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June 7, 2007
Underdog battles Atlantic Yards
Crain's NY Business
By Erik Engquist
Crain's profiles constitutional-rights attorney Matthew Brinckerhoff, who's representing the 13 plaintiffs in Goldstein v. Pataki, the federal lawsuit challenging the use of eminent domain for the Atlantic Yards project.
Mr. Brinckerhoff, a partner at Emery Celli Brinckerhoff & Abady, is convinced that the Supreme Court will want to use the case against Atlantic Yards to clarify its previous decision on eminent domain. Last year, the High Court ruled that local governments had a constitutional right to take private property from unwilling owners for the benefit of another private party if the project's purpose was to benefit the public.
Mr. Brinckerhoff says that Forest City's condemnations are illegal because the $4 billion project was private from the get-go, not crafted by the government for a public purpose. The attorney, who was born upstate and raised in North Dakota, believes the court's swing voter, Justice Anthony Kennedy, will be eager to hold up Atlantic Yards as an example of what does not merit the use of eminent domain.
...
Mr. Brinckerhoff rejects any notion that he's a naive optimist on Atlantic Yards. "I have a long history of representing plaintiffs who are marginalized or disenfranchised," he says, citing a 1997 suit he filed against the city on behalf of people who had been strip-searched by the police. The case was settled four years later for $50 million.
In another case that dragged on for nearly a decade, Mr. Brinckerhoff argued that the nonprofit organization Housing Works was discriminated against by the Giuliani administration. The city settled for $5 million a year and a half ago. He predicts that Atlantic Yards, too, won't be as tidy as the government hopes. "We're going to stick this out to the very bitter end," says Mr. Brinckerhoff, who is being assisted by other lawyers at his firm. "Yes, we're up against [Skadden Arps Slate Meagher and Flom], the state and the city, but we do this all the time. We stack up against anybody."
NoLandGrab: Matt Brinckerhoff has enough experience to know that it ain't over 'til it's over, and that, to mix metaphors, the Fat Lady has yet to even take the stage.
Posted by lumi at June 7, 2007 9:21 AM