David J. Lorber & Associates, PLLC

Focus and practice areas

Two fields of law anchor this Setauket practice: estate planning and real estate. The firm treats these as its main work and gathers a set of related services around them. Most of those services touch property, family assets, or the needs of local business owners.

The estate planning work covers wills, trusts, and elder law. The real estate work covers residential and commercial closings along with landlord-tenant matters. In my opinion, pairing these two areas makes practical sense, because a family's home and its estate plan often run through the same paperwork. Both draw on the same care with documents and deadlines.

The estate planning side

Wills, trusts, and elder law form the base of the estate planning work. The firm also handles special needs planning and business succession planning for owners who want to hand a company to the next owner. It takes on adult guardianship and general guardianships, probate and estate administration, and trust and estate litigation in Surrogate's Court.

A will directs who receives property and names an executor, and it passes through Surrogate's Court before anyone inherits. A trust can hold and pass assets outside that court step, which is part of why planners reach for one. Choosing between them, and often using both, is the daily work of an estate planning practice.

Special needs planning usually means setting up a trust that holds assets for a person with a disability while keeping public benefits intact. Adult guardianship in New York moves under a court petition, where a judge decides how much authority a guardian needs and reviews the arrangement over time.

Elder care and business succession

Elder law often overlaps with planning for long-term care and Medicaid, where the timing of gifts and transfers can decide whether a person qualifies for help with nursing costs. Business succession planning looks further ahead, mapping how ownership and control of a company pass to family or partners when a founder steps back. Both call for documents drawn up early, well before the moment they take effect.

Probate and estate administration move through Surrogate's Court, where a will is proven and an executor gains authority to settle debts and pass on what remains. Because the firm also handles trust and estate litigation, it represents people when those same documents come into dispute. Will contests and fights over a trustee's conduct land in the same court that handles the quieter probate work.

Buying, selling, and holding property

Real estate at the firm splits between routine transactions and the tougher moments that arrive when a mortgage falls behind. On the transaction side, the firm handles residential and commercial closings and landlord-tenant issues for owners and tenants. These are the deals and disputes that come with holding property on Long Island and across the city.

A residential closing brings together the buyer, the seller, their lenders, and a title company to move ownership and money on the same day. Commercial closings add layers such as entity checks, leases already on the property, and a closer look at zoning. The lawyer's job at a closing is checking that title is clear, the numbers on the settlement statement match the contract, and the paperwork transferring ownership is signed in order.

The firm also does loss mitigation, which covers mortgage modifications, short sales, and foreclosure defense. A mortgage modification reworks the terms of an existing loan so the monthly payment becomes manageable. A short sale lets an owner sell for less than the balance owed, with the lender's sign-off. Foreclosure defense puts a lawyer between the homeowner and the bank during the court process that New York uses to foreclose.

When a mortgage falls behind

New York runs foreclosures through the courts, a system called judicial foreclosure, so a case can stretch across months and several settlement conferences. That timeline gives a defense lawyer room to file answers, request the loan records, and press for a modification while the case sits before a judge.

These property problems often run alongside a homeowner's estate or business concerns. A lawyer who already knows the family's assets can fold a foreclosure fight or a short sale into the wider picture. For a client already working with the firm on a will or a business, that continuity keeps one lawyer across the whole situation.

Litigation and business services

Disputes and company matters make up the third strand of the firm's work, sitting beside the estate and property files. It lists commercial litigation and personal injury as its courtroom areas, and business law for the contracts, formations, and disputes that companies meet. Commercial and residential closings also sit within this business-facing work.

Personal injury cases turn on proving fault and documenting a loss, and many settle before a trial date. A claim can settle through talks with an insurer, or move into a lawsuit when the sides cannot agree on the value. Commercial litigation can involve a breached contract, a partnership split, or an unpaid account.

Business law also covers the quieter work of forming an LLC, drafting an operating agreement, or reviewing a contract before a client signs. This mix reads as a general civil practice that backs up the firm's core clients when a matter turns contentious.

Who leads the work

David Lorber, Esq., is the attorney the firm's site names, and he is listed as its managing member. He is admitted to practice in New York, with a registration dating to 2019. His stated focus falls on estate planning and real estate, the two areas the firm builds around.

A single named attorney gives a client one clear point of contact, whether the matter is a closing or a court filing. In my opinion, that kind of direct line counts for a lot in estate and property work, where one lawyer benefits from carrying the whole file.

Where the firm works and starting a matter

The firm draws clients from Suffolk and Nassau Counties, Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan, the Bronx, and Westchester. That reach covers most of the New York metro area, which suits property and estate work that often crosses county lines. Handling matters across so many counties means tracking different local court practices and filing rules, which a firm based on Long Island tends to know from routine.

A free initial consultation is available by phone, by video, or at the office, so a prospective client can pick the format that fits. Bringing the right papers to that first meeting speeds things along: a deed and mortgage statement for a property matter, or a current will and a list of assets for an estate question. From its Setauket base, the firm works with clients throughout Long Island and the wider New York metro area.