IN t he NEWS
D. Zurofsky: Bennet D. Zurofksy ► Bennett (labor and employment law, 1995) filed a friend of the court brief on the New Jersey Work Environment Council’s behalf in a case before the New Jersey Supreme Court. The court sided with the New Jersery Work Environment Council in its decision to make protections for whistleblowers stronger.
Institute. He was the first person to receive the institute’s Leadership Excellence Award in 1994.
& Barbone: Edwin J. Jacobs ► Jacobs (commercial litigation; criminal defense: non-
white-collar; criminal defense: white-collar, 1991), who is representing Bill Cosby in New Jersey, says that Cosby will not stand trial for the alleged rape of a guest star of The Cosby Show almost 25 years ago because the charges have gone beyond the statute of limitations.
Amery & Ross: Diana C. Manning ► Bressler, (professional malpractice law, 2015) became
president of the Morris County Bar Association.
Lardner: Cynthia A. Walters (personal ► Budd injury litigation, 2003) represented a plaintiff in a suit against Nissan after he had a serious car accident. The suit was filed against Nissan, as the manufacturer of the plaintiff’s car, and a trucking company whose driver was involved in the accident. Walters won the plaintiff $4.2 million, and Nissan CYNTHIA A. WALTERS was held responsible for 85% of the damages by the jury, which decided the design of the plaintiff’s car was not adequately safe.
Shahinian & Giantomasi: Armen ► Chiesa Shahinian (banking and finance law; bankruptcy and creditor debtor rights / insolvency and reorganization law; commercial litigation; construction law; real estate law, 2007) was named co-chairman of the firm.
Saperstein & Salomon: Samuel L. ► Davis, Davis (personal injury litigation, 2013) won
more than $20 million for a young woman who was seriously injured when her taxi was hit by a drunk driver in Manhattan.
Pitney: Paul J. Halasz (commercial ► Day litigation; construction law, 2007) and Dennis
LaFiuro (franchise law, 2006) are part of a team representing Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner in a case against Hasbro, which created a plastic hamster toy bearing her name. The complaint alleges that the toy also mimics her appearance, and caused her significant emotional distress and financial damage.
Becker & Green: Gary W. Herschman ► Epstein (health care law, 2010), Theodora McCormick (commercial litigation, 2016), Anjana D. Patel (health care law, 2011), and Jack Wenik (bet-thecompany litigation; commercial litigation; criminal defense: white-collar; litigation – regulatory enforcement [SEC, telecom, energy], 2010) joined the firm from Sills Cummins & Gross.
Rothschild: Robert A. Klausner (real ► Fox estate law, 2013) was named to the advisory
board of Rutgers Business School’s Center for Real Estate.
Lawrence S. Lustberg (appellate ► Gibbons: practice; criminal defense: white-collar, 1995)
represented the Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers of New Jersey before the New Jersey Supreme Court in a case regardling a portion of the state’s bias intimidation law that required victims’ state of mind of victims be accounted for in defendant sentencing in cases of racial, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, or religious discrimination. The court ruled that this portion of the law was unconstitutional.
Halleran & Ciesla: John A. ► Giordano, Aiello (corporate law; mergers & acquisitions law, 1987) was bestowed with an honorary membership to the Monmouth University’s chapter of the Beta Gamma Sigma honor society.
Rowe, Smith & Davis: Arthur M. ► Greenbaum, Greenbaum (real estate law, 1995) was honored on his 90th birthday by the Kislack Real Estate
Wurgaft Hicks Kahn Wikstrom ► Javerbaum & Sinins: Eric G. Kahn (personal injury
litigation, 2013), managing partner of the firm, was inducted into the International Society of Barristers as a fellow.
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K&L Gates: Rosemary Alito (labor and employment law, 1995) successfully defended the travel website Kayak.com in a patent suit from another tech company that alleged the software Kayak.com uses to generate price quotes infringed on their patent. The judge threw out the plaintiffs’ claims as too abstract to be patent protected.
Ryan: Karol Corbin Walker (insurance ► LeClair law, 2006) became president of the Association of the Federal Bar of New Jersey.
