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Wendell A. Smith is a partner of the firm in its Real Estate Department, chair of the Planned Real Estate Practice Group and a member of the Land Use Practice Group. He concentrates his practice in land use and planned real estate development, including large mixed-use projects as well as active adult, golf course and resort communities. He is admitted to practice in New Jersey (1960) and New York (1966). A noted authority on condominium and community association law in New Jersey, Mr. Smith is the co-author of the treatise entitled, New Jersey Condominium and Community Association Law, published by Gann Law Books, as well as many articles on the subject. He also 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. In addition, he has vast experience in 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 also is certified as a mediator and an arbitrator of the American Arbitration Association and serves regularly as an expert witness in condominium and other community association matters. Mr. Smith is a graduate of The Johns Hopkins University (1954) and, after a tour of duty as an infantry officer in Korea, earned his law degree from the University of Michigan Law School (1959). He joined Greenbaum, Rowe, Smith & Davis LLP in 1968. Previously, he was vice president and general counsel for both Levitt and Sons, Incorporated, and Boise Cascade Building Company and was involved in sophisticated real estate transactions and development throughout the continental United States and in Puerto Rico. Listed in The Best Lawyers in America since 1983, Mr. Smith is also 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 also was the attorney member of the New Jersey Assembly Task Force to Study Homeowners Associations. Additionally, he has been a national trustee of the Community Associations Institute (CAI), president of the CAI Research Foundation, and the recipient of CAI’s prestigious Byron Hanke Award for outstanding contributions to community associations. He is also a charter member of CAI's College of Community Association Lawyers. He is the founding president of the New Jersey Chapter of CAI (NJ/CAI) and serves as its General Counsel. In April 2001, he was presented with the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Johns Hopkins University. He has been a trustee of Johns Hopkins University since 1983 and serves on the Board of Johns Hopkins Medicine. Mr. Smith has been a faculty member of the American Law Institute - ABA Panel on Planned Unit Developments and Golf Course Communities and of the national CAI Law Reporter Annual Conference. He has lectured on various legal topics at several law schools, for the Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section of the ABA and for ACREL, and at many seminars sponsored by the New Jersey Institute for Continuing Legal Education, NJ/CAI, the New Jersey Builders Association, and various other trade associations. He also served as chair of the ABA Section Committee on Common Interest Community Associations and is a Fellow of the American Bar Association Foundation. He is also on the board of directors of the Senior Housing Council of the New Jersey Builders Association. | 