Menachem Kastner. Source: https://www.cozen.com/people/bios/kastner-menachem
New York Law School. Photo: Leonora1805, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:New_York_Law_School_main_entrance.jpg)
New York Law School. Photo: Leonora1805, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:New_York_Law_School_main_entrance.jpg)
Menachem Jacob Kastner was born on October 13, 1951, in New York City to Danny and Renee Kastner. His professional life developed in New York, where he later built a legal practice focused on real-estate disputes, leasing, and related commercial litigation.
Kastner married Arlene Grunwald; the marriage ended in divorce in 1986. They have four children: Ernest, Joseph, Isaac, and Grace.
Kastner earned a Bachelor of Arts degree cum laude from Brooklyn College of the City University of New York in 1973. Brooklyn College, founded in 1930, was the first public coeducational liberal-arts college in New York City and became part of the City University of New York in 1961.
He received a Juris Doctor degree summa cum laude from New York Law School in 1976. New York Law School, founded in 1891 in Manhattan, is a professional law school whose curriculum has long been connected with practice in New York's courts and legal institutions. Kastner received the school's Trustees' Award for Highest Scholastic Achievement.
Kastner began practicing law in New York after completing his legal education and admission to the New York bar in 1977. He was an associate at Parker Chapin Flattau & Klimpl in New York City from 1976 to 1986, then became a partner at Dreyer and Traub, where his work included real-estate and landlord-tenant matters.
He later practiced with Fishbein Badillo, Weinreich, et al., and joined Cozen O'Connor, where he became a member of the firm's New York office. Cozen O'Connor is a national law firm with practices in litigation and real estate. Kastner's practice has concentrated on commercial and residential leasing, ownership and valuation disputes, cooperative and condominium litigation, lease interpretation, assignment and sublet provisions, renewal and purchase options, termination rights, and buy-out disputes.
Kastner has appeared in New York state courts, the United States District Courts for the Eastern and Southern Districts of New York, and the Supreme Court of the United States. He has also served as an official court arbitrator for the Civil Court of the City of New York, presiding over trials and inquests, mediating claims, and preparing stipulations of settlement.
His professional work has included extensive legal writing and teaching. He has contributed to the New York Law Journal and the New York State Bar Association Journal, and his articles have been cited in New York court decisions. He has lectured on landlord-tenant and cooperative-housing litigation, condominium law, equitable distribution, matrimonial tax, and the identification of litigation issues in real-estate transactions.
Kastner developed a legal practice in New York real-estate litigation involving commercial and residential leases, cooperative and condominium disputes, ownership and valuation issues, and the interpretation of lease provisions.
As an official arbitrator for the Civil Court of the City of New York, Kastner has presided over trials and inquests, mediated settlements, and prepared stipulations of settlement.
Kastner's legal articles have addressed lease defaults, conditional limitations, escalation clauses, assignments, early termination provisions, and other recurring issues in New York real-estate litigation.
Early Termination Provisions: A Landlord's Saving Grace...If Done Right
(Co-authored with Ally Hack for the New York Law Journal a...)
2018'Yellowstone' Will Live on Through Creative Practitioners
(A New York Law Journal article discussing the implication...)
2019Keeping Up With Escalation Clauses
(An article by Kastner concerning escalation clauses in Ne...)
2012(Co-authored with Ally Hack for the New York Law Journal. ...)
2010Incurable Defaults in Commercial Leases: Can You Un-Ring the Bell?
(Co-authored with Ally Hack for the New York Law Journal. ...)
2015'Artcorp' and Curing Improper Assignments
(A New York Law Journal discussion of the Artcorp Inc. v. ...)
2015
Kastner has been associated with the New York State Bar Association, the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, the Brooklyn Bar Association, and the New York State Trial Lawyers Association. These organizations support professional education, legal ethics, advocacy, and the exchange of knowledge among members of the legal profession.
His participation in the New York State Bar Association included committee work in the Real Property Law Section, particularly on landlord-tenant matters. He also participated in the Brooklyn Bar Association's real-estate committee.
Served on the Real Property Law Section's landlord-tenant committee in 1983.
New York State Bar Association , United States
Association of the Bar of the City of New York , United States
Participated in the real-estate committee in 1983.
Brooklyn Bar Association , United States
New York State Trial Lawyers Association , United States
Kastner was married to Arlene Grunwald until their divorce in 1986. They have four children, Ernest, Joseph, Isaac, and Grace. His parents were Danny Kastner and Renee Kastner.
