Gary S. Lachman

Gary Lachman (born New York City, United States, 1952) is an author, international lawyer and former Portfolio Manager for the US Department Of State. Lachman lives in Istanbul, Turkey.

Biography

Lachman was born and raised in New York, before moving to North Carolina to attend college at Duke University. Upon graduation, Lachman moved again, this time to Colorado to attend the University of Denver College of Law. Lachman practiced law in Denver for nine years before moving to Washington DC, where he lived until 2006. While in DC, Lachman developed Lake Arbor Lake Arbor, Maryland, one of the first large-scale master planned communities in the Washington, DC suburbs. Originally planned by the son of William Levitt, developer of Levittown on Long Island, what was then called Newbridge was acquired by a partnership of Lachman, David A. Gitlitz of Aspen, Colorado, and Alvin Dworman of New York. Appreciating the growing demographic of affluent African Americans in Washington seeking a suburban lifestyle, Gitlitz and Lachman re-positioned the dormant project into a haven for upwardly mobile young families with children. An award-winning community shopping center, a dramatic high-rise apartment building, a championship 18-hole golf course, and an extensive network of parks and recreational facilities complement the thousands of upscale homes built by national builders such as Ryland, Ryan, Pulte, Winchester, and US Homes. After completıon of the land development work at Lake Arbor, Lachman’s own residential construction company, Thoroughbred Homes, re-entered the community with high quality single family housing. Thoroughbred also built many other luxury homes in the Washington suburbs between 1991 and 1997.

Lachman later worked at the U.S. Department of State as an International Real Estate Portfolio Manager and leader of the New Embassies and Consulates group. He negotiated and managed the development of projects above €800 million globally. He is remembered at the State Department for, among other things, his interesting approach to international negotiation; in one former Soviet state, negotiating the acquisition of a crucial security setback property in exchange for a Barbie doll and a Tonka truck. Lachman is an associate professor of International Real Estate at the Johns Hopkins University, teaching a graduate level course in International Real Estate Investment and Development in Emerging Markets. He has also served as an International Real Estate Consultant to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Government of the Republic of Poland, assisting with their acquisitions and disposals in the U.S. and throughout the world. As a private developer in the U.S. he has developed over 5,000,000 square meters of residential land and buildings.

Lachman built strong relationships and legacies during his University days. In 1980, Lachman founded the Perkins Shearer/Denver Symphony Annual Polo Cup. An avid and nationally ranked polo player himself, as well as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Denver Symphony Orchestra, Lachman enlisted the support of Perkins Shearer, the then premier clothier in Denver, Colorado. Working with two local polo clubs with which he was a member, Lachman organized and played in what originated as a single match and grew into an annual tournament that raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Denver Symphony. 30 years later, and unbeknownst to its current organizers, this event grew into what is now called the Denver Polo Classic, a major fundraising activity for children’s’ charities.1 Lachman maintains strong ties to Duke University, serving on several of the Advisory Boards, including the Board of Visitors of the Duke University Medical Center, the Duke Heart Board, and the Duke Eye Center 2. He combines his involvement with Duke and his teaching background with Johns Hopkins 2000–2006 by providing college counseling to foreign students wishing to attend university in the United States.

Currently, Lachman is Special Counsel on Foreign Law and a partner of Lachman & Yeniaras, an Istanbul-based law firm www.lachmanyeniaras.com composed of Turkish attorneys with LLM degrees from top American universities. His practice focuses on international mergers & acquisitions, energy, and real estate law.

Lachman has been a contributing journalist for the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review with weekly columns – "The Consultant’s Corner" and "The Law Office" - and is the author of the book Real Estate Investment, Development, and Law in Emerging Markets www.peimedia.com/relaw. Lachman has also written a book on a more personal subject. A cancer survivor himself, he wrote the book, Beating the Alternative (Amazon, 2010) to reflect upon and communicate the lessons learned from this experience. Lachman donates the profits from this book to colon cancer research, and provides some of the leading cancer institutions with free copies to distribute to their patients. This book is one of the few resources that provide cancer patients with a “no holds barred” account of what to expect during treatment and the absolute necessity for being your own best advocate.

Publications

Books

  • Real Estate Investment, Development, and Law in Emerging Markets, (2010: PEI Media Publications) ISBN 978-1-904-6986-79-7
  • Beating the Alternative, (2010: Amazon Press ISBN-10: 1450594891 ISBN-13: 978-1450594899

Articles

  • Real Estate Leases in Turkey, Saturday, October 17, 2009, Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Report 3
  • Real estate risk/return disconnect in Turkey, Thursday, March 25, 2010, Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Report, 4
  • Acts of God, Saturday, September 19, 2009, Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Report 5
  • Istanbul Still Attracts Real Estate Investment, July 11, 2009, Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Report 6
  • Mergers & Acquisitions: A corporate dating game, July 18, 2009, Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Report 7
  • Turkey’s Turtle Rescuers, Nov. 17, 2009, Didem Today 8
  • The Fate of the US Dollar, Saturday, October 31, 2009, Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Report 9
  • The U.S. “Immigrant Investor” Visa, Friday, November 20, 2009, Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Report 10
  • The Future of Golf in Turkey, Thursday, October 1, 2009, Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Report, 11
  • Where can you find justice? Saturday, September 5, 2009, Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Report 12
  • How culture can affect communication, Friday, August 21, 2009, Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Report 13
  • Saving the Marine Environment; One Turtle at a Time, Saturday, August 8, 2009, Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Report 14
  • Proximate cause, forseeability and Istanbul ferries, Monday, June 22, 2009, Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Report 15
  • THE LAW OFFICE: Foreign Banks' Representative Offices, Saturday, October 18, 2008, Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Report 16
  • THE LAW OFFICE: Vultures in the American Skies, Saturday, October 11, 2008, Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Report 17
  • THE LAW OFFICE: Recent Developments in Competition Law, Saturday, October 4, 2008, Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Report 18
  • THE LAW OFFICE, Threat to new real estate law, Saturday, September 27, 2008, Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Report 19
  • THE LAW OFFICE: Market hurricane largely misses Turkey, Saturday, September 20, 2008, Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Report 20
  • THE LAW OFFICE: New law restricts real estate for foreigners, Saturday, September 13, 2008, Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Report 21

References

  • Roubini Global Economics22
  • "High-flying Development May Bring Istanbul Crashing Down", 3 April 2010, Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Report, 23
  • "Weak pound hits Britons overseas home purchases", March 9, 2010, Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Report24
  • "US developer diplomat eyes law in Turkey", Saturday, September 20, 2008, Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Report25