Empowering Your Enterprise with Sound Legal Advice

People come to lawyers with problems. We provide solutions.”

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Empowering Your Enterprise with Sound Legal Advice

“People come to lawyers with problems. We provide solutions.”

Learn More

Business Law Firm with Extensive Experience in White Plains, NY

We are a small, boutique law firm that delivers sophisticated corporate and business legal services. Our team is composed exclusively of seasoned attorneys, each with many years of practice. With extensive experience across a wide range of legal matters, we are well-equipped to handle the challenges our clients bring to us. We also offer creative and flexible billing strategies tailored to our clients’ needs.

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About Our Law Firm

Underweiser & Underweiser LLP was founded in 1963. Underweiser & Underweiser LLP is a business law firm that specializes in business law, real estate, and litigation. The law firm functions as general counsel for many of its clients and assists them in operating their businesses.

Underweiser & Underweiser LLP’s attorneys with extensive and varied legal experience. The law firm’s attorneys specialize in corporate, banking, real estate, commercial litigation, secured and unsecured lending, transactional work, and trusts and estates.

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Recognized Excellence and Integrity in Legal Practice

Attorneys at Underweiser & Underweiser LLP have ratings of “AV,” the highest rating awarded to attorneys by Martindale-Hubbell. Martindale-Hubbell is the facilitator of a peer review process that rates lawyers.

Ratings reflect the confidential opinions of members of the Bar and the Judiciary. Martindale-Hubbell ratings fall into two categories: legal ability and general ethical standards. The law firm’s legal ability rating is “A,” which is defined as “very high to preeminent.” Attorneys at Underweiser & Underweiser LLP have a general ethical rating of “V” or “very high.”

The law firm has offices at One Barker Avenue, 2nd Floor, White Plains, New York 10601.

Our Experience

Representing Financial Institutions & Lenders

The law firm represents banks, private lenders, privately held corporations, and not-for-profit entities. Underweiser & Underweiser LLP represents commercial and community banks. The law firm also represents private lenders who focus on debt financing, equity investments, and mezzanine financing. Underweiser & Underweiser LLP provides various services to these clients.

Loan Closings and Financial Transactions

The law firm closes loans on behalf of the lenders that are unsecured or secured by real estate, equipment, inventory, contracts, commercial paper, intellectual property rights, and various other property.

Underweiser & Underweiser LLP also handles loans involving the United States Small Business Administration’s 504, 7A and SBIC programs for both lenders and borrowers.

In closing a loan on behalf of a lender, Underweiser & Underweiser LLP provides due diligence, reviews documents relevant to moving forward with the loan, prepares loan documents, negotiates various issues with opposing counsel, and ensures that material matters are attended to before closing.

Litigation Services

Underweiser & Underweiser LLP also handles various commercial litigation matters for its clients covering virtually any area, including, for example:

  • Foreclosures on Collateral
  • Collection Actions
  • Contract Disputes
  • Lease Matters
  • Disputes with Other Lenders
  • Supervising Litigation in Other Jurisdictions

General Counsel and Advisory Services

Further, Underweiser & Underweiser LLP functions as general counsel for a number of its clients and advises on day-to-day matters, including:

  • Drafting of Contracts
  • Negotiation of Agreements
  • Structuring Workouts of Loans in Default
  • Consulting on Investment Decisions and Employee Issues
  • Presenting Legal Opinions
  • Providing Risk Management and Compliance Guidance
  • Resolve Disputes with Third Parties

Services for Not-for-Profit and Corporate Clients

Underweiser & Underweiser LLP also represents several not-for-profit, commercial, and corporate clients. The law firm represents not-for-profit organizations such as homeless service providers, chambers of commerce, a harm reduction program, entities feeding the hungry, benefit funds, and private lenders. Underweiser & Underweiser LLP also represents various businesses such as a chain of supermarkets, moving, transportation and logistics companies, entrepreneurs and private lenders. The law firm has served as general counsel to some of these clients for many years.

Government Relations and Large-Scale Transactions

In representing for-profit businesses and not-for-profit clients, Underweiser & Underweiser LLP has extensive contact with various agencies in the City and State of New York and the Federal Government and regularly works with them to assist its clients in the operation of their businesses. For example:

  • We negotiated a $40 million transaction with the NYC Department of Homeless Services and Bronx-based organizations to operate homeless shelters.
  • The law firm negotiated a $25 million lease with the NYC Board of Education and the School Construction Authority.
  • The firm also collaborates with accountants for these entities on tax issues, including the treatment of potentially taxable income.

Full-Service Counsel for Businesses

Underweiser & Underweiser LLP represents various other for-profit businesses. Underweiser & Underweiser LLP functions as general counsel for most of these clients and handles all matters for these clients. These clients, along with the not-for-profit entities, banks, and private lenders, regularly have issues involving employees, unions, collective bargaining issues, discrimination, bankruptcy, intellectual property, and other potential claims and issues.

Our law firm also represents clients who either lease equipment or are in the leasing equipment business. To learn more about us, kindly refer to the file below.

Law Firm Profile

Our Service Area

We handle matters in New York and Connecticut and assist our local clients with their business interests all over the country. While we’re rooted here, our reach extends far beyond. We handle legal matters in both New York and Connecticut and work with clients from across the country—many of whom have business interests in these states. 

