Daniel Sullivan recently filed a Request for an Investigation of attorney David B. Savitt of the firm Kovitz Shifrin Nesbit for an ethics violation. The Request was filed with the Attorney Registration & Disciplinary Commission of the Supreme Court of Illinois (ARDC).
The basis of the Request was a letter sent to Mr. Sullivan and his partner Mark Paul Acesor regarding their right to engage in fair housing self-advocacy and educational activities in association with a condominium located at 3600 N. Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, IL.
The letter from Mr. Savitt demanded that Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Acesor immediately cease and desist from any fair housing self-advocacy and educational activities with the Condominium Association, and then permanently banned both Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Acesor from condominium grounds on threat of arrest for trespass.
Mr. Acesor was a long-term tenant of 3600 N. Lake Shore Drive who was, according to an allegation of housing discrimination filed this week with the Department of Housing and Urban Development, unlawfully evicted from his unit for discriminatory reasons.
Mr. Sullivan, as Mr. Acesor's partner and fair housing advocate, had been attempting to educate the Condominium Association about its fair housing obligations and to secure an appropriate remedy.
According to the ARDC complaint filed, Mr. Savitt's cease and desist letter, along with its stated policy of permanent banishment, amounts to unlawful threat, intimidation, and harassment under the Fair Housing Act and Illinois Human Rights Act. The banishment is also a retaliatory refusal to rent or sell a unit at 3600 N. Lake Shore Drive to both parties, as the refusal to rent or sell is implicit in a policy of permanent banishment.
Mr. Sullivan's ARDC complaint alleges that Mr. Savitt himself has in his letter violated the spirit and letter of the civil rights laws designed to protect us from unlawful housing discrimination. You may review the ARDC Request for an Investigation and supporting documentation at the link below.
ARDC Request for an Investigation
The basis of the Request was a letter sent to Mr. Sullivan and his partner Mark Paul Acesor regarding their right to engage in fair housing self-advocacy and educational activities in association with a condominium located at 3600 N. Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, IL.
The letter from Mr. Savitt demanded that Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Acesor immediately cease and desist from any fair housing self-advocacy and educational activities with the Condominium Association, and then permanently banned both Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Acesor from condominium grounds on threat of arrest for trespass.
Mr. Acesor was a long-term tenant of 3600 N. Lake Shore Drive who was, according to an allegation of housing discrimination filed this week with the Department of Housing and Urban Development, unlawfully evicted from his unit for discriminatory reasons.
Mr. Sullivan, as Mr. Acesor's partner and fair housing advocate, had been attempting to educate the Condominium Association about its fair housing obligations and to secure an appropriate remedy.
According to the ARDC complaint filed, Mr. Savitt's cease and desist letter, along with its stated policy of permanent banishment, amounts to unlawful threat, intimidation, and harassment under the Fair Housing Act and Illinois Human Rights Act. The banishment is also a retaliatory refusal to rent or sell a unit at 3600 N. Lake Shore Drive to both parties, as the refusal to rent or sell is implicit in a policy of permanent banishment.
Mr. Sullivan's ARDC complaint alleges that Mr. Savitt himself has in his letter violated the spirit and letter of the civil rights laws designed to protect us from unlawful housing discrimination. You may review the ARDC Request for an Investigation and supporting documentation at the link below.
ARDC Request for an Investigation
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