Lew Meltzer

Chairman

AREAS OF EXPERTISE:

Business & Real Estate Taxation, Corporate / Business, Government Strategies, Private Wealth & Taxation, Real Estate, Trusts & Estates

Lew Meltzer

Chairman

AREAS OF EXPERTISE:

Business & Real Estate Taxation, Corporate / Business, Government Strategies, Private Wealth & Taxation, Real Estate, Trusts & Estates

Bio

Lew Meltzer’s practice employs his tax, corporate and real estate backgrounds to serve clients as general counsel, as a well-rounded business lawyer and as an estate planner for high net worth individuals.

When Lew began his law practice in 1965 in Mineola, he spent much of his time working on real estate matters for Roosevelt Field Mall, including store leasing, shopping center financings culminating in the leasing and operating agreements for the J.C. Penney Department Store. The remainder of Lew’s time was spent practicing tax and corporate law. When in 1970, he founded what is now Meltzer, Lippe, Goldstein & Breitstone, LLP, he had established himself as an accomplished real estate practitioner and tax lawyer, experienced in such sophisticated areas as corporate and real estate taxation, partnerships, estate planning and qualified pension and profit sharing plans.

Lew’s tax and real estate clients sought his advice when evaluating their real estate investments and subsequently, after many requests from clients, Lew began to seek out, structure, and acquire real estate investments for clients and the firm’s partners. Today Lew is the general partner in numerous real estate partnerships and a principal officer of an active real estate development business which developed River Run in Maryland, a 408-unit residential country club featuring a Gary Player signature golf course, marina and tennis complex.

Lew is extremely active in public service. He served as Campaign Finance Chairman for U.S. Representative, Steve Israel during his election and reelection campaigns from 2000 to 2014.

He is a director of the Association for a Better Long Island (ABLI), Long Island developers who are concerned about the future of the region.

Lew served as President of the Harvard Law School Association of Long Island and serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of Huntington Hospital.

He was President of the Long Island Foreign Affairs Forum, an organization he created that brings influential national and international leaders to Long Island to discuss the latest political activities around the world. Guests have included the late Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, former U.S. Senator George Mitchell, former Secretary of the Treasury Lawrence Summers and former Secretary of Energy, Bill Richardson.

Lew created Long Island’s pro-Israel Political Action Committee (BiCPAC) which works to strengthen the historic American-Israeli alliance. Lew met and discussed policy with many of the nation’s and Israeli leaders, including President Bill Clinton, Vice President Al Gore, Vice President Dick Cheney, Bob Dole, the late Prime Ministers Yitzhak Rabin and Ariel Sharon and former Prime Minister Ehud Barak. Because of Lew’s efforts to promote close and enduring ties between Israel and the United States, in 1991 the Long Island Chapter of the American Jewish Committee selected him as the recipient of its Humanitarian Award and in 1993 the Anti-Defamation League presented to him its most prestigious Americanism Award.

The time requirements of the active practice of law and the development of real estate make leisure moments a cherished commodity. Lew’s outside interests include participation in many sports. Lew and his wife, Barbara, live in Westbury. Their grown children are Gary and Sharon. Sharon is Assistant to the CFO of Burberry Limited in New York City. Gary, after practicing law at Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP in New York City now Chairs the Real Estate Practice Group at Meltzer Lippe.

Bar Admissions

Education