Condo Media - December 2019 - 39

Volunteer Spotlight

The Right Stuff
Attorney Stephen Marcus Makes a Practice of
Giving Back-Professionally and Personally
How many awards and accolades can one person achieve
over the course of a career?
It seems as though there simply
aren't enough to honor the accomplishments of Stephen M. Marcus,
whose volunteerism on behalf of
Community Associations Institute
(CAI) and the Crohn's & Colitis
Foundation has reaped huge benefits for both organizations.
A founding partner of Marcus,
Errico, Emmer & Brooks of Braintree, Mass., and Merrimack, NH,
Stephen scored a huge win on behalf of the New England Chapter of
CAI (CAI-NE) in the early 1990s,
when he played a key role in the
enactment of a statute establishing
a priority lien for Massachusetts
community associations. Several
other states had enacted legislation
that gave associations limited priority on delinquent accounts
over the first mortgage holder, but Stephen and his colleagues
faced an uphill battle to get the bill passed in Massachusetts.
He essentially took a year off from his legal practice to meet
with state legislators and bankers to explain how such a statute
would be a win-win situation. "The lending community said it
was crazy," he recalls. But through his expertise in condominium law, sheer persistence, and a last-minute full-court press,
he and his colleagues were able to persuade all parties involved
why giving priority to delinquent condominium fees should
be made law. "It wasn't a question of redecorating the whole
building-it was a question of being able to pay water and sewer
bills, electricity for the common areas, elevator service," he says.
"Without it, associations would have gone into bankruptcy.
It would have been a disaster." The law was passed on April 6,
1993, and is considered by many experts to be the best prioritylien law in the country. "It was a game changer," Stephen says.
It was only one of Stephen's triumphs on behalf of CAI. At
the state level, he was also instrumental in working with the
legislature to reverse Department of Environmental Protection regulations that would have required condominium associations to install hugely expensive wastewater treatment

plants-a decision he estimates
has saved associations anywhere from $50-$100 million.
On the national level,
Stephen has worked with
CAI to win changes to the
federal bankruptcy reform
law and helped CAI tackle the
Telecommunications Act, to
regulate where satellite dishes
may be installed within condominium communities.
As a result of these and
other efforts on behalf of CAI,
Stephen was named a CAI-NE
Hall of Fame winner in 2010
and two years ago received the
prestigious Don Buck Lifetime
Achievement Award, a national
award bestowed by CAI's National College of Community
Association Lawyers (CCAL).
It might seem incredible that Stephen has time for anything else. But as a long-time sufferer of Crohn's disease, he
is equally passionate in his support of the Crohn's & Colitis
Foundation. Together with his son Jake, he formed a local
group that raised $1.2 million for the Crohn's & Colitis
Foundation within eight years.
Not surprisingly, Stephen's activities on behalf of the
organization received notice. "Crohn's & Colitis approached
me and said, 'You should be chapter president,'" he says.
"I didn't even know there was a chapter!" He took on the
job, however, and under his leadership, the chapter saw a
major turnaround, hiring an executive director and boosting
its fundraising ability-raising awareness and putting a lot
of money toward finding a cure in the process.
Though no longer chapter president, Stephen continues
to advocate for Crohn's sufferers in the legislature and also
offers guidance and referrals to those who seek him out for
advice. On November 2, during a banquet celebrating the
chapter's 50th anniversary, Stephen was honored as the
organization's 2019 Person of the Year.
"Life is about overcoming challenges," Stephen says.
"The journey is the reward-and it's been a hell of a ride."
December 2019 CONDOMEDIA

Condo Media - December 2019

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