(l-r) Latham & Watkins partners Jimmy Brandt and Michael Bern and of counsel Jonathan Lippman, the former Chief Judge of New York. Courtesy photos
When a team from Latham & Watkins filed a long-shot challenge to New York City’s property tax system back in 2017, they brought the data: Homeowners in Canarsie, a majority-minority neighborhood, were paying effectively three times the tax rate charged their Brooklyn neighbors in wealthy, majority-white Park Slope. Some upscale cooperatives valued at $4,500 per square foot were being taxed as if they were rent-regulated apartments worth $188 per square foot.
The Latham lawyers also brought the quotes, too: A slew of city officials previously made public statements backing the core of their case, including then-Mayor Bill de Blasio who said there were “obvious inequities” in the system.
