David J. Katz
Mr. Katz concentrates on complex commercial litigation, and has represented clients in connection with corporate governance, real estate, employment, and legal malpractice litigation and appeals. In his commercial litigation practice, Mr. Katz has developed an expertise in litigating governance disputes involving New York limited liability companies and has litigated several cases of first impression in New York's trial and appellate courts interpreting New York's Limited Liability Company Law. These issues include: the appointment of receivers, dissolution, scope and existence of fiduciary duties, standing by LLCs and their members to bring various claims, derivative claims, whether distributions to members constitute fraudulent conveyances, compensation of Managers, removal of Managers, transferability of membership interests, valuation of membership interests, forced buyouts of membership interests, and the rights of members to inspect LLCs' books and records. He has also litigated several trial and appellate cases of first impression involving the indemnification and advancement of legal fees for the benefit of former officers and Managers of LLCs.
His recent cases include: representing a high-profile media personality in a legal fee dispute with the bankruptcy estate of the defunct Dreier LLP law firm; securing the dismissal for lack of standing of a lawsuit alleging fraud and breach of fiduciary duty brought by several LLCs against their former Managers, obtaining an affirmance of that dismissal on appeal, and obtaining an appellate victory requiring the LLCs to reimburse the former Managers for the attorneys' fees they incurred in successfully dismissing this action; successfully representing a real estate brokerage firm in an appeal that resulted in the summary judgment being granted to the firm dismissing a $750,000 conversion claim that was brought against it by one of its former brokers; representing one the nation's top interior designers in several litigations with the designer's customers and the designer's former law firm; in a litigation between an LLC (a hedge fund) and one of its former Managing Members, obtaining a dismissal on the pleadings of a breach of contract action brought by the LLC's former Managing Member alleging that he had been improperly expelled based on documentary evidence that caused the court to find, as a matter of law, that the former Managing Member had materially breached the LLC's operating agreement; successfully representing a hedge fund in an expedited arbitration proceeding brought pursuant to the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy to reclaim the hedge fund's Internet domain name from its former Managing Member; and representing a research analyst in a high-profile FINRA arbitration against his former employer that has been the subject of two New York Times articles. Mr. Katz was part of the Schlam Stone team that secured the dismissal, on a directed verdict motion, of criminal contempt charges brought by the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development against two individuals whose company had managed a residential real estate portfolio. He is a member of the New York and District of Columbia Bars, as well as the Bars of a number of federal courts around the country, including the United States Supreme Court.
Mr. Katz also provides general corporate counseling to his clients. Mr. Katz serves as outside corporate counsel to several closely-held entities, including a U.S. wholly-owned subsidiary of a publicly traded company in Italy that provides downloadable content to cellular phone users, a New York hedge fund, and one of the nations' top interior designers based in Washington, DC. In the past, Mr. Katz has served on the Boards of Directors of, and as Corporate Secretary for, several privately held corporations in the Internet and telecommunications sectors.