Services for Local Landlord Champion Sunday

By Jorge Casuso

May 13 -- Services for Gordon Gitlen -- a Santa Monica real estate attorney who headed the city’s landlord group for the past five years -- will be held Sunday at Hillside Memorial Park in Los Angeles. Gitlen, 52, died May 3 after a battle with cancer.

President of ACTION Apartment Association, which represents many of the City’s mom and pop landlords, Gitlen argued several key cases that successfully scaled back the Rent Control Board’s powers.

In 1991 he successfully upheld a landlord’s right to occupy a rent-controlled building as a condominium after removing it from the rental market under the State Ellis Act.

And in 2000, he successfully challenged the rent board’s authority to require landlords to seek board approval before raising rents to market rates under a new State “vacancy decontrol” law. “Gordon dedicated much of his time to fighting to protect the rights of his clients and apartment owners throughout the state,” said Rosario Perry, a local landlord attorney. “Many of the Court of Appeals decisions he won will continue to provide protections after he’s gone.”

“He was one of the most creative attorneys I ever met,” said Gwen Wunder, ACTION’s executive director. “He was a great human being and a wonderful advocate for the housing industry. We’re going to have to do a lot of revamping.”

Gitlen, who moved to Santa Monica when he was six years old, graduated from Santa Monica High School in 1971 and established a practice in the city eight years later, the same year rent control became law.

Friendly and always professional, Gitlen made friends easily, and the annual Christmas parties at his office were always packed, those who knew him said.

“He should have been a PR man,” said Jim Jacobson, a rent control expert who worked for Gitlen. “He made friends with all the law clerks and judges. He was good friends with everybody.”

An athlete who worked out daily on professional equipment at home and was an avid skier, Gitlen never let his battle with cancer bring him down.

“He was really, really brave about it,” Jacobson said. “He was very optimistic. You only got the bad news through the good news.”

“I loved him,” said Wunder. “He was a great guy and a great friend. He did a lot of living in fifty-two years. I just never expected him to die.”

A cemetery service will be held Sunday at 11:45 a.m. at Hillside Memorial Park and mortuary, 6001 Centinela Avenue.

In lieu of flowers, his family is asking that donations be made to the Sarcoma Alliance (415.381.7236) and the National Cancer Institute (800.422.6237).