Durkin’s departure was announced in a SEC filing on Monday, and came after reports emerged about the nature of former Elliman CEO Howard Lorber’s retirement, which was allegedly pressured by Elliman’s board.
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This story was updated after publishing with a comment from Douglas Elliman’s Michael Liebowitz, and with additional context.
Scott Durkin has been terminated as president and CEO of Douglas Elliman’s brokerage segment, according to a filing made with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday.
The filing specifies that Durkin was terminated on Friday, with his departure effective immediately, a move that comes just days after Elliman chairman of the board, CEO and president Howard Lorber announced his retirement.
The New York Times reported that Richard Ferrari, who had been head of brokerage operations in New York City and the Northeast, will be taking over for Durkin. Michael Liebowitz, Elliman’s new chairman and CEO of Douglas Elliman Inc., told agents in an internal email that Durkin was “stepping down … in order to pursue new opportunities,” according to The Real Deal.
Liebowitz wished Durkin “all the best in his future endeavors” in a statement sent to Inman.
“With his impressive background in residential real estate, Richard Ferrari is a proven leader and the right choice to head corporate operations,” Liebowitz said in a statement. “His decades of executive and agent experience will help guide our brokerage, our agents and our staff towards a bright new future and even greater success.”
When Lorber’s departure was announced last week, the move was characterized as a simple retirement. However, some vocal Elliman shareholders had previously expressed their discontent with Lorber’s performance, as the firm faced about two years of losses and a dropping stock price, as well as increased scrutiny over previously long-time agents Tal and Oren Alexander, who had been named in multiple lawsuits alleging sexual assault.
The Wall Street Journal also reported on Sunday that Lorber had in fact been pressured by the company’s board to resign as concerns about workplace culture mounted.
A special committee had been formed by the board in recent weeks to investigate the firm’s culture and accusations of sexual assault made by employees against the Alexander brothers, according to The WSJ’s sources.
Both Elliman and the Alexanders have previously asserted that no formal human resources complaints had ever been filed against the Alexanders during their time at the firm. (The left in 2022 after being affiliated with Elliman for about 10 years in order to launch Official.)
The special committee investigation, according to The WSJ, was the second internal review the firm had conducted in recent months after an earlier one conducted by attorney Marc Kasowitz, who has represented Elliman over the years, was determined by the board to not be enough. A major concern on the board’s part was that Kasowitz and Lorber were perhaps too close for the review to be impartial, and in addition to representing Elliman in certain matters, Kasowitz had also represented a tobacco company that Lorber led in the past.
“As longtime litigation counsel to Douglas Elliman, our firm was preparing to defend the company against potential claims,” Kasowitz said in a statement sent to The WSJ. “Any suggestion that in doing so we would be less aggressive or effective in finding out the true facts because of our longtime business and personal relationship with Mr. Lorber makes no sense and is the exact opposite of the truth.”
David Chene, who joined Elliman’s board recently with Kennedy Lewis’ investment of $50 million into the company, led the special committee, according to sources. It is unclear what findings came out of that committee’s investigation.
Durkin joined Douglas Elliman in 2015 as executive vice president after spending about two decades at the Corcoran Group. He was named president in 2017, and then CEO of the brokerage arm right before Elliman spun off from former parent company Vector Group in 2021. Lorber had also served as Vector’s CEO and president until he sold the company to JT Group, a deal which closed earlier this month.
Amidst its losses, Elliman has worked to lower costs, including through laying off employees, cutting corporate sponsorships and terminating office leases. The company also recently announced it would sunset an agreement with Vector Group, which allowed it to lease Vector’s private aircraft on a per-flight basis.
Durkin’s bonus also took a hit last year, amounting to $250,000, less than half of what he had earned the previous year, according to SEC filings. He salary stayed the same as it was in 2022.
The brokerage exec was promoted to CEO in 2021 when Dottie Herman stepped down from the role. Herman now serves in an advisory role at the brokerage.
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