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Irwin P. Underweiser

Irwin P. Underweiser

Irwin P. Underweiser started his legal career at the corporate and banking law firm of Scribner & Miller on Wall Street.  Irwin’s time at Scribner & Miller was interrupted by his service in the United States Army as General Counsel at Fort Sill near Lawton, Oklahoma. Irwin went on to found our law firm in January 1964 at 103 Park Avenue in New York City.

Irwin specialized in corporate and securities law. In his business practice, Irwin represented various banking, institutional, and corporate clients in matters encompassing areas as diverse as banking, real estate, transportation, bankruptcy, and intellectual property. As a corporate counsel, Irwin advised clients on how to address and handle all issues that arose in their businesses and operations.

Irwin served either as an officer or board member of a number of various entities, including the Sunshine Mining Company, Underwriters Bank and Trust Company, Citizens Casualty Company of New York, Thomas Jefferson Life Insurance Company, the National Minority Development Council Business Consortium Fund, Inc. and Triad Capital Corporation of New York, among others. In the case of Sunshine, he assumed the role of Chief Executive Officer and President for a number of years. While involved with those companies, Underweiser & Underweiser LLP functioned as those entities’ general counsel.

Irwin was a graduate of the City College of the City University of New York, magna cum laude. While at City College, Irwin was Phi Beta Kappa and a member of the Phi Alpha Theta honors society. Irwin then went to Fordham University Law School where he received his Juris Doctorate. While at Fordham, Irwin was the recipient of the Baker Voorhees Award.  Irwin also received his LLM from New York University.

Duwaine Bascoe

Duwaine Bascoe

Of Counsel

Duwaine Bascoe is a distinguished attorney admitted to practice law in the State of New York and the Bankruptcy Court of Western New York. His practice is centered on litigation, with a particular focus on labor and employment, as well as commercial and business litigation.

Mr. Bascoe has been recognized for his exceptional contributions to the legal field. He was honored as a “Rising Stars” by Thomson Reuters in 2023, acknowledged as a “Responsible 100” by the City and State of New York in 2021, and listed in Best Lawyers “Ones to Watch in America” in 2021. Additionally, he was featured in Rochester Business Journal’s “Power 30 List” in 2021, received the “President’s Award” from the Monroe County Bar Association in 2018, and the “Trailblazer Award” from the University of Buffalo Law School in 2018. His accolades also include the “Forty Under 40” by the Rochester Business Journal in 2016, “Emerging Bar Leader” by the Monroe County Bar Association in 2015, “Excellence in Law Up and Coming Attorneys” by The Daily Record in 2015, and “Top 40 Under 40” by The National Black Lawyers.

Mr. Bascoe earned his J.D. from the University at Buffalo Law School. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Morehouse College.

Wendy L. North

Wendy L. North

Partner

Wendy L. North specializes in corporate law, banking, and real estate. In her corporate practice, Wendy represents corporations, banks, and not-for-profits in various matters comprising finance, banking, real estate, labor, contract negotiations, and general corporate matters. Wendy is admitted to practice in New York and Connecticut. 

Wendy is a graduate of Tufts University, B.A., cum laude, 1986; London School of Economics, Graduate Diploma, 1987; Georgetown University Law Center, J.D., 1991; Admitted 1992, Connecticut and New York; Specializes in Corporate and Contract Law, and Commercial and Residential Real Estate Law.

Email: wln@underweiser.com

Beatrice K. Underweiser

Beatrice K. Underweiser

Beatrice K. Underweiser joined the law firm in 1969. Beatrice specialized in trusts and estates law, planning and administration, tax, and general business law. Bea represented individuals in the planning of how to handle their assets, the drafting of wills and trusts, the distribution of assets, and the administration and probating of estates.

Beatrice also served as Deputy Mayor and Trustee of the Village of Scarsdale in New York. She also held the position of Police Commissioner and served on various committees and boards in the Village of Scarsdale. Bea was also a Trustee of the City University Construction Fund.

Bea was a graduate of Vassar College and the Columbia University School of Law. While at Columbia, she was a member of the school’s Moot Court Stone competition.

Jeffrey B. Underweiser

Jeffrey B. Underweiser

Partner

Jeffrey B. Underweiser specializes in corporate law, banking, and litigation. In his business and corporate practice, Jeff represents a broad base of institutional, corporate, and not-for-profit clients in matters involving general corporate, finance, banking, real estate, bankruptcy, intellectual property, labor, health care, and related litigations. 

As a corporate attorney, Jeff advises clients on how to resolve all problems facing their businesses, avoid litigation, prepare various agreements, and handle all aspects of commercial closings from a lender, seller, and buyer’s perspective.  In regards to litigation, Jeff has expertise in all phases of litigation, from pleadings to appeals. 

Jeff is admitted to practice in New York and New Jersey Courts, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second and Third Circuits, and the United States District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York and the District of New Jersey.

Jeff is a graduate of the Johns Hopkins University, where he received both a Bachelor’s degree with honors and a Master’s degree in history in 1989.  He then went on to Fordham Law School, where he received his Juris Doctorate degree in 1992. While at Fordham, Jeff was the recipient of the American Jurisprudence Award for Trusts and the American Jurisprudence Award for Administrative Law. 

At Fordham, he was also an editor of the Fordham Urban Law Journal and authored the note; “The Legality of Staten Island’s Attempt to Secede from New York City,” 19 Ford. Urb. L.J. 147 (1991).  Jeff is a member of the American Bar Association and the New York State Bar Association.  

Practice Areas: Corporate, Banking, Real Estate, & Litigation
Email: jbu@underweiser.com