The nation’s largest real estate brokerage is gearing up for battle.
Compass announced on Tuesday that it had hired a new chief legal officer as part of its “doubling down” on confrontations with some of the biggest players in real estate.
The name of that hire, Ethan Glass, should be familiar to anyone who’s followed the biggest stories in the industry over the past two years. He served as lead attorney for the National Association of Realtors throughout the Sitzer | Burnett trial.
Glass represented NAR while serving as a partner at the Silicon Valley-based law firm Cooley LLP, where he was chair of the firm’s antitrust and competition practice group.
Glass also previously worked at the U.S. Department of Justice, serving on a team that investigated and sued at least one multiple listing service for anticompetitive conduct.
In announcing Glass’ hiring, Compass CEO Robert Reffkin indicated the brokerage would remain focused on its multi-front battle over various policies governing the real estate industry.
“At Compass, we firmly believe agents should not be fined by MLSs or banned by Zillow for marketing listings off their platforms and that no agent should be told by an MLS or Zillow how they must work with their clients,” Reffkin said in a statement provided exclusively to Inman. “Bringing Ethan Glass on board as our Chief Legal Officer reflects our unwavering commitment to seller choice and challenging these restrictive practices that limit when, where, and how homeowners can market their homes.”
Reffkin was referring to Compass’ ongoing court battle with Zillow, the nation’s largest real estate portal. Earlier this year, Zillow enacted and began enforcing a policy that requires all real estate listings to be shared on the multiple listing service and published on Zillow within a day of being publicly marketed.
The policy update came as Compass, which is the largest real estate brokerage by sales volume, was leaning into its network of “private exclusive” listings.
Listings within Compass’ network include a period where homes are marketed outside the MLS, a move that attempts to avoid what the brokerage calls “negative insights” on its listings, including price history and days on market.
Zillow has said its policy ensures broad and equal access to the largest collection of listings.
Compass sued Zillow in June, seeking to stop Zillow from enforcing its policy and alleging that Zillow has employed “anticompetitive tactics to protect its monopoly and revenues in violation of the antitrust laws.”
The case serves as a testing ground as both Zillow and Compass claim they’re representing the best interests of consumers amid heightened scrutiny from the DOJ around buyer and seller choice.
Glass’ hiring is noteworthy because, after representing NAR in the Sitzer lawsuit, he’ll now work for an organization taking square aim at the trade organization and its rules.
“This is a reflection that Compass isn’t backing down from NAR and that the company is going to double down on seller choice,” the company said in a statement. “Compass is going to explore every legal avenue to ensure that agents and their clients are no longer controlled by NAR rules.”
Aside from his work at the DOJ and for NAR, Glass has also been serving as Compass’ lead attorney in a case against Northwest MLS while at Cooley.
The brokerage has alleged that NWMLS is, in effect, a “monopoly” with no meaningful competitors and that it’s “blocking consumer choice and broker competition, and forcing homesellers and their brokers to market their homes through NWMLS.”
However, Glass will still be best-known to most real estate professionals for his work on the Sitzer | Burnett antitrust case in Missouri.
The trial in that case became the most consequential legal battle the real estate industry has faced in recent memory. Homeseller plaintiffs prevailed at trial, which resulted in a jury awarding $1.78 billion in damages — damages that were set to automatically triple to over $5.3 billion. NAR eventually brokered a $418 million settlement with the plaintiffs, and dozens of brokerages followed suit.
The verdict and ensuing settlement also led to industrywide business practice changes focused on agent compensation.
Though the NAR settlement is now increasingly in the rearview mirror, Glass indicated Tuesday that this remains a critical time for the real estate industry.
“I’m honored to join Compass, a company committed to empowering agents and ensuring homeowners retain control over how their properties are marketed,” Glass said in a statement. “This is a pivotal moment for the real estate industry, and I am excited to provide my expertise to a company that is so clearly aligned with supporting both its agents and the homeowners they serve.”
