Rich Klein, Riverside Public Relations LLC
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Newman Ferrara LLP Lands Transactional Lawyer Robert Epstein

To Expand Commercial Real Estate Practice

Brings High-Profile Deal Experience

New York, NY, March 31, 2004 …Robert Epstein, a real estate attorney who has negotiated complex real estate transactions for New York’s best-known owners and tenants, is joining the law firm of Newman Ferrara LLP ( www.FNFllp.com) on April 1.

Epstein, 45, will be Of Counsel to the downtown Manhattan firm and play a key role in expanding Finkelstein Newman’s real estate transactional practice. He will focus his efforts on leasing, acquisitions, sales, and financing.

“We are pleased that a person of Robert’s caliber is joining us,” said Jonathan H. Newman, managing partner of Newman Ferrara LLP. “While we are already well-known in New York business and legal circles for real estate litigation, Robert gives us the ability to grow the transactional side of our business for years to come.”

Epstein said: “I’ve known and have worked with the lawyers at Finkelstein Newman for years and they are a very talented group of litigators. Although the firm has advised clients on a wide variety of transactions, my arrival gives the firm added strength on the transactional side because I will be devoting all my time to attracting and handling real estate deals.”

Epstein previously served as general counsel for Zar Realty Management Corp., where he provided legal counsel for sales, acquisitions, financings, leases, construction contracts, labor and employment issues, telecom, software, petroleum, and gaming investments, both domestic and international, and litigation. He was involved in many notable deals, including the $675 million acquisition of 11 Madison Avenue, the settlement of a $200 million lawsuit over the 1.7 million square foot net lease with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority at 2 Broadway, the sale of the 350,000 square foot leasehold at 90 Washington, and the net lease and residential conversion of three office buildings at 110/120 Church Street and 53 Park Place.

And while a real estate attorney at DelBello Donnellan Weingarten & Tartaglia in White Plains, Epstein represented Stew Leonard’s in the company’s ground lease negotiations for its landmark dairy/food store in Yonkers. Earlier in his career, he served as general counsel of The Friedman Realty Group, where he worked on the acquisition by Bertelsmann of 1540 Broadway, later named by the Real Estate Board of New York as the “Deal of the Year.” He began his career as an associate at Allen Matkins Leck Gamble & Mallory, a Los Angeles law firm which has one of the largest real estate departments in the country. While there he represented The Koll Company in negotiating the 400,000 square foot Taco Bell corporate headquarters lease in Irvine, at that time the largest lease in Orange County history.

He has authored over 15 articles on real estate issues that have been published in major legal and real estate publications.

Epstein, a Long Island native, received his J.D. in 1983 from Stanford University Law School and his B.S. in 1980 from Cornell University. He, his wife, and their two children, live in Manhattan.