Condo Media - January 2017 - 64

Ask a Busy Person
How did you get involved in
CAI-NE and why has it been
a priority for you?
I first joined the Attorneys' Committee, and was amazed that a bunch of
attorneys who were actually competitors were willing to share information
about their cases. It was like joining a
herd-you're stronger as an individual
if you're a member of the herd. I started
attending board meetings and I chaired
the Membership Committee for more
than 20 years. I'm OCD, so I wanted
to recruit more members than anyone
else. When I got to 500 members, they
had to create a new award for that level.

How did you come to specialize
in condominium law?
I was living in a condominium, and
served on a committee with another
owner (David Levy, principal in Sterling
Services, Inc.), who was starting his condominium management company. David
called me with a condominium question; a
few weeks later, he had another question,
then he asked me to do some collection
work. And he pointed out that there were
only four attorneys in the state practicing condominium law. I had majored in
economics in college, so I understood
supply and demand and I started picking
up more condominium clients.
How did you hook up with MEEB?
I was a partner in a small Framingham law firm, practicing corporate real
estate law. They didn't think very much
of the condominium practice I was
developing, but I did. So I was receptive
when Seth Emmer asked if I wanted to
join him and two other condominium
attorneys, who were merging their practices to create a boutique condominium
law firm.
What do you like most
about condominium law?
It may look boring to some people, but
I've always found it fascinating. It's the
social interaction and the problem solving
I like most. You're talking to people and
trying to solve problems that are important to them, but it's not life or death. No
one dies if I make a mistake.
Is there a case you've handled or
a problem you've solved of which
you are particularly proud?
Persuading municipalities to recognize
their obligation to provide trash collection
services to condominium associations. I
worked on that for years, and it helped a
lot of community associations and a lot
of condominium owners. The firm also
represented a condominium association
arguing that a town that took a condo unit
for non-payment of taxes was responsible
for paying the fees on the property. It
seemed logical to me-if the town takes the

64

CONDOMEDIA

RICHARD BROOKS
Partner,
Marcus, Errico, Emmer & Brooks
If Richard Brooks had shared his
father's passion for music, he might
have tried, as his father did, to pursue
an opera career. Had Richard pursued
his own first career interest, he would
have become a priest. "That's what I
wanted to do until I was 16 or 17, but
I hadn't given it a lot of thought, and I
wasn't really married to the idea."
He decided on law, he says, "for the
dumbest reason possible." As a teen,
he was badly injured in an automobile
accident. He met the attorney representing him in a suit against the driver
only once, when he was recovering in
the hospital, and then saw him pocket
a third of the out-of-court settlement.
"I didn't know anything about being
a lawyer," he says, "but I thought it
looked like a great way to earn a lot of
money without doing very much." The
reasoning was "naïve," he admits, and
the assumption that law doesn't require
much work was hardly accurate. But
the career choice was spot on. "It is a
great job," he says, and as it turned out,
precisely what he wanted to do.
property, it owns it-but it was a new legal
theory. It went to the Supreme Judicial
Court, which agreed with us. The decision
was reported on the front page of the Wall
Street Journal, which was pretty cool.

What do you do in
your spare time?
I vacation on nude beaches. I've been
doing that for the past 30 years. There's
no social status on a nude beach. Everyone is the same. You never ask people
what they do.
What would it surprise
people to know about you?
Probably the nude beach.
What's the best advice you
ever got and from whom?
The best advice came from my
mother. She gave me a lot of advice and
it was all good.
If you could give condominium
boards one piece of legal
advice, what would it be?
Hire a property manager. You would
pay a lot more for the problems a manager can help you avoid than you'll pay
the manager.
Condo Media - January 2017

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