Neil H. Lebowitz

Phone: 518-792-1638
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Experience

Neil H. Lebowitz has been practicing law for over 30 years. He represents businesses, individuals, and municipalities in transactional matters, civil litigation, and administrative law proceedings.

Neil began his career in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he worked for law firms involved in business and commercial litigation and regulatory law. Clients of the firms consisted primarily of cable television companies, warehousing and storage operations, manufacturers and other shippers contracting with transportation service providers, and motor carriers involved in hauling freight. Neil worked on litigation related to cable television franchises and First Amendment rights, the prosecution and defense of lawsuits arising out of trucking company violations of tariffs filed with state and federal regulatory agencies, breach of contract actions, and other business and commercial litigation.

Since returning to Glens Falls, where he was born and raised, Neil has focused on general business and corporate law, intellectual property, real estate transactions and litigation, and real property tax law. He has also worked on municipal law matters, having represented an industrial development agency, a local development corporation, and other municipal entities.

Neil has assisted clients with forming corporations and limited liability companies, purchasing and selling businesses and residential and commercial real estate, evaluating franchise and other business opportunities, project financings, mortgage loans, and copyright and trademark registrations and licensing. He has also represented clients in lawsuits and administrative agency proceedings arising out of mercury and petroleum product contamination, breach of contract actions, real estate disputes, and real property tax law assessment litigation.

Neil brings a thoughtful, strategic approach to solving problems and obtaining results. His approach is informed by his experience in both litigation and transactions. He realizes the best way to achieve a goal is to reasonably plan, carefully evaluate the opportunity and alternatives, and negotiate the best possible result under the circumstances — assuming the deal makes sense. Transactions are risk management situations. Not everything is a zero-sum game. Mutual interests can be advanced. Careful evaluation and negotiation are key. They can help avoid the heartache and pain of a deal gone awry and the cost and expense of a follow-up lawsuit, if any. Litigation should be the last resort. It's the functional equivalent of war, with all the costs. It should only be resorted to when there is a legitimate dispute as to the facts or their legal significance. Compromise may produce the best result. Sometimes, however, litigating a claim or defense to judgment is the only way to resolve the matter.

Education

Neil attended undergraduate school at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he majored in history. His honors thesis was on the Great Awakening in New London, Connecticut, a religious revival in the 1740s. After receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree, with honors, he attended graduate school at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and studied American History. He received his Juris Doctorate from Washington University in St. Louis, where he served on one of the school’s law reviews.

Bar Admissions

  • New York
  • California
  • U.S. District Court, Northern District of California
  • U.S. District Court, Northern District of New York

Publications

Publications include:

  • "‘Above Party, Class or Creed’: Rent Control in the United States, 1940-1947,” 7 Journal of Urban History 439 (1981)
  • “Poletown Neighborhood Council v. City of Detroit: Economic Instability, Relativism, and the Eminent Domain Public Use Limitation,” 24 Journal of Urban and Contemporary Law 215 (1983)

Civic Activities

Community organizations that Neil has participated in in various capacities include:

  • Chapman Historical Museum
  • Lake George Arts Project, Inc.
  • Lower Adirondack Regional Arts Council, Inc.
  • The Saratoga Film Forum, Inc.
  • Adirondack Regional Chambers of Commerce, Inc.
  • Warren County Democratic Committee Executive Committee
  • Warren Washington Regional Economic Development Corporation
  • Family YMCA of the Glens Falls Area

Bar Association Memberships

  • American Bar Association
  • New York State Bar Association
  • Warren County Bar Association

© 2012, 2017 Neil H. Lebowitz