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At a Glance
| Founded by | Samuel J. Himmelstein and partners; the firm’s own site states it was established in 1983, and Himmelstein practiced tenant-side law for 44 years before retiring in 2024 (per the firm) |
| Focus | Tenant-side landlord-tenant and real estate law exclusively — individual tenants, tenant associations, cooperative shareholders, condominium owners, and commercial tenants (per the firm) |
| Office | 15 Maiden Lane, 17th Floor, New York, NY 10038 (Lower Manhattan) |
| Signature results | Firm attorneys litigated tenant-side claims in Matter of Grimm v. DHCR (2010) and Regina Metropolitan v. DHCR (2020), two New York Court of Appeals decisions shaping rent-overcharge doctrine (per independent accounts) |
| Distinctive edge | The firm states it is among New York City’s largest tenant-side-only firms and represents tenants and homeowners exclusively — never landlords or lenders |
| Fee model | Not published on the firm’s site; prospective clients should confirm directly |
| Known for | Eviction defense, rent-stabilization and overcharge litigation, succession rights, lease buyouts, and co-op and condo owner disputes (per the firm) |
Origin and Background
For roughly a decade, New Yorkers with landlord problems could write to “Ask Sam,” the tenant-rights question-and-answer column Samuel Himmelstein ran on the real estate site Brick Underground from at least 2014 until his retirement in 2024 — an unusual public-education footprint for a working litigator. Himmelstein, a 1975 Brooklyn College graduate who took his J.D. cum laude from New York Law School in 1979, built the firm around exclusively tenant-side work; the firm’s own site states it was established in 1983 and now fields ten attorneys with more than 300 combined years of experience in landlord-tenant and real estate law. The firm, formerly Himmelstein, McConnell, Gribben, Donoghue & Joseph, continues under partners William Gribben, Serge Joseph, Ronald Languedoc, David Hershey-Webb, Jesse Gribben, and Cathy Grad following Himmelstein’s 2024 retirement.
What Makes This Firm Structurally Different
The firm’s structural bet is one-sidedness at scale: it states plainly that it represents only New York tenants and homeowners — never landlords or lenders — and that it is among the city’s largest tenant-side-only firms, which means, per the firm, its attorneys have often already litigated against a given landlord or appeared before the judge assigned to a new client’s case. That accumulated repetition is a genuine mechanism, not a slogan: independent accounts credit firm attorneys with tenant-side roles in Matter of Grimm v. DHCR, the 2010 Court of Appeals decision establishing the modern fraud exception to the four-year rent-overcharge lookback rule, and in litigation following Regina Metropolitan v. DHCR, the 2020 Court of Appeals decision on the retroactivity of the 2019 Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act’s overcharge provisions.
Practice Areas
- Eviction defense (nonpayment and holdover proceedings)
- Rent stabilization, rent control, and overcharge claims
- Succession rights and lease buyout negotiations
- Tenant association representation
- Cooperative shareholder and condominium owner disputes
- Commercial tenant representation
Track Record
The firm does not publish an itemized outcomes table; its record is instead visible in reported case law and its stated volume of representation — thousands of tenants represented in Housing Court, State Supreme Court, the New York appellate courts, and before agencies including the Division of Housing and Community Renewal, per the firm. Firm attorneys’ involvement in Grimm and Regina Metropolitan, both decided by New York’s highest court, is documented in independent accounts of those litigations. Past results in any matter do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome in any future matter.
Client Voice
The firm publishes attributed client reviews on its own site, identified by first name and last initial; one, from a reviewer identified as Jane G., describes retaining the firm to dispute an illegal deregulation and establish rent-stabilized status, and calls partner Ronald Languedoc “professional, patient, kind.” Independently, Yelp shows dozens of reviews for the firm, with multiple reviewers noting that Himmelstein was recommended to them by several unconnected friends. These reviews are attributed in abbreviated form consistent with how the platforms publish them.
Beyond the Courtroom
The firm’s connection to the city’s tenant movement extends past litigation: Himmelstein hired partner David Hershey-Webb in 2001, per the firm’s own account, in part because he needed a lead singer for his band, the Love Handles, which played New York clubs to audiences that included clients, tenant attorneys, and even landlord attorneys. Partner Jesse Gribben came to the firm from a career as a union organizer for 1199 SEIU and a staff attorney defending union members against eviction for District Council 37’s legal services plan, per his firm biography.
Recognition
Multiple firm attorneys hold Martindale-Hubbell peer-review recognitions and client-review badges, per that platform’s listings, and Himmelstein’s long-running Brick Underground column gave the firm an unusually visible public-education role in New York tenant law. New York does not maintain a formal board-certification system for real estate or landlord-tenant law comparable to Texas’s TBLS, so Awesome Attorneys does not apply “specialist” language to any attorney at this firm on that basis.
New York Legal Backdrop
New York residential tenancies are governed by an overlapping framework: the warranty of habitability (Real Property Law § 235-b) applies to every residential lease, eviction requires a court proceeding under Article 7 of the Real Property Actions and Proceedings Law, and roughly a million New York City apartments remain rent-stabilized under the rent-regulation system substantially amended by the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019, which among other changes limited security deposits to one month’s rent (General Obligations Law § 7-108) and reshaped overcharge-claim rules. None of this is legal advice; a specific tenancy, overcharge, or eviction matter should be evaluated by a licensed New York attorney based on the actual facts involved.
Awesome Attorneys Assessment
Himmelstein Gribben & Joseph’s clearest differentiator is categorical: a firm of ten attorneys that takes only the tenant side, with its fingerprints on Court of Appeals doctrine that governs how rent-overcharge cases are decided statewide. The honest trade-off is the same one-sidedness: this is not the firm for a property purchase closing, a co-op board, or any owner-side or transactional matter, and its founder — the firm’s most publicly recognizable name — retired in 2024, so a prospective client is hiring the continuing partnership rather than Himmelstein himself. For a New York tenant, tenant association, or co-op shareholder facing eviction, deregulation, an overcharge dispute, or a buyout negotiation, a large tenant-only firm with this litigation history is a reasonable one to have on a shortlist; anyone needing owner-side or transactional real estate counsel will need a different firm entirely.
Methodology and Sourcing
This profile was researched from Himmelstein Gribben & Joseph’s own website, including its firm overview and attorney biographies, Brick Underground’s published interview marking Himmelstein’s 2024 retirement, an independent encyclopedia account of the firm’s case involvement and office details, and Yelp and Martindale-Hubbell listings confirming address and reviews. Where sources conflicted on the firm’s founding year, this profile attributes the date stated on the firm’s own site.
Publisher Disclosure and Independence Notice
Awesome Attorneys is an independent legal directory and editorial publication. This profile was not paid for, commissioned, or reviewed by Himmelstein Gribben & Joseph LLP prior to publication. Awesome Attorneys does not endorse, recommend, or warrant any profiled firm, and inclusion in this directory is not a paid placement. “Awesome Attorneys” is a brand name only and does not constitute a rating or ranking claim. Facts stated are current only as of this profile’s research date.