Top Lawyer 2022: Andrew Abraham, Real Estate

It’s time to lawyer up! Our inaugural list of the Valley’s most respected legal eagles spans 39 specialties, from personal injury attorneys to business litigators. And all of them are peer-selected, so you know they’ll do your case justice.

Andrew Abraham

Specialty: Real Estate
Law School/Year Graduated: Arizona State University, 1982
Years in Practice: 39

How do you remain personally well-informed in the dynamic industry of real estate?
Read every real estate story I can find in local papers, drive the Valley and see real-time development, LinkedIn, trade journals, and I spend most of my day talking to those [working in] Valley real estate.

You are a certified Real Estate Specialist by the Arizona Board of Legal Specialization. What does this entail?
It requires being in practice a minimum number of years and having several years’ experience with real estate projects constituting at least 50 percent of my practice per year. There’s also a peer-review component.

What is the most common type of case you take on as a real estate lawyer?
Buying and selling of large residential, commercial and industrial parcels. This involves contract drafting, title review, due diligence investigations, financing work and closing of transactions. I also do quite a bit of real estate litigation ranging from breach of contract actions to disputes related to easements, clouds on title, lack of legal access and [similar issues].

Name the best depiction of your field in TV or film that you’ve seen.
Flip or Flop. People succeed in fixing and flipping a house or they flop… foreclosure, litigate with partners and contractors and even some engage in fraud to escape bad decisions and lack of experience.

What are your hobbies and interests outside law?
Family, grandkids, running, hiking, gardening and anything outside.

“If I wasn’t a lawyer, I’d be…”
A pediatrician or a college professor.

How we Picked our Top Lawyers

PHOENIX magazine generates its Top Lawyers list via an online survey of practicing attorneys in the Greater Phoenix area. Partnering with Colorado Springs-based information research firm Data Joe, PHOENIX disseminates emails to each of the roughly 16,000 active attorneys licensed with the State Bar of Arizona, directing them to an online portal managed by Data Joe. The survey, which takes place over six weeks, asks respondents to provide the names of up to three attorneys they deem the best in 39 legal specialties. To spread the votes democratically, respondents are asked to nominate at least one attorney in each category who works in a firm other than their own.

At the conclusion of the voting, Data Joe tallies the votes digitally and verifies that vote recipients are in good standing with the State Bar. PHOENIX editors then set the vote thresholds in a manner that ensures the top 10 to 20 percent of vote-getters in each category make the Top Lawyers list. Our fact-checkers then call each attorney on the final list to confirm their affiliation with a Valley-based firm and obtain accurate contact information.

PHOENIX does not give preference to attorneys who advertise. Top Lawyers earn their place on the list purely by virtue of the votes they receive, and our sales staff does not see the list until the lawyers have been confirmed by our fact-checkers. 2022 is the first year PHOENIX has conducted Top Lawyers.