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Litigation

The possibility of litigation is a prospect with which all businesses must contend. To prevent the dispute resolution process from becoming a resource drain, savvy executives require fast-acting counsel and strategies that promote prompt resolutions. The CSG Law Litigation Group understands this, and works closely alongside clients to help catalyze favorable outcomes without the need for costly or protracted litigation. However, as a last resort, we are prepared – and uniquely positioned – to aggressively pursue our clients’ interests through trial.

The CSG Law Litigation Group has been strategically assembled to ensure nimble representation and optimal alignment with client needs. Our team of nearly 60 trial-tested former federal prosecutors and seasoned commercial litigators take pride in their courtroom skills, but work to avoid litigation through counseling, strategic planning and pre-litigation negotiation. We regularly litigate in federal and state trial-level and appellate courts, before administrative agencies and in alternative dispute resolution forums such as arbitration and mediation.

Alternative Dispute Resolution

When the courtroom is not the optimal venue for resolving a dispute, savvy businesses look to alternative dispute resolution (ADR) measures to minimize costs, expedite the settlement process and lessen blowback from negative publicity.

Attorneys on the CSG Law Alternative Dispute Resolution Team are committed to partnering with you to achieve these objectives and help drive positive, predictable outcomes. Comprised of former Superior Court judges and federal prosecutors, the Team works closely with clients to effectively manage the ADR process – from forum selection to settlement negotiation.

In cases that demand industry or issue-specific knowledge, clients benefit from the insight brought to bear by resources across our firm's practice areas – including, but not limited to, attorneys practicing in banking and finance; construction; environmental law; manufacturing, wholesale and distribution; mergers, acquisitions and corporate law; real estate; and trusts and estates.

In addition to providing ADR proceeding support services, we are regularly engaged to negotiate and draft clauses and assist with the development of proactive dispute resolution plans.

Bid Protest Litigation

Given complex contracting models and stiff competition in the region’s procurement marketplace, bid protests have become a common step for both contractors and government agencies across the Northeast. Whether your organization is the protestor or the intervenor, is your legal team well-positioned to defend a challenged bid?

With its deep understanding of the complexities and dynamics at play throughout the federal, state and local procurement processes, The CSG Law Bid Protest Litigation Team has extensive experience representing contractors, suppliers, manufacturers and others who provide goods, services and property to government agencies.

Our attorneys bring a proven track record assisting on matters related to bid protests, with prior representations including:

  • Defended government entity in a challenge to its award of a construction contract for more than $350 million
  • Obtained final judgment that vacated a public entity’s award of a multi-million dollar contract and ordered that the project be rebid. The public entity had solicited the contract through New Jersey’s competitive contracting model, which allows significant deference to public entities’ contracting decisions, and had ranked the client’s proposal last out of five proposals.
  • Prevented a school board from awarding a contract to a client’s competitor because the award was in violation of the Public Schools Contracts Act, and additionally obtained the award of the contract to our client.
  • Prevented a municipality from awarding an entertainment services contract to a client’s competitor in violation of the Local Public Contracts Law.
  • Compelled a rebid of a solar project being let on behalf of a municipality because of the arbitrary and inconsistent analysis of the bid criteria.
  • Represented an incumbent contractor in a bid protest for a multi-million dollar State of New Jersey contract before the Division of Purchase and Property. Based on our protest brief, the Director of the Division of Purchase and Property found the winning bidder’s proposal materially defective. Consequently, the Director vacated the Notice of Award and ordered a rebid of the RFP.

Complex Commercial Litigation

Whether “betting the company” or engaged in a straightforward contract case, sophisticated litigants recognize the need to bring disputes to an end quickly and efficiently. To this end, they demand equally sophisticated legal counsel with a deep understanding of their business, strategic objectives and risk profile.

The commercial litigators at CSG Law exceed these expectations, seamlessly integrating themselves into clients’ legal teams and serving as business advisors throughout the dispute resolution process. While our experienced trial teams have had tremendous success in the courtroom, we also understand that not all matters are most effectively handled through litigation. Indeed, some of our greatest successes involve strategic resolutions that no one will ever read about in the newspapers.

Clients turn to our commercial litigators to manage disputes in every area of their business. Some examples include bankruptcy, restructuring and workouts; breach of contract/fiduciary duty; employment; lending and finance; patents, copyrights, trade secrets and restrictive covenants; professional liability; securities; shareholder and partnership disputes; and real estate, commercial leases and construction.

