If anyone loses this case then the entire industry is going down in the same lawsuit and the exact same lawyer will be stuck on both sides of the fence.
"They may have made confessions in the past but one must not forget they were in prison for a long period and confessions made during such a long period are not always exact," said the lawyer, Esmail Nasseri.
"The problem with the model that L.A. uses is it provides lawyers the exact opposite incentive you would want your lawyer to have if they were working for you," he said.
"[Police] told us she was under residential surveillance at a designated place but refused to tell us the exact address," said her lawyer, Li Yuhan.
Though there are no exact statistics, Housing Court judges and lawyers said that in late December, there are significantly fewer evictions than other times of the year.
Whoever bought the Empire State Building now would face the prospect of wrangling with two of Manhattan's most difficult real estate titans: Peter Malkin, an iron-willed Harvard-educated lawyer who was exacting to the point of annoyance, and Leona Helmsley, a notoriously volatile woman who was sowing terror through the billion-dollar real estate empire assembled by her ailing husband, Harry.
But he also used the tragedy as a means to promote his travel ban — and he even used the word "ban," the exact language his administration and lawyers have been trying to avoid.
"In the heart of the matter, they committed the exact same actions," said Mark Feygin, a lawyer on the defense team.
Neither he nor his lawyer would discuss the exact fees -- "I don't even want to know," Mr. Goldsmith said -- but two Manhattan lawyers said the going rate for a good New York lawyer averaged $300 to $400 an hour.
Mr. Languedoc said the language of the renewal option in the sublease should be examined carefully by a lawyer to determine the exact scope of the subtenant's rights.
