For C&W's top broker trio there's safety in numbers.

Rare in the world of big commercial leasing is the broker who initiates and then executes a deal single-handedly. In a business where service is paramount, top brokers have wisely banded into teams with an entourage of support personnel, so that the answer to any unexpected question a client might have during the deal-making process is, for the broker, only a phone call away.

Not many in the industry have embodied this style of teamwork, executed it as proficiently and shown the kind of success it can achieve better than Cushman & Wakefield executive directors Augustus B. Field and Robert R. Lowe. Forging a partnership soon after they joined C&W in the late 1980s as young, aspiring brokers, Field and Lowe, along with their mentor and top C&W broker John Cefaly, have assembled through the years a skilled team of financial analysts, building experts and various other support personnel that provides them with the infrastructure to execute an array of impressive deals.

But while this continually improving and growing support team has been a component in Field's, Lowe's and Cefaly's success, it is their own talent, charisma, work ethic and chemistry that have been most responsible for rocketing them into the uppermost echelon of city leasing brokers.

The close-knit group's commitment to a team concept has allowed the trio to seamlessly interact in each other's deals and spot one another in the transactional process when the unexpected arises.

This adaptability and dynamism have been critical in helping the three execute a staggering amount of leases and was perhaps best exampled in 2001, a year that pulled the team in different directions.

At the time, Field, along with two other C&W brokers, was busy negotiating the 1.2 million s/f CIBC World Markets lease at 300 Madison Ave. The lease was the city's biggest of the year and wound up garnering Field C&W's National Deal of the Year Award. Needless to say, it was all encompassing. The team was far from tapped out however. While Field was occupied, Lowe was able to step in and spearhead an equally massive deal the team had been working on, the leasing of 1 million s/f of space at 60 Broad St.

"That's a great instance which demonstrates where the team concept comes in," Lowe said. "Working together the way we do is a diversification of our resources, it gives us the ability to handle a bunch of very big deals at once."

Working in a more supportive capacity for Cefaly back in the mid nineties, Field and Lowe helped their mentor secure his place among C&W's top five brokers each year for the last decade. Cefaly's individual performance hasn't slackened now that the duo has begun working with him on a more equal footing. Since Field and Lowe made their ascension, becoming top brokers in their own right, Cefaly has vaulted the firm's top tier competition to become C&W's number one broker for the past two years in a row.

Considering that the three work together on most deals, it won't be long before Field and Lowe join the ranks of the very best of the best. And while the pressures of the elite level at which they operate might get to some, the biggest arguments Field and Lowe have arise when they think the other deserves more money.

"This is a great group," Cefaly said. "We respect each other and we know how hard we all work. There's a real selflessness to this group, where we care about each other's compensation as much as our own."

Already well ahead of many of their peers, Field, 42, and Lowe, 40, have seemingly just begun to hit their prime as brokers. With that in mind, their futures seem like the next chapter in C&W's long line of excellence.

"I am so excited about what we can grow to," Field said.

"There's so much out there for us to still accomplish and do. Everyday I'm so excited coming into work, about the prospects we have, all the opportunity that's out there. I wish there were 40 hours in the day, that would be the one thing that the three of us would benefit from."