Steven Sugarman on Role of the Community Association Manager During the Transition Process

Gawthrop attorney and nationally recognized community association lawyer Steven L. Sugarman recently spoke on the role and responsibility of a community manager during the Spring Managers’ Symposium for the Community Associations Institute Keystone Chapter.

Presenting before a record-size audience for the event on March 12, 2024, Sugarman outlined the most significant issues for community managers during the transition process, including:

1. Retention and use of third-party professionals, including attorneys, engineers and accountants
2. Time limitations impacting the association’s investigations and claims
3. Compliance with statutory requirements, including fiduciary standards of care

Gawthrop Greenwood is one of the largest law firms supporting homeowners associations (HOAs), planned communities, condominium associations and cooperatives in Pennsylvania, offering an expanded array of services and legal disciplines that are of limited availability elsewhere. A community association law attorney for more than 40 years, Sugarman has played a critical role in establishing statutory and decisional law governing Pennsylvania’s common interest communities (CICs). As the chair and active member of the Community Association Institute’s (CAI) Legislative Action Committee for many years, Sugarman drafted and advocated for key amendments to Pennsylvania’s statutes. He also serves as an expert witness on community association matters brought before Pennsylvania’s courts and General Assembly.

A member of the prestigious College of Community Association Lawyers since 2000 and a past president of CAI’s Keystone Chapter, Sugarman developed and teaches one of the few law school courses nationwide on condominium and homeowner association law as an adjunct professor at the Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law. He is a frequent lecturer at the local and national levels on community association matters.

Community associations are the country’s fastest growing housing model, according to the Foundation for Community Association Research. Approximately 1,320,000 Pennsylvanians live in 541,000 homes in more than 6,930 community associations, according to the Community Associations Institute (CAI). Community association housing is expected to become the most common form of housing by 2040.

For more information, contact Steven at ssugarman@gawthrop.com or 610-889-0700.