Talking Business
by Emily Landes
When Saul Ferster began his legal career in the Los Angeles public defender’s office, he represented a motley assortment of accused offenders. During his five years there, the New Jersey native heard every excuse in the book, from drunk drivers claiming they were sober, to a prostitute who faked a seizure to avoid being sentenced. (It didn’t work.) But even though most of his clients at the time would have tried anything to avoid prison, Ferster claims they were much calmer about their cases than the apartment building owners who comprise a bulk of his practice today. In fact, landlord-tenant litigation reminds him much more of his short time working in divorce court than his years as a public defender. “People don’t look at the situation rationally. They want to use the lawyer to hurt the other person,” he comments. “Cops and robbers make more rational decisions.”
So, when clients come to Ferster in a “fighting mood,” the first thing he tries to impress upon them is that good landlords think of their business first, not what they may perceive to be a personal affront. He tries to convince them that there may be some compromise that solves the problem without running up a tremendous legal bill. When clients says they want to fight a tenant to the bitter end, he uses experiences from over two decades representing property owners to persuade them that their feelings might change once the initial anger has passed. “They don’t think the same way several thousands of dollars down the line, standing on the courthouse steps. They just wish it were over,” he says. But, if he believes his clients are making a mistake, he will tell them so, and if they still want to proceed with litigation, he’s a voracious fighter for their cause.
Ferster always instructs his clients about the avoidable circumstances that led them to his door. The most basic rule is that every property owner should use forms and documentation specific to San Francisco. Even generic California forms are useless because of the city’s strict rent ordinance. “I try to emphasize that they don’t own property in California. This is not California, this is San Francisco and the laws are different,” he advises. Other common advice from Ferster includes: carry wrongful eviction insurance, read and learn the rent ordinance, and document everything in writing.
But sometimes even when landlords have been diligent in their duties, tenants make reaching an equitable, nonlitigious agreement impossible. Over the years, Ferster has dealt with tenants who bought a pitbull as a “comfort pet,” took continuous hot showers rather than pay a heating bill (the landlord paid the water bill), turned the apartment into the offices of a pornographic business, and tapped into the water source from a common swimming pool rather than pay a water bill. There was even one tenant who claimed a reduction in services because when the landlord cleaned up the backyard, he inadvertently threw out an urn containing the ashes of the tenant’s former roommate.
When Ferster is not busy with his own bizarre cases, he can always look forward to the myriad of problems brought to him by SFAA members at the monthly membership meetings. Ferster is a constant contributor to the legal panel that begins each of these meetings, and says even after 16 years as a member he still learns something new each time, be it insights into how other lawyers would advise their clients or the current concerns of the membership. These meetings also serve as a reminder of all the reasons (even though Ferster is an investor in several Bay Area apartment buildings) he would never own residential property in San Francisco. “Given a choice between San Francisco and someplace where it’s easier to own, it’s hard to opt for a place that has as much of an additional burden as the rent ordinance imposes,” he says, though he adds that owning property in the city can be more lucrative than in neighboring areas.
Many of Ferster’s life-altering decisions have revolved around trading certain benefits for additional freedoms. Shortly after graduating from Rutgers School of Law, he briefly came to San Francisco during the Summer of Love, leaving family and friends in New Jersey behind. A few years later, he left a job he enjoyed in the Los Angeles public defender’s office because he didn’t like being told that he would soon be forced to work on death penalty cases. “I just did not want someone’s life in my hands like that,” he recalls. “The idea that maybe there was something else I might have done or some other argument I might have made that might have cost this person their life—I just did not want to deal with that going to sleep at night.” Most recently, Ferster began his own practice, after many years at a major San Francisco firm, because he prefers to set his own hours and select his own clients.
Once settled in his new practice, Ferster hired the best assistant he could find: his wife, Paulette. Though she was an accomplished legal secretary near their home in the East Bay, for a long time she refused to work in San Francisco, telling Ferster that one of them should stay near home in case there was an emergency with their children. “I remember asking, ‘What could possible happen that you couldn’t get back?’ Then Loma Prieta happened,” says Ferster. But with the children now grown, Ferster and his wife commute into the city everyday in a pick-up truck that allows them to travel in the carpool lane and skip a bulk of the Bay Bridge traffic. “We have five cars for four drivers and if I had to get rid of all but one, I’d keep the pick-up,” he admits.
Working with his wife has many benefits, says Ferster. She knows his schedule perfectly, will run out to buy him lunch if he’s overworked; and they spend so much time together most of the year that she doesn’t mind when he spends most weekends in Lake Tahoe during the ski season. She also takes on more responsibilities than the average legal secretary, setting all the office rules, as well as her own salary. “She does everything but practice law,” jokes Ferster. That one task, at least, is handled very capably by her husband.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the viewpoint of SFAA or the San Francisco Apartment Magazine. Emily Landes is the managing editor of the San Francisco Apartment Magazine. Copyright © 2006 by the San Francisco Apartment Magazine. All rights reserved.