Ortiz, Monica

Mr. Eppenstein is the founding partner of the firm.  He argued on behalf of the investors before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1987 in Shearson/American Express, Inc. v. McMahon, a landmark case which has been analyzed extensively and to this day continues to draw transnational attention. In the wake of McMahon, Mr. Eppenstein was asked to testify before two U.S. Congressional subcommittees.   Read the Firm's Publications.

Mr. Eppenstein was a member of the American Arbitration Association's Securities Arbitration Rules Task Force, and assisted in drafting revised securities arbitration rules for the AAA. He was asked to continue as a member of the AAA's Securities Advisory Committee following the adoption of the revised rules.

Mr. Eppenstein has co-authored many articles on securities arbitration and litigation, and has been on the faculty of professional seminars and conferences.

Mr. Eppenstein's views have been quoted by many representatives of the major national and international press. For example, The New York Times requested an opinion piece about securities arbitration since the Firm's landmark McMahon decision and published an article written by the Eppensteins. (The Times chose the title, "An Arbitration Albatross.") The New York Times (Front Page Sunday Business Section), The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Barron's, Newsweek, Business Week, Smart Money, Forbes, Money Magazine, Investment Dealer's Digest, Investor's Daily, the Chicago Tribune and the LA Times are among the publications that have interviewed Mr. Eppenstein on securities and commodities arbitration issues. Worth Magazine ran a profile of Madelaine and Theodore Eppenstein entitled "Two for the High Road, to the Eppensteins, Shareholders' Rights Are Sacred." Mr. Eppenstein also appeared on the cover of Investment Dealers' Digest and was prominently featured in the cover story "Taking Brokers to Court."

Media coverage of Mr. Eppenstein and the Firm Eppenstein and Eppenstein has also included numerous television shows such as the NBC Today Show on two occasions, CBS Business News, NBC Business News, ABC, PBS Wall Street Week, Court TV, CNN, CNBC, Financial News Network, Law Line and other cable shows.

Mr. Eppenstein has argued on behalf of the investing public for two decades. He also successfully litigated  the "Amex Window", a former procedural mechanism for providing investors access to the American Arbitration Association through the New York State appellate courts; his unanimous victory in Cowen & Co. v. Anderson in the New York Court of Appeals in 1990 established the law in New York State giving millions of investors the right to arbitrate at the independent American Arbitration Association and not just within the confines of self-regulatory securities industry organizations.

Mr. Eppenstein has been on the faculty of professional seminars and conferences, including American Arbitration Association (AAA), Arbitration Day Seminars, AAA Arbitrator Training, the Practicing Law Institute (PLI),  the North American Securities Administrators Association, the New York State Bar Association, PIABA, and the American Bar Association (ABA), among others.  In 2000, he was a principal speaker at the two day symposium held in Moscow, Russia, "The International Conference on Arbitration in the Securities Industry," sponsored jointly by the New York Stock Exchange and the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange. In 2003, he was a principal speaker at the two day symposium held in Cairo, Egypt, "Securities in Arbitration," sponsored by the New York Stock Exchange and the Cairo-Alexandria Stock Exchanges, where he lectured on the topics of arbitration and mediation, the perception of fairness of the forum in arbitration, the process of selection of arbitrators, and an advocate's perspective on effective advocacy in arbitration and mediation.

A graduate of the State University of New York at Stony Brook (B.A. 1968) and St. John's Law School (J.D. 1973), Theodore G. Eppenstein was a recipient of Stony Brook's Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1991. While attending Stony Brook, Mr. Eppenstein held 14 school basketball records, including most points in a game and in a career, and was inducted into the University's Athletic Hall of Fame in 1994. Mr. Eppenstein served as a member of the President's Intercollegiate Athletic Advisory Committee under former President John Marburger, III.  In conjunction with Stony Brook's 40th Anniversary, Mr. Eppenstein was profiled as one of the University's finest 40 graduates in 1998, and is currently on the Board of Directors of the Stony Brook Seawolves, which advises the Athletic Department.

After graduation from law school, Mr. Eppenstein worked for two of the largest and most respected firms in the country. Mr. Eppenstein's legal career began at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson where he worked on corporate, securities and litigation matters. Mr. Eppenstein was also associated with Proskauer Rose Goetz & Mendelsohn and practiced in their litigation department. Thereafter, Mr. Eppenstein went into private practice, and Madelaine Eppenstein, his wife, joined his firm as a partner after working in the litigation department at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in New York.

Mr. Eppenstein, along with Ms. Eppenstein, have co-authored numerous articles on securities arbitration and litigation.