Gary M. Rosenberg, founding member, Rosenberg & Estis (Photo: David Handschuh/NYLJ)

I am privileged to have been asked to write about Gary Rosenberg, the founder of Rosenberg & Estis, P.C., and the lifetime achievement honor that he has been awarded.

There is no one more deserving of this honor than Gary Rosenberg. Anyone who has had the opportunity to speak with him realizes immediately that they are speaking with a profoundly intelligent man with an agile and creative mind.

While he was still in his 20s and his classmates were studying law from law books and professors, Gary began creating a law practice and what would ultimately become a highly acclaimed 80 plus attorney boutique real estate law firm. Even as a student, Gary had an intuitive sense about how to counsel, to negotiate, and to persuade. Upon admission to the bar, he founded his firm. As he likes to say, he never held another legal position.

When he first began his practice, Gary was a litigator—overwhelmingly on the appellate level. He had a hand in many ground-breaking real estate cases decided during that period—successfully challenging the constitutionality of various restraints on property rights.

Gary has a sign in his office, which he has always had, that reads, "Earth. This is G-d. You are going to have to clear out. I have a buyer for the property." It is clever and sharp, just like Gary. It is no surprise that he went on to literally change the New York City skyline, working on massive development projects like 4 Times Square, the Bank of America Tower and leading the negotiations, on behalf of the Durst Organization with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey regarding their joint venture at One World Trade Center.

There is no one who can deliver a better resolution to any situation than Gary. He examines words like a diamond dealer and finds, in those words, the meaning that he wants to ascribe. He tackles problems with the same enthusiasm as people enjoying a high-performance sport like skiing, embracing the situation like a mountain, always pointed directly towards his goal.

Among the stories he likes to tell—and he tells a pretty good story and laughs at the punchline—is one about two different people sent to sell a product in a remote, unpopulated region. One writes home and says, "There is no opportunity here, there are so few people here to sell to." But the other person writes home and says, "You can't imagine how much opportunity there is here, there are very few people here, so all of the business is mine." That is the way Gary has approached life and professional challenges, he has grabbed them with both hands and achieved remarkable results. Like other great leaders, he sees opportunity in every difficulty and creates opportunity where most people would not see that any exists.

Those of us who have had the pleasure of working with Gary for over 30 years have had the remarkable opportunity to learn and grow with him. We are all better attorneys for having done so. When he heard about this honor, his statement was "So I guess either my life is over, or I am done achieving." To the contrary, Gary is in his prime and is by no means done achieving.

Luise A. Barrack is managing member of Rosenberg & Estis.