Lecturer Bios
Blaine Z. Schwadel, Esq.
Blaine Schwadel has been practicing regulatory law in New York City for more than 30 years. His practice includes representation of property owners and lenders in all aspects of rent regulatory issues. He graduated from the City University of New York in 1978 and from New York Law School cum laude in 1981.
Blaine became associated with Rosenberg & Estis, P.C. in 1979 and was named member in 1987. He was previously employed by the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, Office of Rent and Housing Maintenance (Rent Control Division).
Blaine supervises Rosenberg & Estis's Regulatory Law Group and personally represents clients in all such matters including MCI and J51 filings, administrative proceedings before the DHCR, AG, HPD, ECB and Building Department, as well as in Article 78 proceedings and Appeals to the higher courts. He also conducts and coordinates the various aspects of Rent Regulatory due diligence matters for both purchasers and lenders. He counsels developers, investors, REITs and lenders in the highly specialized rent regulation aspects of residential real estate, including transactions, development, tax benefit programs, maximization of rents and defense of tenant claims relating to residential, hotel and mixed-use properties.
Blaine has taught classes on NY rent regulation at the New York University School of Continuing Education/Real Estate Institute, is a frequent participant in RSA and CHIP seminar programs and has been a featured speaker before the New York State Bar Association, Real Property Law Section, Committee on Landlord and Tenant, on the topic of DHCR Law, Practice and Procedure from an owner's point of view.
Theodore Oberman
Theodore Oberman is the Director of Commercial Exemptions and Abatements at the NYC Department of Finance, a position in which he has served since 2011. In this position he manages 19 different exemption and abatement programs. Prior to this, he worked at a number of City agencies and a Not for Profit, working in areas as diverse as grant administration for services for people with HIV/AIDS to managing the NYC Department of Transportation CompStat program. He has a BA and MA from the University of Chicago, and is a life long resident of Brooklyn.
Robin Bernstein
Robin Bernstein is the Deputy General Counsel to the Rent Stabilization Association. Prior to her current position, Ms. Bernstein served as inhouse General Counsel to a major New York City property owner, and was in private practice in the areas of landlord/tenant and real estate litigation and transactions. Ms. Bernstein has coordinated and co authored materials for numerous RSA seminars including: Property Insurance for Apartment Building Owners Learning from Sandy, Managing Rent Regulated Property in New York City series, and The City’s New Energy laws series. Ms.
Bernstein is a member of the New York City Bar Association, The New York State Bar Association, the New York County Lawyers’ Association and the Association of Corporate Counsel. She has served on the Housing Court and Housing Court Public Projects Committees of the New York Bar Association. She has also served on the New York Bar Association Judiciary Committee for several terms. Prior to the implementation of the Housing Court Resource Centers, Ms. Bernstein supervised RSA staff located in the court houses that assisted unrepresented small property owners. The
written owners’ materials now distributed in the Resource Centers were modeled on documents drafted by RSA. She is a certified member of the Volunteer Lawyers Program of the Housing
Part of the Civil Court of the City of New York. She served on the New York City Hoarding Task Force, and the City DRIE Board. Ms. Bernstein has worked with City officials, NYSERDA, private consultants, lenders, Con Edison and National Grid to educate RSA members on how to comply with the City’s new energy laws.
Mitchell L. Posilkin, Esq.
Mitchell Posilkin is the General Counsel of the Rent Stabilization Association, a trade association that represents approximately 25,000 owners and managers of over one million
apartments in the City. In that capacity, Mr. Posilkin addresses myriad issues that affect property owners which arise in the courts, in government agencies and in the State Legislature and City
Council. Prior to the commencement of his tenure at RSA in January 1996, Mr. Posilkin served as Deputy General Counsel of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development for
eleven years, including two and one half years as the Acting Director of the Department's Housing Litigation Bureau. Mr. Posilkin began his career as an Assistant Corporation Counsel in the Division of Legal Counsel at the New York City Law Department from 1979 to 1984. Mr. Posilkin graduated from the State University of New York at Binghamton in 1976 and from New
York Law School, where he served as an editor of the Law Review, in 1979. Mr. Posilkin until recently, served as a representative of property owners on the Housing Court Advisory Council. He has previously served on the Advisory Council as the City’s representative and as a representative of property owners, and has also served on the Housing Court Committee of
the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. Mr. Posilkin has presented at many seminars held by RSA, the New York State Office of Court Administration, the New York City Bar Association, the New York State Bar Association and the Kings County Housing Court Bar Association, including programs pertaining to the significant changes
over the years in the State’s rent regulatory laws and regulations, the City’s lead paint laws, Section 8, and numerous other regulatory and legislative issues of concern to property owners.
