The Firm And Its Practice
Our practice focuses on the representation of businesses and high net worth individuals in all aspects of sophisticated civil and criminal business-related litigation, arbitration and other forms of dispute resolution. We also represent those clients in negotiating and structuring commercial transactions.
Our Litigation Practice
The Firm's lawyers have all been practicing for years, and all have outstanding professional and academic credentials. We have litigated in New York's courts for over 30 years and have substantial experience with both jury and non-jury trials. This experience gives us first-hand knowledge of those New York's courts and the judges, which is critical to representing clients successfully.
When the Firm represents a client, the matter is typically staffed with only one or two experienced lawyers, each readily accessible to the client. The Firm also handles complex, multi-party actions involving complex document collections and productions; we staff these actions with the number of attorneys and paralegals required for a successful engagement. Our lawyers' hands-on experience with complex litigation and personal involvement in every aspect of a matter provides both the skills and the continuity necessary for a successful and economical representation of the client's interests.
The Firm strives to find economical solutions to our clients' problems to maximize favorable outcomes. Litigation is usually a client's last alternative. Once it begins, we handle the litigation thoroughly and efficiently to its conclusion. We carefully manage and handle our clients' matters, from the initial pleadings through discovery, settlement negotiations and trial, in a manner that is cost effective and reflects our clients' goals.
Complex Commercial Litigation
All our lawyers have had years of experience handling complex commercial matters, including contract disputes, business torts and qui tam actions, for clients ranging in size from Fortune 500 companies to small businesses to individuals.
Corporate Governance
Our practice includes the representation of business entities, officers, directors, shareholders, members of limited liability companies and partners on a wide variety of business governance matters. The Firm is well recognized for its work in "business divorce" cases, including breakups of partnerships and disputes over dissolution or control of LLCs and other privately-held businesses. We also have experience defending individuals' rights under corporate indemnification and attorney-fee-advancement agreements. Our practice also includes the representation of non-profit, educational and religious organizations..
Real Estate
We represent owners, developers, real estate investors, and co-operative boards, brokers, and similar bodies in real estate disputes. We regularly represent a real estate investment company in connection with litigation or other disputes arising from the development of shopping centers, malls and residential multi-dwelling rentals throughout the United States.
Telecommunications
We are regular outside counsel for Verizon Communications and have represented Verizon and other telecommunications companies in a wide variety of proceedings in state and federal courts, in arbitrations and before governmental regulatory agencies. We have appeared in actions involving competitive local exchange carriers, Lanham Act false advertising and other antitrust cases. We are the primary corporate and litigation counsel fo the U.S.'s largest distributor of downloadable content to cellular phone users.
Intellectual Property
We represent clients in a variety of intellectual property matters, including trade secret, copyright, trademark and patent infringement, licensing and royalty disputes, as well as Son-of-Sam law compliance.
Internet
One of the nation's largest Internet service providers is a regular client of the Firm and we have represented Internet companies in private civil suits and regulatory actions on matters as diverse as spamming, alleged trademark infringement, the alleged breach of a co-marketing and text message aggregation agreement, alleged deceptive Internet billing practices and customer disputes, and cyberterrorism.
Employment
We counsel and represent both employers and high-level executives with respect to federal, state and local employment laws and regulations, and employment agreements with particlar focus on trade secrets and non-competition agreements. Our lawyers also represent employees alleging unlawful employment discrimination, often negotiating settlements without needing to commence legal action.
Bankruptcy
We represent a variety of creditors and debtors in bankruptcy litigation and related adverse proceedings, and have often been appointed by the Bankruptcy Court as special litigation counsel for debtors. We have represented several international importers and distributors, a lender, a toy designer and manufacturer, and a light heavyweight boxing champion in litigation in bankruptcy courts and in related appeals in New York and around the country.
Tax
We represent individuals and businesses in civil and criminal tax controversies and administrative proceedings pending in courts and before state and federal tax agencies throughout the United States. Clients include individuals who invested in tax shelters or who face other income tax issues. We regularly represent individuals and companies in IRS or state tax investigations relating to income taxes as well as withholding, sales and other business taxes.
Sports and Entertainment
We act as regular outside counsel for a prominent sports promotion and management company, and have also represented several athletes and entertainment industry figures. In that regard, we have had substantial experience in litigation involving sports figures and issues unique to sports transactions. In 2003, we obtained a $28 million verdict in the Southern District of New York on behalf of boxing champion Graziano Rocchigiani against the WBC, one of the largest verdicts ever awarded in this kind of action.
