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Ruth Katz is a community associations attorney who helps board members of condominiums, homeowners, and cooperatives associations govern effectively. She provides general counsel to and resolves disputes for boards and property management companies in Maryland, DC, and Virginia.
Ruth brings experience coupled with enthusiasm to all her clients, whether advocating forcefully in court, poring over governing documents, or welcoming a new board member while explaining Robert’s Rules of Order. One client notes, “Ruth has demonstrated a superior level of knowledge and negotiation skill, and we have every confidence of continuing to rely on her for all such services. Ruth has been great to work with and as challenges may arise, I look forward to those future collaborations.”
As general association counsel, Ruth reviews, interprets and amends governing documents, drafts rules and regulations, reviews contracts, prepares and attends annual meetings, and enforces covenants. She skillfully defends associations against all claims, including contract breach of fiduciary duty, Fair Housing, employee issues, and insurance defense. Ruth regularly appears before Maryland, DC, and Virginia courts, as well as before the Montgomery County Commission on Common Ownership Communities. She also helps associations collect delinquent assessments. With each client, she focuses not only on the legal issue at hand, but also on the real-life impact to the association.
Ruth, who co-chairs Lerch Early’s Community Associations practice, educates her clients about new legislation affecting their associations. She is active in the Maryland Legislative Action Committee of the Community Associations Institute and its Washington Metropolitan Chapter, and received WMCCAI’s “Advocate of the Year” award. She currently serves on WMCCAI's executive committee as the secretary of the board of directors.
Ruth loves world travel; pre-children, her favorite trip was hiking Peru’s Inca Trail to the ancient ruins of Machu Picchu. Most recently, she enjoyed bouncing with her husband, children, and Tigger on a Disney Cruise.
Board members and homeowners of one of Lerch Early’s HOA clients were subjected to excessively long and argumentative board of directors and membership meetings.
Lerch Early’s community association attorneys regularly provide training to board members on how to run effective meetings. In this case, we scheduled training for the board of directors on Robert’s Rules of Order. Board members learned the benefits of a well-run meeting, the differences between running large and small meetings, how to construct an agenda, voting methods, and what to include in meeting minutes. We then conducted a meeting using what they learned at the next board meeting.
Using what they learned and saw demonstrated, the board was able to cut board meeting times significantly. For the subsequent membership meeting, the board chair distributed an agenda to the owners prior to the meeting and explained the procedures at the meeting’s outset. The annual meeting ran smoothly with a minimum of disruption. When a resident with a perpetual grievance raised a complaint, there was no second, so the meeting proceeded. After the meeting, several owners commented that it was the best meeting they had attended.
The architectural and environmental control committee of a Lerch Early homeowners association client approved construction of a fence. A neighbor challenged the approval before the association’s board of directors, which upheld the committee’s approval. The neighbor then filed a complaint before the Montgomery County Commission on Common Ownership Communities.
Lerch Early demonstrated that the association acted properly and the board of directors rendered its decision without fraud or bad faith. We asked that the CCOC abide by the business judgment rule, by which a court will not interfere in the internal affairs of a corporation, absent fraud or bad faith.
The CCOC ruled that the association had the discretion on how and to what extent to enforce its rules and dismissed the complaint.
Disclaimer: Each case is different and past results do not guarantee similar results in future matters.