Wendell A. Smith, Partner in the Real Estate Department and member of the Community Association, Land Use, Planned Real Estate and Redevelopment Practice Groups at Greenbaum, Rowe, Smith & Davis LLP, has been selected “Best Lawyers Newark Area Real Estate Lawyer of the Year” for 2011. This honor bespeaks particularly high ratings in surveys by Best Lawyers taken from thousands of professional peers. Only a single lawyer in each specialty in each community is honored.

Mr. Smith’s practice focuses on land use and planned real estate development, including large mixed-use projects as well as active adult, golf course and resort communities. He has been involved in all facets of several hundred condominium, cooperative and other common interest projects, including conversions, dockominiums, golf course communities, retirement communities, and congregate care facilities. His vast experience includes all areas of community association law, with particular emphasis on transition from developer to unit owner control and complex problem solving in distressed common interest communities. He serves regularly as an expert witness in condominium and other community association matters

Mr. Smith has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America since 1983. He is a charter member of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers (ACREL) and has served as vice chair of its Common Interest Ownership Committee. He is the founding president of the NJ Chapter of the Community Associations Institute (CAI) for which he serves as its General Counsel. Mr. Smith is a former national trustee of CAI, past president of the CAI Research Foundation, and he is a charter member of CAI’s College of Community Association Lawyers. He was the recipient of the prestigious Byron Hanke Award from the national organization for outstanding contributions to community associations.
Mr. Smith was previously an attorney member of the NJ Assembly Task Force To Study Homeowners Associations. Mr. Smith is the former Chair of the ABA Section Committee on Common Interest Community Associations.

Mr. Smith is the co-author of, New Jersey Condominium and Community Association Law (Smith, Estis & Li, GANN, 2010) and is the author of numerous articles and presentations in his field.

Mr. Smith is the chairperson of the Board of Trustees of Bayshore Community Hospital Foundation. He is a Trustee Emeritus of Johns Hopkins University and Johns Hopkins Medicine and a recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus and Heritage Awards from Johns Hopkins University.

Mr. Smith received his undergraduate degree from Johns Hopkins and his law degree from the University of Michigan. He is a resident of Holmdel.

The selection of lawyers for inclusion in Best Lawyers is based on a comprehensive nomination process and peer-review survey in which lawyers cast their votes on the legal abilities of other lawyers in their practice area.  Read the complete methodology for further information.

In 2010 Greenbaum, Rowe, Smith & Davis LLP celebrates its 96th year of building business in New Jersey. The firm has over 100 attorneys in four main practice departments, Litigation, Real Estate, Corporate, and Tax, Trusts and Estates, and 19 practice areas offering comprehensive legal services. The firm has offices located in Woodbridge and Roseland, New Jersey. For more information, call Erin P. Faltin at 732-549-5600 or visit the firm's web site at www.greenbaumlaw.com.

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