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At a Glance
| Founded by | James F. Woods in 1993, joined in 2008 by longtime friend and colleague Lawrence R. Lonergan (per the firm) |
| Focus | Real estate litigation and transactions, cooperative and condominium representation, and commercial and corporate law (per the firm) |
| Office | One Grand Central Place, 60 East 42nd Street, Suite 1410, New York, NY 10165 (Midtown Manhattan) |
| Signature results | Firm attorneys won a favorable jury verdict in a July 2023 federal trial in Manhattan, and judgments totaling $245,000 including attorney’s fees in an October 2023 Southern District of New York matter (per the firm) |
| Distinctive edge | Managing partner James Woods actively represents dozens of cooperative and condominium boards, an unusually concentrated board-counsel practice for a boutique (per the firm) |
| Fee model | Not published on the firm’s site; the firm markets boutique rates relative to the larger firms it faces as adversaries (per the firm) |
| Known for | Co-op and condo board counsel, commercial lease disputes, real estate litigation, and contract and partnership disputes (per the firm) |
Origin and Background
James F. Woods started his career prosecuting cases as an Assistant District Attorney for Nassau County, trying both jury and bench trials, before founding his own Manhattan firm in 1993, per his firm biography. Fifteen years later he was joined by Lawrence R. Lonergan, a friend and colleague the firm says shares the same business philosophy, and the firm took its current two-name form. From One Grand Central Place, the boutique now handles real estate, commercial, and corporate matters for a client base the firm describes as spanning real estate developers, contractors, cooperative and condominium boards, and companies in manufacturing, hospitality, and retail.
What Makes This Firm Structurally Different
The firm’s anchor is board work at volume: Woods actively represents dozens of cooperative and condominium boards as counsel, per his biography — a concentration that means the firm sees the same category of building-governance, alteration, arrears, and sponsor disputes on a repeating basis rather than episodically. The firm pairs that advisory practice with genuine trial capability: its litigation team won a favorable jury verdict in a July 2023 federal trial in Manhattan, and an associate separately secured judgments totaling $245,000, including attorney’s fees, in a Southern District of New York matter that October, per the firm’s own announcements.
Practice Areas
- Cooperative and condominium board representation
- Real estate litigation and disputes
- Commercial leasing and lease disputes
- Real estate transactions and acquisitions
- Commercial and corporate litigation
- Contract, partnership, and shareholder disputes
Track Record
The firm publishes selected results rather than an itemized outcomes table: a favorable Manhattan federal jury verdict in July 2023 and $245,000 in judgments with attorney’s fees in an October 2023 SDNY matter, both per the firm’s own announcements, alongside its stated record in commercial lease and business disputes. Awesome Attorneys did not independently verify docket-level outcomes. Past results in any matter do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome in any future matter.
Client Voice
Client reviews published on the firm’s Lawyers.com listing describe successful outcomes in a commercial lease dispute and praise the firm’s diligence and cost-effectiveness; one reviewer wrote that the team “treated my case with the same care they would their own.” These reviews are published by the platform without full reviewer names, so Awesome Attorneys treats them as platform-published accounts rather than independently attributed testimony.
Beyond the Courtroom
Awesome Attorneys did not identify specific published community or pro bono programming for this firm as of the research date; the firm’s public footprint centers on legal-industry commentary, including published guidance on commercial property owners’ obligations under New York’s evolving cannabis regulations by partner Lawrence Lonergan.
Recognition
James F. Woods holds Martindale-Hubbell’s AV Preeminent peer-review rating, a designation based on evaluations by other lawyers and judges, per the firm’s announcement. New York does not maintain a formal board-certification system for real estate 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
Cooperative and condominium governance in New York sits at the intersection of contract and statute: co-op boards operate under the Business Corporation Law and their proprietary leases, condominiums under Real Property Law Article 9-B, and board decisions are generally shielded by the business judgment rule articulated by New York’s Court of Appeals in Matter of Levandusky v. One Fifth Avenue Apartment Corp. Commercial lease disputes generally carry a six-year contract limitations period under CPLR § 213(2). None of this is legal advice; a specific board, leasing, or real estate dispute should be evaluated by a licensed New York attorney based on the actual facts involved.
Awesome Attorneys Assessment
Woods Lonergan’s clearest differentiator is its concentrated board-counsel practice — dozens of co-op and condo boards advised by the managing partner — backed by recent, dated federal trial results rather than generic litigation claims. The honest trade-offs: this is a business-and-boards real estate practice, not a consumer closing shop or a tenant-side advocate, and a firm that counsels boards will often sit across the table from individual shareholders and unit owners in disputes; its published client reviews are platform-hosted without full names; and its real estate work shares the bench with a substantial commercial and corporate docket rather than standing alone. For a co-op or condo board seeking standing counsel, a building owner or developer in a leasing or construction dispute, or a business with a real-estate-centered conflict, this firm’s concentration is a reasonable basis for a shortlist; an individual shareholder in a dispute with their own board may want conflict-free counsel from a firm that does not primarily represent boards.
Methodology and Sourcing
This profile was researched from Woods Lonergan’s own website, including its firm overview and James Woods’s attorney biography, the firm’s LinkedIn announcements of its 2023 trial results, and Martindale-Hubbell, Lawyers.com, LawInfo, and Yelp listings confirming founding year, office address, and recognitions.
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 Woods Lonergan PLLC 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.