Condo Media - May 2010 - 50

VOLUNTEER SPOTLIGHT

CAI-NE Spotlight: Stephen Marcus
Hall of Fame Award Winner Still Finds Condominium Law Engaging, Challenging and Entertaining
sk Stephen Marcus to talk about condominium law or the Community Associations Institute New England Chapter (CAI-NE), and he will do so enthusiastically and at length. Ask Marcus to talk about himself and a long silence ensues. “You’ll have to get that from other people,” he suggests finally. Fortunately, for what would otherwise be a two-paragraph article, it isn’t hard to find others who are more than willing to talk about the Massachusetts attorney and the contributions to the community association industry that made him this year’s choice for CAINE’s Hall of Fame Award. The award recognizes members “who have selflessly volunteered countless hours of their time and shared without hesitation their expertise in advancing the interests of community associations, CAI and its members,” explained CAI-NE President Tony Chiarelli, in presenting the award to Marcus at the chapter’s annual banquet in February. Key words in Chiarelli’s presentation — “expertise,” “selfless” and “share” — surface repeatedly in the comments of colleagues and industry executives who have worked with Marcus, a partner in Marcus, Errico, Emmer & Brooks, over the past 30 years. Almost everyone, it seems, can recall situations in which Marcus has cited from memory, and in detail, obscure laws and ancient court decisions.

Group, a Massachusetts association management company. “Stephen is always in the forefront [of new developments],” he continues. “If you are confronting something quirky, Stephen is the one you want to call,” not just because of his knowledge of industry issues, McBride says,

human search engine for condominium issues,” another suggests. While Marcus would almost certainly cringe at the praise, those who know him simply nod in agreement. “Stephen doesn’t have to stand up and say, ‘Look what I’ve done,’” says Massachusetts attorney Charles Perkins, a former law partner of Marcus’ and a long-time friend. “A lot of things that have been most important to the industry have Stephen’s stamp on them,” asserts Perkins, a partner in the Massachusetts law firm Perkins & Anctil. Perkins (and just about everyone else) puts the Massachusetts “Super Lien” law on the top of a long list of the initiatives bearing Marcus’ stamp, and it’s a topic Marcus himself is happy to discuss.

Super Lien Success
Stephen Marcus, recipient of CAI-NE Hall of Fame Award

The “Go-To” Guy
“He is the ‘go-to’ guy in the industry for advice on complex problems or emerging issues,” observes Bob McBride, president of the Dartmouth

but also because of his willingness to share what he knows. “It’s just the kind of person he is,” McBride continues, noting that Marcus is also usually the first to reach for the check after a dinner. “When you’re on the phone with attorneys, you always hear the meter ticking in the background, but Stephen will talk for an hour about these things, and it’s not billable time for him — it’s an education thing. I’m not sure his partners like that so much,” McBride laughs. But his view of knowledge more as something to be shared than as a commodity to be sold has made Marcus “an industry treasure,” according to one association manager. “He’s like a

The campaign to establish a priority lien for Massachusetts community associations, resulting in the enactment of the 1992 statute, was the first major legislative battle in which Marcus was involved. “We were young and naïve,” he says of that effort. “We were going up against the banks and the mortgage companies and the real estate industry, and there was no way we were going to win. But what we lacked in intelligence, we made up for in determination.” The determination came from the recognition that without a fundamental change in industry practice at the time, many condominium associations would not survive. “The economy then was as bad as it is now,” Marcus recalls, and delinquent payments were a huge and growing problem for many communities. Associations would exer-

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Condo Media - May 2010

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