Actively at the helm of the law firm he built from scratch, Adam Leitman Bailey, Esq. practices residential and commercial real estate law. Mr. Bailey is one of two attorneys from a law firm with less than 30 attorneys that has been ranked in Chambers & Partners, honored with a Martindale-Hubbell “AV” Preeminent rating, a Best Lawyers ranking for himself and his law firm and selected by Super Lawyers as one of the New York’s “Top 100” attorney’s a list that included only five real estate law firm’s attorneys.

The internationally esteemed Chambers & Partners has repeatedly selected Mr. Bailey as one of New York’s Leading Lawyers in Real Estate. The Commercial Observer named him as one of New York’s Most Powerful Real Estate Attorneys. After Mr. Bailey’s firm used a forgotten statute to prevail in a landmark case, the Wall Street Journal quoted a prominent New York developer’s attorney who called the holding a “ game changer” affecting real estate nationwide. In another case, the settlement Bailey received was the largest condominium settlement in history for one building, and in another transaction, he obtained the largest government grant ($21 million) for a cooperative in New York history. The Commercial Observer ranked another victory among their “15 Most Fascinating New York Real Estate Cases of the 21st Century.” Most recently, Mr. Bailey secured the largest settlement in New York City history for a property casualty lawsuit.

In 2011, Mr. Bailey wrote Finding the Uncommon Deal: A Top New York Lawyer Explains How to Buy a Home for the Lowest Possible Price. The book gained Bailey the 2012 “First Time Author” award granted by the National Association of Real Estate Editors. Bailey has also been elected a Fellow of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers (ACREL), where he serves on the Insurance and Title Insurance committees , and is a former member of the American College of Mortgage Attorneys (ACMA).

Michael J. Berey passed away on June 17th 2025. Prior to his death, Michael J. Berey was a Senior Underwriter for the Manhattan office of the First American Title Insurance Company and was actively in New York's title insurance industry for over 40 years. For almost two decades, he was First American’s Chief Underwriting Counsel for New York State and a Senior Vice-President of the company. In 2014, he received the New York State Bar Association Real Property Law Section’s Professionalism Award, and in 2016 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the New York State Land Title Association. He was on the Executive Committee of the New York State Bar Association’s Real Property Law Section from 2000–2014 and on the Executive Committee of the New York State Land Title Association from 2000–2014. He was the Chairperson of the State Bar’s Real Property Law Section’s Task Force on Electronic Recording, the Section’s Webmaster from 2000-2014, and the Chairperson of NYSLTA’s Law Committee from 2010-2013.

A Fellow of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers, and formerly a member of the American College of Mortgage Attorneys, Mr. Berey had authored numerous articles on issues relating to real property, including New York’s transfer taxes and mortgage recording tax and title insurance, and has been a frequent lecturer. Since 1997, he had authored Current Developments, a regularly issued bulletin on real estate and title insurance-related New York case law and legislation, which is distributed by email. He graduated from Boston College Law School in 1976.

A message from Michael J. Berey:

“I also wish to send my thanks to all the authors who participated in the monumental project. Certainly, for many, it took a great deal of time away from their professional and personal lives, hopefully at not too great a sacrifice to either. My wife survived Adam being a form of pseudo-spouse.

Unlike a law review type article, typically resting in a physical or electronic library, accessed not always by only academics and other authors who publish the same, the chapters in Real Estate Titles, in whatever form accessed, will be often accessed by real estate and title insurance professionals, and others, for at least the next generation.

It was a pleasure to edit this update with Adam. I think we had a lot of fun doing it, even with significant time spent. I, and Adam (I am sure), trust that you are proud of your involvement, as you should be, and, again, we thank you!”

Adam Leitman Bailey’s dedication to Michael J. Berey:

    Mike Berey died on the morning of June 17th after the 2025/2026 book had been drafted and fully edited and submitted to the New York State Bar Association for publication. The writing and editing of this book was, besides his love for his family, the most important task in Mike’s life.  He even wrote to me in an email, prophetically, that he was so glad that we could write and edit “this book as a team. When they write my epitaph, I hope they write ‘and he collaborated with Adam Leitman Bailey’”.  Mike and I were close friends and became even closer, collaborating on the book.  We spoke almost every day during its writing and then at least once a week during production and marketing, for two editions.  So I am writing this dedication to this wonderful man with a heavy heart. He was much more than a legendary lawyer who helped everyone who asked and who happened to know title and real estate law better than everyone else to the extent that he could answer the most archaic question with a memo from the appropriate agency handy or case law in hand. 

As real estate attorney Richard Fries defined the man so eloquently:

“Mike was our Oracle.  

His mastery of real estate law, title, tax, administrative law, statutes and regulations was legendary.  His recall of the most esoteric rules and sometimes decades-old judicial and administrative pronouncements astounded us all to this very day.  

His love of real estate, law​ development, and our town was evident in his every swift and tireless response to questions he received at all hours from near and far.  

He yearned to assist us, to help us get it right.  To make sure we did.  

Hundreds of times we clamored, seemingly in unison, “Let’s ask Mike Berey.  He’ll know.”   And he always did.  

His dry wit (from the podium; in an e-mail; at lunch or the REBNY dinner) charmed us all.

He was prolific, beyond our ability to fathom.

And yet he never wasted a word. 

He never sought an acknowledgement of his skill, insight, judgment or responsiveness.  Indeed, he gave credit and accolades to others for their thoughts and ideas, when that credit — those accolades — belonged singularly to him.

I don’t think Mike had an ego.  

But what stood out most of all was Mike’s generosity.  

Year after year, he answered our call.  He didn’t just muse an answer; he demonstrated it, with citations – and humility.  

Those citations were always at his fingertips, it seems.    I actually think they were embedded in his mind.  

His generosity to all of us did not recede one iota in his “retirement.”   He was always there for us; cheerfully; not a word wasted; an answer, citation in tow, never in doubt…”  

A tremendous loss for the legal community, but at the same time, Mike Berey poured himself and his time into writing and editing Real Estate Titles and leaves behind what I am sure he considered the greatest book on real estate law ever written.  I am the one truly honored to write, edit and collaborate with a legend and master of real estate law--my good friend Mike Berey.  And I am so glad that we have Real Estate Titles--not only to remember him by but to continue to learn from his teachings. 

This book is hereby dedicated to Michael J. Berey.