Mr. Taylor has been providing legal representation to community associations throughout Long Island for over twenty years.

Mr. Taylor is a frequent lecturer on community association law and has written numerous articles on the subject. He is a founding member of the Long Island Chapter of the Community Associations Institute (CAI) and served as President of the Chapter for its first two years. For his efforts in founding the Chapter, he was awarded the 2006 CAI Award of Excellence in Chapter Leadership.

Mr. Taylor was recently named a fellow of the College of Community Association Lawyers (CCAL) – one of fewer than 150 attorneys nationwide to be admitted to this prestigious organization. He is also a member of CAI’s NYS Legislative Action Committee and its Government and Public Affairs Committee. He has served as an adjunct professor at Touro Law Center where he taught a course entitled Condominium, Co-op and Homeowners Association Law.

Mr. Taylor is a graduate of Grinnell College (B.A. with honors), the University of Michigan’s Institute of Public Policy Studies (M.P.P.) and the Touro Law Center (J.D. magna cum laude). He is a member of the Suffolk County Bar Association, the SCBA Real Property Committee, the New York State Bar Association and the NYSBA Real Property Committee and Sub-Committee on Condominiums and Co-ops.

He is admitted to practice law in New York State and the U.S. District Courts for the Eastern and Southern Districts of New York. Mr. Taylor is also a member of the Touro Law Center Alumni Council and a member and past President of the Greater Smithtown Chamber of Commerce.

Earned his B.A. degree in philosophy from Hofstra University and his J.D. degree from Touro Law School. With a broad background in community association law, commercial & corporate, municipal, real property, zoning/land use and civil litigation, he practices in state and federal court, including the briefing and arguing of appeals.

Mr. Eldridge focuses on the areas of community association law and civil and commercial litigation, including construction matters and landlord-tenant cases. Currently serving as Special Counsel for the Village of Mastic Beach, he previously served as General Counsel to Damianos Realty Group in Smithtown, New York, and was a managing partner at Eldridge & Langone, PLLC, focusing on complex litigation, motion practice and appeals. He was also a partner of Pachman, Pachman & Eldridge, P.C., practicing in civil litigation in state and federal court, as well as real property, municipal and zoning law. A prior director of the Suffolk County Bar Association’s Board of Directors, past-President of the Suffolk County Columbian Lawyers Association, and a member of the New York State Bar Association, he also Co-Chaired the Suffolk County Bar Association’s Legislative Review Committee for eight years. In addition to acting as Special Prosecutor for the Village of Greenport, Mr. Eldridge served as counsel to the Suffolk County Police Columbia Association, and is a Past- President of the Community Associations Institute of Long Island, as well as a current delegate of its Legislative Action Committee.

While Associate Dean and Officer of the Suffolk County Bar’s Academy of Law, he was responsible for selecting, organizing, and overseeing numerous legal seminars providing CLE credit to attorneys throughout the county, and frequently teaches seminars for board members of community associations. Regularly publishing legal articles on a variety of topics, he also served as an Assistant Legal Articles Editor for the Suffolk Lawyer, published a monthly column in the New York State Bar Association’s Law Journal, authored a monthly column in the Suffolk Lawyer entitled “Did You Know?”, and co-authored the “Civil Litigation Corner” found in that monthly publication.

Mr. Eldridge is a current or former member of the Suffolk County Bar Association’s Grievance Committee, Bench-Bar Committee, Nominating Committee, Ethics Committee, Municipal Law Committee, Curriculum Committee, and Appellate Committee, and is a Board member of the Alexander Hamilton Inns of Court. He is admitted to practice law in New York; the Supreme Court of the United States; Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit; Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces; Federal Court of Claims; and the U.S. District Court, E.D.N.Y.

Cases litigated by Mr. Eldridge have been cited in numerous appellate and trial courts, as well as in Carmody Wait 2nd; NY Jurisprudence; CJS; ALR; Rathkopf’s Zoning Law and Practice; New York Contract Law; New York Zoning Law and Practice; New York Practice Series; and Holtzschue on Real Estate Contracts.

