfinkel serves as general counsel to a real estate investment firm and a title company, where he advises these companies on legal and business issues on a daily basis. This unique combination of knowledge and experience enables him to better serve his many clients and address their needs from a multi-faceted perspective.
Mr. Garfinkel enjoys teaching and speaking about a variety of real estate, title and lending topics. He is certified by the New York Department of State as an instructor of real estate courses, and frequently teaches at REBNY, LIBOR and the Real Estate Training Center. He has appeared on various television shows, including the CBS Local News, CNBC, Bloomberg News and New York 1 News. He has appeared on nationally syndicated radio, has been published in the REBNY Reporter, the Realtor, is a contributing editor to a training manual for the real estate broker community, and has been quoted in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Newsday, Reuters, AP, Dow Jones, Forbes.com, Bankrate.com, CNN.com, as well as numerous other publications.
Mr. Garfinkel is also a member of the New York State Bar Association, the Cornell University Real Estate Council, the Cornell Club of Long Island and is a past president of the Little Neck Jewish Center. He resides in Great Neck, New York with his wife and two children.
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