Litigation

Our Litigation Group has a deep roster of talented commercial litigators practicing in federal and state courts and before administrative agencies nationwide. We have handled almost every conceivable intellectual property dispute, and a wide range of commercial, marketing, securities, commodities, white collar defense, insurance and employment matters.

CLIENTS

We represent media, entertainment, marketing, and other companies and individuals, including best-selling authors, publishers, film and television celebrities, athletes, news industry professionals, and top advertising talent. We also represent investors, attorneys, securities professionals, and brokerage, commodities, professional services, and other firms.

CLIENT BENEFITS

We advise clients at every stage of a dispute, staffing cases efficiently and seeking victory at the lowest possible cost:

False Advertising, Trademark and Copyright

We have extensive experience litigating false advertising, trademark, copyright, publicity right, trade secret, domain name, and other intellectual property matters.

Marketing Communications

We review advertising and marketing communications for legal red flags, and we have handled lawsuits and regulatory challenges before the Federal Trade Commission, the National Advertising Division, the National Advertising Review Board, the Children’s Advertising Review Unit, Departments of Consumer Affairs, and other regulatory bodies.

Entertainment Industry Disputes

We help entertainment industry executives, corporations, and celebrities resolve disputes.

Defamation Defense and Related Matters

We defend libel and slander suits, and we have special expertise in the defense of false-light, privacy, and newsgathering claims arising from business and investigative reporting, and online and print publication of news and business information and databases. 

Class Action Defense

We have successfully defended companies against putative consumer class actions and mass arbitrations alleging false advertising, privacy, and other claims under state and federal privacy and consumer protection statutes. We are counseling publishers, agencies, brands, ad tech companies, and other players in the advertising ecosystem on how to avoid exposure under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA); state and federal wiretapping laws; Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA); false advertising and deceptive business practices laws; and other hotbeds of class action exposure.  

Newsgathering

We help media companies and journalists respond to subpoenas, protective orders, privacy laws, and other obstacles to protecting sources and obtaining and distributing news and information.

Employment and Executive Compensation

We have won large settlements for executives in compensation disputes; we prosecute and defend employment discrimination matters, including claims based on age, disability, equal pay, national origin, pregnancy, race, religion, sex, and sexual orientation; and we litigate law firm partnership and attorney fee matters.

Commercial Dispute Resolution

We litigate contractual disagreements and other commercial disputes involving claims of fraud, RICO, and breach of fiduciary duty, with a particular emphasis on business break-ups and buy-sell disputes.

Legal Ethics and Malpractice 

We bring and defend legal malpractice cases, and we advise lawyers and law firms on sensitive ethical, professional responsibility and business matters.

Insurance Coverage Disputes

We have litigated, arbitrated, and mediated significant insurance coverage and related underlying liability and intellectual property disputes for insurance and media companies. 

Transnational Disputes

We have won transnational disputes in the oil and gas, shipping, computer, and chemical industries.

White Collar Defense

We defend white collar criminal matters, and have special expertise in sentencing guidelines and procedure.

Securities Regulation

We help clients anticipate and avoid regulatory problems, and defend actions brought by federal agencies (SEC, CFTC and FINRA); we contest insider trading, self-dealing, front-running and other civil and criminal trading complaints; and we help clients perform internal investigations.

Real Estate Litigation

We handle commercial real estate litigation, lending and guarantor litigation, construction litigation, and landlord-tenant litigation for our restaurant, retail, entertainment, professional services and other clients.

Estates

We handle estate litigation for celebrities and other high net worth individuals and accomplished persons.

PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS

Our litigators populate all the major associations, including the Copyright Society of the U.S.A., the International Trademark Association, the American Bar Association, the New York County Lawyers Association, the New York City Bar and the New York State Bar Association. We are members of the Communications Law, and Labor and Employment Law Committees of the New York City Bar, the New York Council of Defense Lawyers, the Media Law Resource Center, Defense Counsel Section and the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers. We chair the New York County Lawyers Association's Federal Courts Committee and are members of the Committee on Professionalism and Professional Discipline. We have taught at New York University School of Law, Fordham Law School, Brooklyn Law School and the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and are frequent speakers on litigation topics. We have published articles on copyright and trademark, libel defense, the federal sentencing guidelines, ethics, legal malpractice, civil RICO, arbitration, and other topics. We are co-authors of Simon's New York Rules of Professional Conduct Annotated.