Dealmakers Rush to Sign Deals While They Still Can

On a late March morning, a moped rider in a surgical mask rode sixty blocks up Manhattan’s deserted streets to the Upper East Side. There, the rider met his lawyer in the lobby of a residential building. The lawyer placed a sheaf of documents on a table and backed away, then watched his client approach and sign them, before stepping back.

Without any contact between them, the documents for the eight-figure refinancing of the client’s property, were signed, notarized, and FedExed to the lender.