Securities
We represent both plaintiffs and defendants in securities litigation, including defendants in securities class actions. We frequently serve as separate counsel for officers, directors and individual witnesses in securities cases or securities investigations by various governmental agencies. Our clients have included individual shareholders, brokers and investment advisors, securities analysts, and brokerage houses as well as a range of business entities, including large public companies, broker-dealers, hedge funds and private equity funds. Our practice includes appearances in state and federal courts, before FINRA (formerly NASD Dispute Resolution and the NYSE), arbitral tribunals and before the SEC.
Antitrust
We represent clients in both civil and criminal antitrust matters, principally on the defense side. We are defending, or have defended, clients in such diverse industries as telecommunications, airlines, fur manufacturing, publishing, meatpacking, asbestos removal, and electrical contracting.
RICO
Our expertise in civil litigation extends to the defense and prosecution of civil RICO actions. We recently prosecuted a RICO action on behalf of Verizon, and defended RICO actions on behalf of clients as diverse as the state oil company of a major oil producing country, an arts-related educational institution and a food wholesaler.
Appeals
We have a full civil and criminal appellate practice. The Firm’s attorneys have briefed and argued appeals before the United States Supreme Court, the New York Court of Appeals and numerous federal and state intermediate appellate courts. Harvey Stone, one of our founders, is the former Chief of the Appeals Division, U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York. Partner Elizabeth Wolstein is a former Deputy Chief Appellate Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. Michael Marcus, who is of counsel to the Firm, spent 33 years on the legal staff of New York's Appellate Division, First Department, including six years as the Court's Chief Attorney.
Domestic and International Arbitrations
Our experience in arbitrating domestic and international disputes is equal to our broad and hands-on experience in the courts. In any given year, we have several national and international arbitrations pending, involving hundreds of millions of dollars on behalf of domestic and foreign companies. We are well-versed in AAA, ICC, CPR and FINRA (formerly NASD Dispute Resolution and the NYSE) procedures and proceedings.
White-Collar Criminal Defense
The Firm incluedes a number of veteran white-collar criminal lawyers including Michael Battle, former United States Attorney for the Western District of New York; Harvey Stone, former Chief of the Appeals Division, U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York; Ronald Russo, former Chief of the Office of Official Corruption/Special Prosecution, U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York and former First Deputy Commissioner of the New York City Department of Investigation; and James Sherwood, who concentrates on criminal tax, securities and accounting matters.
We represent clients in state and federal investigations, trials and appeals. We have developed particular skill in resolving them successfully and discreetly, often at the very early stages of the investigation.
Our notable victories include obtaining the reversal on appeal of a state court conviction of a doctor falsely accused of molesting a patient — the subject of an extensive column in the editorial section of the Wall Street Journal.
Representing Officers, Directors and Individual Witnesses
We frequently represent individual witnesses, including corporate officers and directors when potential conflicts prevent the corporation's counsel from representing them. We have vast experience acting in cooperation with, or as co-counsel to, other firms, and because of our experience, efficiency and lean staffing, we provide high-quality representation that is, at the same time, affordable to the client.
Immigration
We counsel and represent clients in a variety of immigration matters. The Firm's attorneys have successfully represented clients in several types of immigration proceedings, including: permanent resident applications before the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services; removal proceedings before the Immigration Court; appeals to the Board of Immigration Appeals; mandamus petitions before federal district courts in connection with unreasonably delayed naturalization applications; and appeals to the federal courts of appeal.
Personal Injury
The Firm's lawyers have represented both plaintiffs and defendants in high stakes medical malpractice and vehicular accident cases and defendants in products liability cases.
Our Corporate Practice
Our corporate group consists of highly credentialed senior attorneys with a wide range of experience. Several of our attorneys have served as in-house general counsel, giving them a unique skill in combining legal advice and business practicality. Our practice has involved extensive representation of closely-held companies in a number of industries, handling all aspects of their business, including real estate, employment, regulatory compliance, investor relations, and identification of litigation risks for referral to our litigation group. We are particularly strong in structuring transactions for effective operation, and regularly advise clients regarding business combinations and purchases and sales of companies. We have worked with a number of clients seeking investment to create and offer exempt securities. In addition, our attorneys have deep experience in specific areas: banking, transportation, franchising, and communications.
Services and Billing
Because we typically hire only lawyers with substantial experience, every Schlam Stone & Dolan lawyer in our litigation practice is well equipped to handle the responsibility of litigation on his or her own, with great efficiency. Thus, we typically staff matters with one or two lawyers, each of whom is readily accessible to the client. As necessary, we assign teams of more than two lawyers to handle particularly complex matters.
Our charges are based primarily on the amount of time devoted to a representation. In appropriate cases, we will work on a special fee arrangement to meet a client's particular needs. For example, in suitable cases we will represent a client for a flat fee, a flat fee for particular phases of work on a matter or for fixed fees per month for long-term continuing representation.