Alex S. Avitabile '82: Returning the Favor

Over the years, Alex S. Avitabile '82 has provided gifts to Brooklyn Law School annually, and even included the school in his will, all for a simple reason: the school has been a good friend to him.

Avitabile practiced as a real estate transactional attorney for 34 years, mostly working on affordable housing projects in New York City and nationwide. He started at a three-attorney firm, then moved to a 25-attorney real estate boutique practice which later merged with a national law firm of more than 300 lawyers. He left that firm to start a solo practice, capping his career by serving 14 years in-house at Enterprise Community Partners, Inc., a national nonprofit which specializes in affordable housing development. When Avitabile retired at the end of 2015, he was vice president and deputy general counsel, concluding a satisfying career focused on providing homes to those in need, and creating healthier, more diverse communities.

One year, he closed loans for affordable housing projects totaling $95 million.

"For my first five years at Enterprise, I was the only attorney at the New York City office, which was the hotbed for much of its affordable housing production," Avitabile said. "When I left, we had three attorneys working out of the New York City office, and I had been elevated to a role akin to being the managing attorney of the 12-person in-house legal team, most of whom were at Enterprise's headquarters in Columbia, Md."

Avitabile graduated from Fordham University, received a master's degree in public administration from NYU, and worked for a community organization in Buffalo, N.Y., before returning to his native Brooklyn to enroll in Brooklyn Law, which proved to be the lynchpin for his legal career.

"While I was already steeped in the fundamentals of real estate law before I enrolled, Brooklyn Law School broadened what I knew and provided me with the solid credentials I needed to practice law and to do my real estate housing work," said Avitabile, who received tuition assistance via grants and loans from Brooklyn Law.

After graduation, he gratefully trained some 70 Brooklyn Law School interns, who significantly assisted him. "And I am delighted with the broader diversity among BLS students that I have noticed during recent years," Avitabile said.

Now retired and living both in Queens and Florida, Avitabile has devoted time to a long-percolating passion for creative writing. Dusting off the abandoned novel he had started during the 90s, he took an online novel writing course that helped him launch a crime fiction series featuring cousins Al and Mick Forte, an attorney and a semi-reformed ex-mobster, based loosely on Avitabile's experiences growing up during the 50s and 60s on the then "mean streets" of South Brooklyn, now known as Carroll Gardens. The books of his series, Occupational Hazard and Where's ... Eli? , brim with colorful characters, from bookies to wannabe wise guys to men you wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley, and each has won awards as "legal thrillers."

Besides starting the series' third book, Avitabile (and a friend) recently finished their manuscript of a biography on Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Bill Withers, whose hits include "Ain't No Sunshine" (1971) and "Lean on Me" (1972).

Avitabile still wears his Brooklyn Dodgers cap and and swears he will soon move back to Brooklyn. His hometown values remain and are a prime motivation for his consistent gifts to Brooklyn Law over the years. To quote Avitabile, "If you do right by me, I'll do right by you."