Why Parties Shouldn’t Use Their Own Lawyers as Escrow Agents: Lessons from a High‑Stakes New York Real Estate Dispute

When commercial real estate deals go sideways, the fault lines almost always run along one familiar theme: mistrust .  Few recent cases illustrate this better than JTRE 23 WS (Del) LLC v. CS Wall Street LLC (NY County 2026) , a long‑running dispute over a triple‑net lease at 23 Wall Street—complete with millions of dollars in construction escrow, stalled buildout work, mechanics’ liens, and a web of interlocking obligations. Yet for all its complexity, one clear lesson emerges: parties should…