A group of actual estate transactional partners in New York is poised to depart Kasowitz Benson Torres to join a Texas-based firm, in step with sources familiar with the actions. Wallace Schwartz, Julia Sanabria, and Adam Endick, who arrived at Kasowitz more than six years in the past after operating collectively at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, are preparing to depart Kasowitz, the sources stated. Schwartz, head of the firm’s actual property transactional group, arrived in 2011, and Endick and Sanabria joined in 2012. One source said the trio is eyeing Vinson & Elkins.
Marc Kasowitz, founding and dealing with a founding partner of Kasowitz, mentioned the move in a statement to ALM. “We have usually been focused on being the preeminent litigation firm in the nation, and the departure of this transactional group has no effect on that core focus or our general practice,” he said.
Less than a year ago, the Kasowitz firm appointed Schwartz as a co-managing associate of administration, in conjunction with Cindy Caranella Kelly, a litigator. The appointments in 2017 came after the firm was thrust into the public eye through Marc Kasowitz’s representation of President Donald Trump. The founding accomplice drew unflattering press attention, and control committee member Aaron Marks left for Kirkland & Ellis that 12 months.
Since Schwartz joined the company, the actual property transactional practice has grown to include more than 30 legal professionals and paralegals. Schwartz and others have represented builders and landlords in several high-profile projects in Manhattan, along with at Hudson Yards. The firm has touted the real property practice’s ranking among the various top 10 firms in real estate transaction volume in New York City for both of the past two years from The Real Deal, a change e-book. From July 2017 to June 2018, the institution labored on deals worth nearly $500 million, Kasowitz’s website stated. The partners no longer replied to requests for the remark. A spokesman for Vinson & Elkins did not immediately return messages in search of comment.
