A top Manhattan real estate lawyer was caught on tape telling a tenant, “Now you’re my b- - -h,” and “I think you should commit suicide,” a $25 million lawsuit charges.
Adam Leitman Bailey, who has represented Seagram’s heiress Sara Bronfman and infamous hedge-funder Ravi Yadav, made the remarks in a tirade against James Dawson, who had been a resident of 100 Maiden Lane, according to the Manhattan Supreme Court suit filed by Dawson.
Bailey represents the posh downtown building’s owner, Lalezarian Properties.
Dawson, who is suing Bailey for malpractice, says in the suit that he clashed with the lawyer after accusing Lalezarian of showing his unit to prospective tenants without notice while he was moving out.
At the end of August, about a week after Dawson left, Bailey accused him of creating the site Lalezarianfraud.com, which claims the company is “renown [sic] for screwing over tenants,” court documents say.
Dawson, 27, says in his suit that he has nothing to do with the site.
Still, Bailey ordered him to scrub it or face a $10 million defamation suit, court documents allege.
Dawson called Bailey at his Lower Manhattan office in September and recorded the conversation, the suit says.
“Welcome to my world. Now you’re my b—h,” Bailey allegedly hissed at Dawson in the call.
“I think you should commit suicide,” and “You’re one of those people in the world that should really just kill yourself because you’re worthless,” Bailey added, according to the suit.
During the eight-minute recording, Bailey also allegedly said: “Can you Google me? Please Google me to understand just so we don’t have to go too far to see what I’m going to do to you.”
He is then allegedly overheard telling a colleague named Colin, “I need a full investigation into this guy. I need him arrested!” before adding to Dawson, “Colin is a former, uhh, used to run the district attorney’s office. He’s going to be running the investigation!”
A staff lawyer at Bailey’s firm, Colin E. Kaufman, was chief of the general trial bureau at the Westchester County DA’s Office, according to his online bio.
“As a licensed practicing attorney, there was zero basis for Bailey to say and do what he did,” Dawson told The Post.
Bailey did not immediately return requests for comment.