The Firm’s litigation practice has a broad national and international scope. Its litigators have handled significant trials, arbitrations and appeals in more than 25 states in both federal and state courts, in more than half of the United States Courts of Appeals and in the United States Supreme Court. We frequently represent foreign clients in disputes in the United States and United States clients in matters to be resolved in whole or part abroad.

Matters representative of the Firm’s and our litigation attorneys’ experience include:

• representing 344 former senior executives of Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc. in hotly contested defense of an effort by the Trustee of the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy estate to subordinate and thereby extinguish the deferred compensation pension retirement entitlements that the clients funded in the 1980s (the client claims total approximately $260 million)
• representing the association of distributors for one of the most significant consumer products in a country in Latin American in connection with a dispute over apportionment of new tax benefits between the distributors and the product’s international manufacturer 
• representing funds and institutional investors in the array of litigation in the structured finance sector in the wake of the 2008 credit markets crisis
• representing the Europe-based company that developed one of the world’s most downloaded anti-malware programs (often identified as the most frequently downloaded software in the world); targets of the anti-malware software brought claims under various theories in an attempt to take themselves out of the software’s reach, and in one of these cases, our defense not only obtained dismissal, but also an award of attorneys’ fees under a California anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) statute that discourages lawsuits intended to stifle communication in the public interest
• representing an employee union in Brazil with members in one of Brazil’s largest pension funds that lost approximately two-thirds of its value in efforts to recoup lost funds from financial institutions responsible for the loss
• representing one of two joint venturers, one holding a leading share in the market for trading interests in vacation property and second homes, in connection with their effort to create an Internet-based market for those and similar properties
• representing the plaintiff in a high-profile art appropriation case applying the fair use defense to a claim of copyright infringement and the case has led to the leading opinion in the fair use area in the Second Circuit
• authoring the winning brief in a 5-to-4 decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in a landmark Title VII employment case
• recovering a $13 million arbitration award on behalf of a Dubai commodities trader alleging wrongful liquidation of his account by a futures commission merchant, at the time the largest award from a National Futures Association panel
• successfully defending a former member of the Board of Directors of the New York Stock Exchange in an arbitration alleging gender discrimination and sexual harassment
• successfully representing the former owner of the world’s largest international money transmittal company in litigation with the company’s buyers to secure a final payment in the face of breach of warranty claims
• representing an international tennis star in an antitrust claim against the governing men’s tennis organization
• participating in the representation of Afghan nationals detained at Guantánamo Bay Naval Station as petitioners for writs of habeas corpus, including in bringing one petitioner’s case to a hearing on the merits of the Executive Branch’s claim that the petitioner, arrested in his home, may lawfully be imprisoned pursuant to the congressional authorization for the use of military force
• recovering damages for a Saudi appliance distributor against a leading manufacturer of electrical appliances for wrongful termination of a distributorship agreement
• obtaining an ex parte temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction on behalf of a public company to secure its right to convert debt obligations into a controlling interest in the debtor companies (interests valued at over $7,000,000), in addition to supervising ancillary litigation in Italy and the Yukon Territory in Canada.   
• securing a jury verdict in excess of $4 million on behalf of a European investor based upon actual fraud claims against British and American financial services industry professionals, including tracing the proceeds of the fraud into four separate states
• bringing a number of cases asserting claims in a joint effort with AARP’s Foundation for litigation to halt extensive property-flipping and predatory lending practices targeting minorities and the elderly; the cases addressed in particular the targeting of minorities for these scams and established a new precedent extending civil rights protection to the targeting of minorities in scams of that kind
• in a case involving a $60+ million music property, prevailing in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in a case of first impression, allowing a co-owner of a copyright to pursue its copyright infringement remedies unilaterally, even in the face of a potentially collusive agreement between the defendants and the other co-authors
• litigating numerous claims on behalf of Duke Ellington’s Estate and his heirs involving the royalties from Ellington’s thousands of compositions and recordings, including interpretation of onerous music publishing contracts dating back many decades and limitations on publishing royalties being diminished through emerging royalty accounting measures (some claims successfully asserted have proceeded on relatively rare legal theories including usury and unconscionability) 
• recovering a defense verdict in a federal jury trial for a brokerage firm accused of purchasing mortgage-backed securities from another broker/dealer based on inside information
• recovering fully losses suffered by a synagogue which was induced by its broker to invest its funds entirely in mortgage-backed securities
• securing a $4,050,000 jury verdict (including an award of $1,500,000 in punitive damages) in an actual fraudulent conveyance claim on behalf of the principal lenders to a company which sued its senior management after management used fraudulent means to take control of the company’s assets 
• representing a major financial institution in successfully enjoining the sale of petroleum valued at approximately $60 million
• spearheading the litigation for a major bank in South Africa to recover losses uncovered during a vault balancing exercise totaling approximately $54 million as a result of the dematerialization of physical share certificates and the implementation of STRATE (the licensed South Africa Central Securities Depository for the electronic settlement of financial instruments)
