About Haftel & Silverman, P.C.

Haftel & Silverman, P.C. represents a broad array of clients, including Fortune 500 companies and their executives, small businesses and closely-held corporations, investment banks and bankers, domestic and international telecommunications companies, apparel companies, sports agents, professional athletes and sophisticated real estate investors.

We regularly represent clients in cases involving business torts, contract disputes, professional liability and fraud, and practice in the state and federal trial and appellate courts in New York and other states. We have conducted numerous jury and non-jury trials and argued more than fifty appeals in New York State appellate courts and the Second, Third and Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. We frequently represent clients in arbitrations and mediations, including arbitrations before the AAA, ICC, FINRA (and its predecessor organizations) and the National Hockey League Players' Association. Our clients benefit from our knowledge of complex commercial transactions, experience in negotiation and dispute resolution and proven trial and appellate skills.

One example of the excellent representation we provide in sophisticated matters involved a case in which a commercial real estate broker in New York sought a fee in connection with the sale of two French real estate companies to GE Capital for more than $1.1 billion. Our lawyers handled all stages of the case from its inception to conclusion, litigating against law firm giants Jones Day, Shearman & Sterling and Baker & MacKenzie, who vigorously contested liability. Our lawyers drafted and filed a detailed, fact-laden complaint in the Southern District of New York, opposed the defendants' motions to dismiss and conducted depositions of senior executives of GE Capital, among other companies. After the district court dismissed the complaint against companies owned by the French government, our lawyers persuaded the Second Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn the dismissal. (Federal courts throughout the country regularly cite the Second Circuit's decision for principles of agency law and the proper interpretation of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.) Following remand, we conducted a two-day hearing of key French witnesses in the Palais de Justice in Paris before a French judge pursuant to the Hague Convention. Thereafter, we engaged in mediation, which resulted in a successful resolution for our client. All told, the case was the subject of five reported Federal court decisions.

 

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