News

On August 16, 2010, Judge Laura Taylor Swain of the Southern District of New York granted Justin Sher’s unusual motion to serve a summons and complaint by e-mail. The case involved allegations that an American talent agency defrauded Mr. Sher’s client, a Taiwanese entertainment firm, by falsely claiming to represent a premier hip-hop artist. Mr. Sher argued that it was impracticable to find the physical location of one of the defendants and that, because the alleged fraudulent conduct took place over e-mail and the Internet, service by e-mail offered the best hope of notifying the defendant of the lawsuit. The court agreed. Read the order here.

On June 15, 2010, Justin Sher achieved a victory before the Second Circuit on behalf of its client, EasyLink Services Corporation, a public company based in Georgia.  The Second Circuit granted Justin Sher’s motion to remand the case, which involves a failed corporate merger, for the district court to reconsider its award of certain damages.  Read the decision here.

On May 4, 2010, Justin Sher participated in a presentation hosted by Signature Bank’s Private Client Team entitled, “Preparing Small Law Firms to Handle Bigger Cases:  How to Navigate the E-Discovery Minefield While Controlling Costs.”  Mr. Sher discussed the importance of electronically stored information in complex commercial and white collar criminal cases and advised other law firms on how to collect, review and analyze such information efficiently and effectively.  View the presentation here.

On April 20, 2010, the First Department of the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court ruled in favor of Justin Sher’s client, Dean Penna Corp., in a commercial dispute involving a luxury residence in Manhattan.  The First Department reversed the decision of the Supreme Court and reinstated all of Dean Penna Corp.’s claims against the defendant.  Read the decision here.

On April 15, 2010, Justin Sher participated on a panel hosted by the New York American Inn of Court entitled, “Does a New Era of Ponzi Scheme Fraud Necessitate Heightened Regulation?”  Mr. Sher discussed proposals made by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) to subject investment advisers such as hedge funds to greater regulation.  A transcript of testimony by FINRA’s chairman before Congress on this topic can be found here.

On April 9, 2010, Justin Sher filed a civil RICO lawsuit on behalf of a Taiwanese entertainment firm against a booking agency based in South Carolina.  The high profile lawsuit alleges that the booking agency falsely claimed to represent premier hop-hop artists and caused Mr. Sher’s client hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages.  Read a news article about the case here.

On March 9, 2010, Justin Sher, working in conjunction with lawyers from Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal, successfully petitioned two federal judges in the Southern District of New York for a Monsanto hearing.  The court’s order required the government to demonstrate that it had the authority to continue to freeze certain assets belonging to Justin Sher’s client.  The groundbreaking decision allowed Mr. Sher’s client to use previously frozen assets to exercise his constitutional right to counsel of his choice.  Read the decision here.

On February 3, 2010, Justin Sher achieved a victory in the Commercial Division of the New York County Supreme Court on behalf of an executive of an entertainment company.  The plaintiff sought to hold the executive in contempt for failing to comply with certain discovery requests.  Mr. Sher argued successfully before Judge Yates that the executive had adequately complied with the plaintiff’s discovery requests and that any outstanding requests were irrelevant and unreasonable.

On December 15, 2009, in a high profile enforcement action pending in the Southern District of New York,  Justin Sher defeated motions by the SEC and the CFTC which sought to hold an investment advisor in contempt and to require him to turn over funds.  Read the decision here.

On November 23, 2009, the New York Federal Criminal Practice blog featured an article by Justin Sher relating to the criminal cases against Joseph Bruno, the former majority leader of the New York State Senate, and Bernard Kerik, the former commissioner of the New York City Police Department.  Both cases involved allegations of “honest services” fraud, a controversial federal crime that will be addressed by the U.S. Supreme Court in the upcoming term.  A link to the article may be found here.