The founders of Kadima Law: Hirsch Neustein, left, Josh Fine and Brent Eisen. (Courtesy Josh Fine)
Josh Fine may be living in Israel, but he’s got work to do in Denver.
Fine launched Kadima Law in March after a 15-year tenure with local developer Focus Property Group. The new law firm is looking to assist real estate firms with their transactions, leases and developments – with a twist.
“We don’t know anybody else that’s doing this in commercial real estate,” said Fine, 49.
The Harvard Law graduate is teaming up with two other Denver lawyers living in Israel to run the business that provides “fractional in-house counsel” to real estate players. Instead of hourly billing, clients pay by the month or the project.
“Soup to nuts. You want to purchase land or a building, and you want to build or improve or value-add, or you want to lease or sell your building or your land. There’s lots of components of that, and between the three of us, we can help with all that,” he said.
The trio at Kadima, which means “forward” in Hebrew, includes former Brownstein lawyer Hirsch Neustein and Brent Eisen, who used to work in the Denver City Attorney’s Office.
The business has its Denver office in the Enterprise Coworking space at 3000 Lawrence St. in RiNo, a building that Fine helped redevelop with his former firm. Though the three live thousands of miles away, at least one of them is usually around town.
“We’ll just be efficient … not have the overhead of a 17th Street rent and 17th Street office,” Fine said.
Fine moved to Israel shortly before the pandemic, leaving Focus as its president in 2022. He started off as legal counsel and grew into a leadership role over time.
One of his proudest accomplishments: redeveloping a city landmark from the 1860s at 1999 Chestnut Place. The building is the oldest remaining firehouse in town. Focus turned it into a restaurant space that accompanies the 12-story hotel the firm built next door.
“The bulk of my career has been in-house and in a very entrepreneurial, small real estate business where we are putting together deals. We did some amazing projects, but we had to be very cognizant of project expenses. We’re not like a massive REIT with hundreds of millions to spend on legal fees,” Fine said.
“That’s kind of how I grew up, and that’s how I’m approaching the service [Kadima].”
He met partners Neustein and Eisen through Denver’s Jewish community. The seeds for the business were planted when Fine and Neustein met up in Israel, talking shop.
Both shared their frustrations with the state of the legal world in real estate. The unpredictability of hourly legal fees made it challenging for developers to math out their finances. The frustration of long-running back-and-forth discussions on leases and sales ballooned costs to the point where the lawyers cost more than whatever their client was able to win in the negotiations.
“When Hirsch and I were talking, it was as if we were all speaking the same language,” Fine said.
In its first few weeks of operations, Fine said his business has already picked up a few clients, mostly from their real estate network.
“Had a firm like ours existed where I could have hired a fractional in-house counsel to be our on-call attorneys for subscription – I would have jumped on that,” Fine said.
The founders of Kadima Law: Hirsch Neustein, left, Josh Fine and Brent Eisen. (Courtesy Josh Fine)
Josh Fine may be living in Israel, but he’s got work to do in Denver.
Fine launched Kadima Law in March after a 15-year tenure with local developer Focus Property Group. The new law firm is looking to assist real estate firms with their transactions, leases and developments – with a twist.
“We don’t know anybody else that’s doing this in commercial real estate,” said Fine, 49.
The Harvard Law graduate is teaming up with two other Denver lawyers living in Israel to run the business that provides “fractional in-house counsel” to real estate players. Instead of hourly billing, clients pay by the month or the project.
“Soup to nuts. You want to purchase land or a building, and you want to build or improve or value-add, or you want to lease or sell your building or your land. There’s lots of components of that, and between the three of us, we can help with all that,” he said.
The trio at Kadima, which means “forward” in Hebrew, includes former Brownstein lawyer Hirsch Neustein and Brent Eisen, who used to work in the Denver City Attorney’s Office.
The business has its Denver office in the Enterprise Coworking space at 3000 Lawrence St. in RiNo, a building that Fine helped redevelop with his former firm. Though the three live thousands of miles away, at least one of them is usually around town.
“We’ll just be efficient … not have the overhead of a 17th Street rent and 17th Street office,” Fine said.
Fine moved to Israel shortly before the pandemic, leaving Focus as its president in 2022. He started off as legal counsel and grew into a leadership role over time.
One of his proudest accomplishments: redeveloping a city landmark from the 1860s at 1999 Chestnut Place. The building is the oldest remaining firehouse in town. Focus turned it into a restaurant space that accompanies the 12-story hotel the firm built next door.
“The bulk of my career has been in-house and in a very entrepreneurial, small real estate business where we are putting together deals. We did some amazing projects, but we had to be very cognizant of project expenses. We’re not like a massive REIT with hundreds of millions to spend on legal fees,” Fine said.
“That’s kind of how I grew up, and that’s how I’m approaching the service [Kadima].”
He met partners Neustein and Eisen through Denver’s Jewish community. The seeds for the business were planted when Fine and Neustein met up in Israel, talking shop.
Both shared their frustrations with the state of the legal world in real estate. The unpredictability of hourly legal fees made it challenging for developers to math out their finances. The frustration of long-running back-and-forth discussions on leases and sales ballooned costs to the point where the lawyers cost more than whatever their client was able to win in the negotiations.
“When Hirsch and I were talking, it was as if we were all speaking the same language,” Fine said.
In its first few weeks of operations, Fine said his business has already picked up a few clients, mostly from their real estate network.
“Had a firm like ours existed where I could have hired a fractional in-house counsel to be our on-call attorneys for subscription – I would have jumped on that,” Fine said.
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