Ed is head of the Firm's Litigation Department and a member of the Firm's three-person Executive Committee. He has a broad-based commercial and corporate practice with a concentration in commercial and business litigation. An experienced trial and appellate litigator, Ed has handled disputes such as partnership/corporate dissolution proceedings, claims for breach of fiduciary duty, business valuation proceedings, shareholder appraisal proceedings, minority shareholder oppression actions, breach of contract actions, action to enforce security agreements, disputes regarding real estate transactions and actions to enforce non-competition and confidentiality agreements.
Ed also has recognized experience in dealing with disputes regarding securities transactions. Ed has represented broker-dealers and investors before the Courts and various security industry arbitration tribunals. In addition, Ed has represented the Firms' clients in investigations conducted by securities regulators, such as the SEC and NASD.
Drawing from his first hand knowledge of how contracts and other agreements are used in litigation, Ed brings a litigator's eye to assist clients with negotiating and drafting a variety of commercial agreements, including employment agreements, severance agreements, shareholder agreements, limited liability company operating agreements, stock and asset purchase agreements, security agreements and vendor contracts.
Representative Matters
- Won summary judgment holding that client's partners had breached their fiduciary duty to the client by excluding him from a partnership opportunity. The decision led to a multi-million dollar settlement for the client.
- Won arbitration award for investment banking client based on breach of client's registration rights contained in investment banking agreement.
- Defended a top-producing broker in an arbitration versus a nationally renowned broker-dealer alleging breach of fiduciary duty and violation of a non-competition agreement when broker set up his own firm and moved the clients he serviced at his former employer to his new broker-dealer.
- Won summary judgment in favor of a corporate client forcing one of the four founding shareholders of the company to sell her shares back to the company for the amount invested, notwithstanding that the value of shares had increased dramatically.
- Won summary judgment to enforce a severance agreement leading to entry of a judgment for over $5 million.
- Obtained multi-million dollar settlement for client in a litigated shareholder dispute action.
- Obtained a settlement which included not only client's entire loss, but recoupment of legal fees paid by the client, in action against insurance carrier when client's commercial building was destroyed by fire and carrier denied coverage because of the absence of working fire alarm.
- Prosecuted securities fraud action involving Auction Rate Securities against a major financial institution and recovered client's entire principal investment of over $30 million, plus interest and attorney's fees.
- Represented a national and several regional pharmaceutical distributors in successful efforts to collect millions of dollars in past due obligations from hospitals and retail pharmacies.
