Ormond, John D.

Madelaine Eppenstein has been a partner of the firm since its inception.  She graduated from Brooklyn College, B.A. cum laude in 1976. She is a graduate of Brooklyn Law School, J.D. 1979, where she distinguished herself as Executive Editor of the Brooklyn Journal of International Law and as recipient of the Journal's writing award bestowed by the law school faculty. She was  the winner along with two other women law students of the prestigious Phillip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, with honors for the best written brief.  The competition included participants from hundreds of law schools in the U.S. and overseas.  She also was co-author of the Note, "Radio Propaganda in the Contexts of International Regulation and the Free Flow of Information as a Human Right," 5 Brook. J. Int'l L. 154, Winter 1979.  Read the Firm's Publications.

Ms. Eppenstein's legal career began in the litigation department at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in New York City. She is a member of the Bar of the State of New York and is admitted to practice in the U.S. District Courts for the Southern, Eastern and Northern District of New York, in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals and before the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1981 she formed, together with her husband, Theodore G. Eppenstein, the law firm of Eppenstein & Eppenstein, whose practice includes a concentration in securities and commodities arbitration, and also related civil litigation, trials and appeals in all state and federal courts. As a member of the firm, Ms. Eppenstein has written legal briefs in a number of noteworthy cases at the highest appellate levels, among them Shearson/American Express, Inc. v. McMahon in the United States Supreme Court, Cowen v. Anderson in the New York Court of Appeals and Engel et.al v. Refco et. al in the New York State Supreme Court, affirming the highest aggregate commodities award by a panel of arbitrators, all cases involving the rights of the investing public.

In December 1987 Ms. Eppenstein co-authored testimony for the U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, regarding the RICO statute, and in March 1988 Ms. Eppenstein co-authored testimony for the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Finance with respect to amending the federal securities laws and reforming arbitration procedures, all on behalf of the investing public. Ms. Eppenstein assisted the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Finance in drafting a bill to further advance the rights of defrauded investors.

Ms. Eppenstein has appeared on television and in national magazines and newspapers in connection with the rights and protection of investors, and has collaborated with Mr. Eppenstein in the writing of articles about the resolution of broker fraud claims and litigation and arbitration techniques.

Ms. Eppenstein was invited in 2001, as a former editor, to write an article for the Twenty-fifth Aniversary Alumni Issue of the Brooklyn Journal of International Law, which resulted in the publication of "International Investors' Rights and Remedies in the Adjudication of Disputes with U.S. Securities and Commodities Firms in the Context of U.S. Arbitral Forum Selection" 27 Brook. J. Int'l L. 443 (2002). Ms. Eppenstein has previously appeared before law school students in securities regulation seminar discussions and as a speaker at Brooklyn Law School's Distinguished Alumni Lecture Series on developments in the law of securities fraud.