• representing clients in connection with unauthorized exploitation of an individual’s name and likeness, including the rights of celebrities and the rights of estates and heirs of deceased celebrities
• representing one of the largest creditors in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in its claims for in excess of $7,000,000 arising from the client’s acquisition of a former subsidiary of the debtor (including demand for an adjustment to the purchase price under the acquisition agreement based upon breach of warranty and misrepresentation claims)
• blocking injunctive relief against a brokerage firm client accused of raiding a competitor’s entire credit derivatives desk, all of whose brokers had contractual non-compete restrictions
• successfully defending a broker/dealer and its CEO against a $10 million wrongful liquidation and fraud claim
• obtaining a permanent injunction enforcing restrictive covenants and non-compete provisions in a client’s employment contract with its former President
• obtaining a defense verdict in a federal jury trial in which a broker/dealer client was alleged to have churned its customer’s account, causing it to be liquidated
• representing one of New York’s largest museums in litigation defending substantial breach of contract claims brought by major contractors that had been involved in the $60,000,000+ renovation of the museum’s physical plant
• successfully taking to trial claims of a minority shareholder in a public company holding convertible preferred stock commonly known as “death-spiral preferred” stock; the outcome of the case was to increase the client’s stake in the company’s common stock from approximately 15% to approximately 50% with control of the company
• successfully moving, prior to filing an answer, for dismissal of, and alternatively for summary judgment against, defamation claims against an individual client in a case involving public speech rights
• successfully defending at trial a software provider in a multi-million dollar rescission action; the client manufactured one of the country’s leading inventory and warehouse management software products
• achieving a positive settlement for seven citizens of Sweden who were defendants in cases alleging insider trading brought by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and its enforcement counterpart in Sweden; the case was described in Sweden as the most significant of its kind under Sweden’s relatively new laws regulating securities transactions
• representing one of the largest enterprises in the United States seeking to bring automobiles manufactured in China to the United States, including representation of its principal who has a long record of success in this field, in a number of lawsuits involving claims of securities fraud and breach of fiduciary duty and controversies among investors in the enterprise concerning its future direction
• representing a major insurance company in a number of matters including the investigation and litigation of significant fraud by brokerages
• defending the developers of a 250-unit residential real estate development against allegations of Martin Act violations and common law fraud brought by the Attorney General of the State of New York, winning dismissal of those claims by motion
• representing an international fragrance and cosmetics manufacturer against former distributors selling gray market and “knock-off” products, and obtaining a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to protect the client
• successfully representing the holder of the residual interest in mortgage-backed securities in claims against the financial institutions which acquired those interests, asserting that the valuations used in exercising buy-back rights were grossly understated; in that case we secured a favorable decision on an issue of first impression concerning the scope of discovery in federal securities litigation under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 
• serving as Special Counsel to a major Hong Kong manufacturing concern to investigate allegations of fraud against members of the management of its partly-owned United States affiliate; our representation included assisting the client in effecting an efficient change in management and gaining control of the United States affiliate
• obtaining an injunction for one of the major suppliers of specialty products to the veterinary research community against a former affiliate that was engaging in sales barred by the parties’ agreements
• working with one of the largest law firms in Buenos Aires concerning issues arising out of economic crises in Argentina. 
• successfully representing an owner of $15,000,000 of real estate in the Tribeca area of New York City in a dispute with co-owners concerning investments made between 1943 and 1992 in various loosely-documented partnerships (the litigation also involved various of the partners’ ventures in real estate development outside New York and manufacturing and service businesses that the partners created with others, using profits from the original real estate holdings) 
• representing a former shareholder in one of the nation’s leading manufacturers of specialty brass and bronze fixtures in an arbitration to recover for fraud in the presentation of financial information used to induce our client’s sale of a substantial minority interest in the company
• successfully representing Wu-Tang Clan’s producer and one of its founding members in litigation with a party claiming to be a former manager for the client with ongoing rights to share in his future  performance and recording work 
• successfully representing one of the largest independent television production companies in the country through its predecessor company in successful copyright infringement and breach of contract claims against affiliates of the Public Broadcasting System arising out of documentaries the client had developed
• obtaining reversal of a murder conviction for a client serving a life sentence
• successfully arguing in a Mississippi federal court that two chapters of the Mississippi Code, dating to the Civil War and dealing with provisional remedies, were unconstitutional
• representing the guardians of most of the severely mentally disabled persons residing in The Southbury Training School (“STS”), the only residential facility housing the disabled in the State of Connecticut, and a private Foundation established by past and current guardians to ensure the quality of life at the facility; STS had been home to its residents for most of their lives and a central issue in the case was the belief by many of the guardians that STS was the only viable location for the care of their wards (one aspect of the litigation was an effort to halt a class action brought in the name of the wards of the Firm’s clients, but funded by private interest groups, in an unprecedented request to the District Court that their wards be permitted to opt out of the class, with in excess of 82% of the class members joining the motion to opt out through their guardians)