For better or worse, even New York’s healthiest buildings—those assets that manage to avoid over-leveraging and shoddy craftsmanship—live and breathe thanks to armies of real estate lawyers, responsible for everything from debt originations and litigation to tenant-landlord disputes and bankruptcy filings.

Indeed, for every real estate developer trumpeted in the daily newspapers, you can bet a couple dozen are standing right behind him, making sure he’s protected from attackers in one of New York’s most perilous industries.

After surveying a dozen of the most visible real estate lawyers in town and whittling from a list of more than 30 notable cases, we bring you our highly subjective list.

After the jump, the 15 most fascinating real estate cases of the 21st century.

BY DANIEL GEIGER

A real estate executive who was formerly one of the top officers in the real estate empire of billionaire owner and developer Sheldon Solow has filed what is likely to be a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against Mr. Solow for unpaid retirement funds, The Commercial Observer has learned.

Steven Cherniak worked with Mr. Solow for 26 years before abruptly leaving Mr. Solow’s firm, Solow Realty and Development Company, in 2008. In a case filed in U.S. District Court on July 19, Mr. Cherniak alleges Mr. Solow dismissed him without cause and didn’t pay him a previously agreed-upon retirement package.

In his complaint, Mr. Cherniak describes his last days with the firm in December 2008 when, he asserts, without prior notice, Mr. Solow told him it was “time for [him] to leave.” Mr. Solow then seemed to vacillate, having associates call Mr. Cherniak several times through the weekend to tell him to return to the company. Mr. Cherniak said that by Sunday night, however, he was instructed to stay home, and he was not offered another chance to rejoin the company.

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BY JOTHAM SEDERSTROM

When Wally Schwartz accepted a position as head of real estate at Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman, a national firm with offices in New York, Houston, San Francisco and other major cities, the group had no transactional lawyers on its payroll and only supported a litigation platform. Over the past 14 months, however, Mr. Schwartz, formerly the head of real estate at Skadden, has tackled work for Starwood Capital in its acquisition of the leasehold interest at 1372 Broadway, and Boston Properties’ 500,000-square-foot deal with Citibank at 601 Lexington Avenue, while simultaneously expanding his department to nearly a dozen attorneys. Mr. Schwartz, a partner at the firm, spoke to The Commercial Observer last week about representing the gaming industry in its mission to break into New York.

The Commercial Observer: Among other skills, you specialize in hotel and gaming issues. With Governor Cuomo supportive of legalized gambling in New York, have you been fairly busy? Mr. Schwartz: Well, we’re currently working on a significant $500 million hotel and casino project for Penn National Gaming that will be located in the Northeast, but I can’t really be more specific than that at the moment.

Is activity in the gaming sector heating up all across the region? Yeah.

As head of Kasowitz’s real estate group, are you beginning to staff up for what most people assume are going to be a lot more gaming interests across New York? Yeah, that’s one of the things. Look, we see in the future we’ll be doing more hotels and casino work in the Northeast and around the country. You know, we do this work with Penn Gaming all around the country—we’ve done it in Texas, Maryland, Kansas—and they’re very good about going into states anticipating where laws are about to change, and they don’t hesitate to lobby to help the laws to change.

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BY DANIEL EDWARD ROSEN

When the Metropolitan Transportation Authority finalized its construction plans for the Fulton Center, the result will be a downtown commuter’s dream. But to get there, the MTA had to use eminent domain to take over and demolish 194-196 Broadway, a building owned by DLR Properties, in 2006. The agency valued the building, which housed a host of fast-food tenants, at $27.4 million. The attorneys at Rosenberg & Estis disagreed, claiming the building was valued at nearly $60 million. The firm represented DLR Properties in three separate rulings and eventually helped its client score as many victories: The food-service tenants in the building can recover $15 million in damages for the value of trade fixtures lost, the MTA must pay $35.2 million for undervaluing the property, and the agency must also pay the legal fees and expenses for DLR. Rosenberg and Estis founding partner Warren Estis revealed how he helped DLR Properties get its true value from eminent domain. The Commercial Observer: When were you first approached by The Riese Organization [the parent fee owner of 194 Broadway]? Mr. Estis: I’ve been representing the Riese family going back since 1980, when the Riese brothers, Irving and Murray Riese, ran the organization, and had a wonderful, and still have a wonderful, relationship with them.

How did they categorize their problems with the MTA at the time? He [current CEO Dennis Riese] was trying to protect his property interests at a location that’s been in the Riese family for many, many years. If it was going to be taken, he wanted to make sure he was properly compensated for the property.

What was your initial argument in court? I think we were verifying that it was appropriate and … it became an issue of compensation for the fee owner and also the tenants [KFC, TGI Friday’s, Pizza Hut and Dunkin’ Donuts, all affiliates of The Riese Organization] that were occupying the premises.

To read the full interview click here