Kenneth A. Leitner

Kenneth Leitner represents clients in diverse civil litigation and criminal defense matters.  His practice includes business, commercial, real estate and tort litigation, as well as criminal defense.

Ken has many years of legal experience negotiating and managing major real estate and business transactions and has a proven ability to coordinate the various aspects of complex deals and navigate the government approval process. He is also highly skilled in the areas of corporate law and governance, economic and business development and provides effective strategic planning, government affairs counsel, and public relations advice.

A former New York City Assistant District Attorney, Ken has handled all phases of criminal practice from investigations through trial and appeals.  He has also provided business development, strategic planning, and project management services to not-for-profit organizations. Ken has served on the law committee of a major political party in New York City and has advised elected officials regarding their political campaigns.

From 1999 to 2011, Ken served as the Vice President and General Counsel of the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation of the State of New York (RIOC), the public benefit corporation responsible for the development and operation of Roosevelt Island. From both legal and policy perspectives, Ken guided RIOC’s major development projects and business transactions. He was the lead negotiator and key member of the corporation’s management team that turned around what was once a financially distressed public authority.

Through his efforts, RIOC revitalized its residential and commercial properties and created an attractive environment for development in which new, defining projects have been constructed. Ken helped bring to fruition more than $750 million in new construction, the development of 2500 new mixed-income residential units, the preservation of thousands of existing affordable dwelling units, the revitalization of 90,000+ square feet of commercial space, and the generation of over $300 million in increased revenue for the corporation.

Ken is admitted to practice law in New York, New Jersey and the Federal District Courts of the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York and the District of New Jersey. He is a graduate of Hampshire College, Yeshiva University’s Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.