Axelrod: Ronald B. Grayzel ► Levinson (personal injury litigation, 2014) is representing
the family of a man shot by Phillipsburg police in their suit to have records of the subsequent investigation into possible misconduct released.
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Locke Lorde: Paulette Brown (commercial litigation, 2013) is the first woman of color to be elected president of the American Bar Association. Brown’s credentials include past service as president of the National Bar Association, founding and serving as president of the Association of Black Women Lawyers in New Jersey, and leading a delegation to monitor democratic elections in South Africa in 1994 after the end of apartheid. Brown has practiced law for over 35 years. She has been in private practice for the last 25 years, focusing on commercial litigation and labor and employment issues. Early in her career, Brown served as in-house counsel with several Fortune 500 companies and as a Municipal Court Judge in Plainfield, New Jersey. At the induction ceremony in Chicago, Brown said, “I look forward to leveraging the power of the nearly 400,000 ABA members to promote full and equal diversity and to end bias in the legal profession and in the justice system. If we are true to our calling as lawyers, we must address this issue.”
Tortorella & Boyle: Kevin H. Marino ► Marino, (appellate practice; bet-the-company litigation;
commercial litigation; criminal defense: nonwhite-collar; criminal defense: white-collar, 2001) helped clear a former Goldman Sachs computer programmer of charges that he stole computer code used for stock trading on appeal with the New York State Supreme Court.
& English: Susan A. Feeney (tax ► McCarter law, 2005) was honored with the New Jersey
Women Lawyers Association’s Women’s Initiative and Leaders in Law Platinum Award.
Anselmi, Rosen & Carvelli: ► McCusker, Bruce S. Rosen (commercial litigation; First
Amendment law, 2005) was elected a fellow of the American Bar Association.
McLaughlin & Marcus: Peter ► Norris D. Hutcheon (corporate law; mergers &
acquisitions law; securities / capital markets law, 1989) was reappointed to the editorial board of Jurimetrics Journal, the publication of the American Bar Association’s science and technology law section.
Parsons, Lane & Noble: Gregory ► O’Connor, Noble (medical malpractice law, 2016) is
representing a former lab supervisor who is accusing a former Rutgers University professor of sexual harassment and rape.
Cohen Petro Matarazzo: Working in ► Petro partnership with Kids’ Chance of New Jersey, for the second year in a row the firm has presented a young adult suffering from financial hardship as a result of a parent’s workplace accident with a $10,000 scholarship.
David J. D’Aloia (insurance law, 2013) ► Saiber: successfully defended Allstate in a suit brought by a doctor alleging that New Jersey’s Office of Insurance Fraud “outsourced” investigations to the insurance company. The judge in the case dismissed the charges.
Price, Smith & King: Shirley ► Schenck, Whitenack (trusts and estates, 2016) has
become president of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys’ board of directors.
Wells ► Sherman Sylvester &
Stamelman: Anthony J. Sylvester (banking and finance law; commercial litigation, 2007), who is trustee of Louis Prima’s late widow’s estate, helped bring a collection of the jazz musician and ANTHONY J. SYLVESTER entertainer’s personal effects, including recorded music, films, his trumpet, diaries and sheet music, to Tulane University’s William Ransom Hogan Archive of New Orleans Jazz. Prima may be best remembered for his hits, “Jump, Jive an’ Wail” and “Just a Gigolo – I Ain’t Got Nobody.”
Cummis & Gross: Jeffrey L. ► Sills Wassermann (corporate law, 2013) is leading
the firm’s new venture capital/regulated substances practice, which is designed to assist business clients with the quickly changing laws surrounding legal medical and recreational marijuana. Ted Zangari (real estate law, 2008) was named to the executive committee of the advisory board of Rutgers Business School’s Center for Real Estate.
Goldman & Spitzer: Anne S. ► Wilentz, Babineau (administrative / regulatory law;
communications law; energy law; real estate law, 1999) was the recipient of New Jersey Future’s 2015 Cary Edward Leadership Award, which is given to real estate industry leaders who promote smart growth.
Compiled by Nathaniel Barr.
NOTE Lawyers listed in Best Lawyers are indicated by their selected practice area(s) in parentheses along with the first year they were included in the Best Lawyers list. To be included in next year’s feature, please email us your news at: news@bestlawyers.com.
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