Received her B.A. in psychology (magna cum laude), from Binghamton University, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She earned her J.D. (magna cum laude) from Touro Law Center. While in law school, she served as the Issue Editor of the Touro Law Review. Ms. Schlactus authored two published articles in 2010 examining the cases, Goldstein v. New York State Urban Development Corp., and People v. Davis. These articles explored the issues of eminent domain and due process which recently arose in two influential decisions.

Ms. Schlactus interned for the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office and for the Honorable Leonard D. Wexler of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of NY. Following graduation, she completed a postgraduate fellowship with the New York Appellate Division, Second Department, working for the Honorable Leonard B. Austin. Prior to joining Taylor, Eldridge & Endres, Ms. Schlactus practiced mortgage default litigation, where she represented major financial institutions in foreclosure proceedings. She is a member of the Suffolk County Bar Association, and is admitted to practice law in the States of New York and New Jersey, as well as in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.

Beth M. Gazes, a partner at Taylor, Eldridge & Endres, P.C., concentrates in general and complex litigation, and community association law.

Ms. Gazes zealously advocates for her clients, consistently winning favorable outcomes in Supreme Court and Federal actions. Most recently, she was victorious in obtaining a court order extinguishing a mechanic’s lien, and successfully won a complete dismissal of a shareholder derivative action.  She guides her Co-op, Condominium, and HOA clients through all aspects of corporate governance including amendments to governing documents, negotiations with vendors,  collection of unpaid community assessments, resolution of conflicts with homeowners, and defense of discrimination claims, to name a few.

Ms. Gazes is a board Member of the Long Island Chapter of the Community Association Institute (CAI-LI), and served as the CAI-LI Trade Show Committee Chairperson in 2023 and 2024.  Ms. Gazes is also a member of the Advisory Board of Touro’s Institute For Land Use And Sustainable Development Law, appointed to that position by Touro’s Dean Elena Langan in February 2020.  She is a regular volunteer with Legal Services of Long Island assisting with their Community Legal Help Project.  Ms. Gazes has volunteered with the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund and Nassau Suffolk Law Services assisting transgender individuals effectuate name changes on a pro bono basis, and with Nassau Suffolk Law Services’ Volunteer Lawyers Project representing indigent tenants in Nassau County District Court eviction proceedings, and as an Ambassador for Pride For Youth, Inc.

Ms. Gazes has presented continuing education lectures to the Suffolk County Bar Association on topics related to real estate law, including Mechanic’s Liens and Neighbor v. Neighbor disputes.  She also presents educational seminars to CAI-LI community association boards on an array of matters including the business judgment rule, corporate governance, case law updates, and board succession plans, among others.

Ms. Gazes is a graduate of Touro Law Center. While in law school, she served as a Board Member of the Moot Court Honors Board, as well as a member of the Touro Law Center Honors Program, Trial Advocacy and Practice Society, and Journal of Gender, Race, and Ethnicity. She was her class representative of the Student Bar Association, and was the founder of the school’s Public Speaking Club. She also served as research assistant in areas of both land use and environmental crimes. Off campus, Ms. Gazes served on the NYSBA Commercial and Federal Litigation Section’s Publication Committee and coached a Brentwood High School Student Mock Trial Team. She also served as intern to the Honorable C. Randall Hinrichs.

While studying at Touro, Ms. Gazes received CALI Awards for Academic Excellence in Land Use and Zoning, Legal Research, NY Civil Procedure, and her pro bono work at the college’s Small Business and Not-for-Profit Clinic. She received the ABA State & Local Government Section Recognition for Academic Performance in Land Use, and was honored at graduation with the Touro Law Pro Bono Service Award: Special Service to the Public & Community.

Publications:

“Tiny Homes And New York: Making Way For Housing Options,” an examination of alternative housing options across the state.   Published in New York Zoning Law and Practice Report, a publication of Thomson Reuters. (https://bit.ly/3fNH8zC)

“Modification Requests in Community Associations: Do We Know What’s Reasonable?,” Touro Law Review: Vol. 38: No. 2, Article 4.

Admissions:

• New York State, Second Department
• U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York

Bar Associations:

• New York State Bar Association
• Suffolk County Bar Association
• Suffolk County Women’s Bar Association