Professor Richard J. Sobelsohn has practiced law for more than 27 years as a real estate attorney with a sub-specialty in sustainable building law.
When he began his legal career, Professor Sobelsohn worked as a solo practitioner while at the same time running an adult business school specializing in real estate, insurance and accounting. He then went in-house as general counsel to a real estate development firm and after working about four years in-house, Richard worked at the law firms Stroock, Stroock & Lavan, Kaye Scholer (now Arnold & Porter), and Moses & Singer, where he advised developers, corporations, financial institutions and individuals concerning a variety of real estate transactions including condominium offerings, leasing, sustainable development, acquisitions, dispositions, financing, and ground-up construction. Professor Sobelsohn left Moses & Singer to create the Real Estate module for Lexis’s product originally called Lexis Practice Advisor (now Lexis Practical Guidance) and after working at Lexis, he returned to practice to work in-house again, this time at Cohen Brothers Realty Corporation, where he is Vice President, Legal.
In addition to his teaching duties at Columbia Law School, Professor Sobelsohn is an adjunct professor of law at Brooklyn Law School, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, and Fordham University School of Law, where he teaches Real Estate Transactions, Sustainable Building Law, Commercial Leasing and Condominiums and Cooperatives. Professor Sobelsohn is a Green Globes Professional, LEED Accredited Professional, a member of The Fellows of the American Bar Foundation, and a Fellow of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers.
Professor Sobelsohn speaks and writes extensively on Sustainable Building Law. He is the author of the “Green Lease Provisions” chapter in the two-volume treatise “Negotiating and Drafting Office Leases”, "The Ultimate Green Playbook for Condos and Coops", and most recently his two law review articles entitled "Keeping Your Eye on the ESG Sustainable Development Ball" and "Carbon Emissions and Energy Benchmarking".