At this year’s Above & Beyond, Sanctuary will honor Gregory Pressman of Schulte Roth & Zabel for his invaluable assistance in multiple cases involving real estate matters.
At this year’s Above & Beyond Awards, Sanctuary for Families is pleased to honor its go-to real estate counsel, Gregory Pressman of Schulte Roth & Zabel, LLP, with an Above & Beyond Award for his invaluable assistance to Sanctuary’s clients in multiple cases involving real estate matters.
Greg Pressman is a well-known and extremely accomplished real estate lawyer who has generously shared his expertise and decades of experience to help Sanctuary’s clients navigate complex and critical real estate matters that arise as part of the client’s domestic violence or matrimonial cases. In the cases that Greg has worked on, abusers often attempt to use ownership and financing of real estate, including the family’s home, as a means of control and intimidation against Sanctuary’s clients. The Sanctuary team, with Greg’s help, has worked on several cases where the team has been able to educate clients as to their rights with respect to real estate matters, work with clients to come up with innovative strategies in unusual and particularly complex cases, and help clients fight for their rights with respect to their homes and real estate assets (which are often used by abusers to jeopardize a client’s sense of security, sense of stability, and financial independence). For example, Greg was instrumental in helping a client and her children recover their rightful share of the proceeds of the sale of the family home through an escrow arrangement in a case where her husband had left the country and married again without the client’s knowledge.
Greg is both a trusted advisor and a critical member of several litigation teams where real estate matters are central to the outcome of cases. Greg’s thorough understanding of real estate law, real estate ownership and financing documents, and negotiation strategies has been invaluable to clients. In a case where the client’s abuser is using the foreclosure of the family home and associated debt to exert coercive control over the client, Greg has offered invaluable insight into the complex foreclosure matters, employed strategic negotiations, and worked on innovative settlement solutions to obtain the best outcome for our client.
Greg is always willing to assist the Sanctuary lawyers in any way they need him to, from reviewing mortgage documents, answering questions about sales of client’s homes and real estate foreclosure issues to leading negotiations and coming up with novel and creative litigation strategies that involve thinking out of box. Greg is very responsive and has spent countless hours advising clients, the Sanctuary lawyers and other pro bono counsel in spite of his busy schedule. He will even call the Sanctuary team on weekends to answer questions. He always goes above and beyond in his representation of Sanctuary’s clients, such as visiting the client’s property to better understand why the house is in foreclosure and assess its potential value better and personally contacting and staying in touch with a referee appointed to oversee the foreclosure of a house so as to keep the client updated and informed in order to obtain the best possible outcome in a difficult situation.
While Greg’s dedication in generously volunteering his time and skills in real estate matters has made him an invaluable resource to Sanctuary, what really stands out is that Greg treats every client with respect, dignity, and compassion as he empowers clients with respect to their rights. Greg also has a great appreciation for the dedication, skills, and stress level that Sanctuary’s lawyers work under and therefore wants to share his time and knowledge with them and be a part of the team. Greg’s involvement with Sanctuary started many years ago when he successfully advised Sanctuary on a critical mortgage matter involving Sanctuary’s Sarah Burke House shelter, which led to Sanctuary inviting Greg to join the Sanctuary Board in 2007. Greg served on Sanctuary’s Board from 2007 to 2016 and during his board tenure worked closely with Sanctuary on real estate matters involving Sanctuary’s office space. In the past few years, Greg has become involved with direct client pro bono work (even connecting clients to Sanctuary), which he has done with great energy and dedication for the last several years. Sanctuary is pleased to honor Greg for his countless contributions towards helping and empowering Sanctuary’s clients.
Join us at our Above & Beyond Awards Ceremony on November 2, 2022, as we honor Greg Pressman’s outstanding pro bono work.
If you can’t join us, but would like to support Sanctuary’s work, please consider making an Above & Beyond donation here.
Tushna Gamadia is an of counsel in the Real Estate Group at Morrison & Foerster LLP, works with Sanctuary for Families’ clients on pro bono cases and is a member of Sanctuary for Families Pro Bono Council.