Ellen Lehman.
Ellen Lehman, 32
Associate at Fried Frank
Since she was a kid, Ellen Lehman, an associate in the land-use group at Fried Frank, has been interested in land use issues.
“I grew up here in the city and land use is the quintessential local political issue,” Lehman, 32, said.
She explored land use issues as a government major at Harvard University, where she also attended law school.
“I wrote my senior thesis in college about the way that New York City makes land-use decisions through a public review process called ULURP,” Lehman said. “And I just thought it was such an amazing thing to see all these different stakeholders — local residents, city council members, City Planning Commission — bring their own perspectives and expertise to a particular project, to hone it and make it better.”
After law school, Lehman spent a year as a law clerk to a federal judge before landing a job at Fried Frank in the 13-person land-use group, which sits within the real estate unit, five years ago. Lehman’s clients are mostly developers and other institutions and her role is “to advise them about what land use laws apply for a given property. And if they need to change those laws for the obtainment of discretionary approval, I work closely with those clients to obtain those approvals.”
One of her high-profile ongoing projects is Tishman Speyer’s 1,005-foot-tall office tower Spiral in Hudson Yards. Lehman has helped the developer obtain the necessary land use approvals for the project. And she has been working with the Park Tower Group on Greenpoint Landing, a mixed-use project in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and its requisite approvals.—L.E.S.