Construction & Surety Litigation

For contractors and sureties, the importance of working with a law firm that combines experience with foresight cannot be overstated. Knowledgeable counsel and effective litigators are key to avoiding the pitfalls that threaten business models and financial well-being. A powerful hybrid of the CSG Law nationally recognized construction, surety and litigation practices, our Construction & Surety Litigation Team is experienced representing and advising sureties with respect to performance and payment bond claims, the defense of prevailing wage claims, affirmative surety claims, loss recovery, bankruptcy issues and contractor workouts.

Our attorneys also represent developers, contractors and building material suppliers in litigation matters involving claims for breach of contract, applications for injunctive relief, delay claims and payment claims. The CSG Law Fidelity & Surety Team, one of the largest in the nation, delivers centuries of combined experience addressing matters specific to sureties and fidelity insurers. Our attorneys are active participants in prominent legal and industry groups, and many are sought-after speakers, authors and authorities on a variety of topics critical to the industry. This wealth of knowledge greatly benefits construction and surety clients engaged in litigation.

Corporate Compliance, Internal Investigations & Monitoring

Even corporations and other entities with internal controls, policies and cultures of compliance often grapple with alleged misconduct. The attorneys on the CSG Law Corporate Compliance, Internal Investigations & Monitoring Team — most of whom have held high-level government positions — have both the depth of experience and the determination to drill down into allegations of misconduct and unearth solutions that help clients emerge with strengthened compliance measures and successful outcomes in internal, government and cross-border investigations and monitorships.

The CSG Law Corporate Compliance, Internal Investigations & Monitoring Team is comprised of lawyers with wide-ranging experience representing public and private companies, boards of directors, special committees, officers and governmental entities in investigative matters. The team includes a former Attorney General of the State of New Jersey and former U.S. Senator, several former senior officials and Assistant United States Attorneys from the U.S. Department of Justice, former New Jersey and New York state officials and prosecutors, and former senior in-house counsel and compliance officers from some of America’s largest corporations.

Our lawyers regularly counsel companies and governmental agencies through internal and external investigations involving allegations of misconduct, and utilize their subject matter expertise to develop remedial action plans and to craft ethics and compliance policies and procedures. We advise clients on matters involving a wide breadth of investigative matters, including whistleblower allegations, conflicts of interest and regulatory compliance issues.

Drawing on the outstanding capabilities of attorneys throughout the firm, CSG Law deploys an interdisciplinary approach to provide solutions that meet each client’s specific needs, whether those needs are answered by the firm’s white collar defense, corporate governance, securities, anti-money laundering, Bank Secrecy Act and sanctions compliance, employment, real estate, intellectual property, cybersecurity, data privacy, or banking and regulatory practice areas. By conducting intensive fact-finding inquiries, reviewing and analyzing documents and preparing investigative results and actions plans, we identify and mitigate potential exposure to protect the operational integrity, reputation and culture of a company or organization.

Director & Officer Liability

Faced with a dissatisfied stakeholder’s claim alleging mismanagement, it is critical for corporate fiduciaries to engage experienced and trusted counsel to assist in minimizing legal exposure, protecting individual and commercial reputations, and discretely developing a resolution.

CSG Law litigators and corporate governance attorneys understand how disruptive shareholder disputes can be to operations and strive to avoid trial using early resolution tactics. However, comprised of several former federal prosecutors and seasoned commercial litigators, our D&O Liability Team is well-positioned to manage matters where the threat of civil litigation or government enforcement action looms. Our attorneys represent directors and officers of public and private companies in connection with securities fraud class actions; claims arising from merger, sale or acquisition transactions; claims associated with corporate bankruptcies; and claims and investigations brought by the government or regulatory agencies.

Professional Liability

Clients who are dissatisfied with the results of a transaction or litigation often look to their lawyers to make them whole. Often times, the lawyer has done nothing wrong, but is looked to as an insurer or deep pocket when another party involved in a deal has engaged in misconduct causing the client’s losses, or when the client simply has a case of buyer’s remorse. Lawyers make mistakes too, but it does not make a case indefensible since the mistake may not have actually been the cause of any damages – a common focus of legal malpractice disputes that CSG Law has routinely litigated.

Legal Malpractice Defense: Our team is staffed with attorneys who have significant experience defending legal malpractice cases in New York and New Jersey. From time to time, we prosecute legal malpractice cases; doing so strengthens our ability to act as defense counsel by having a better sense of the lawyer’s vulnerability to common plaintiffs’ themes in malpractice cases and how to deal with them. On an as-needed basis depending on the underlying subject matter, we will team up with numerous CSG Law practice groups to ensure a proper and thorough examination of the event out of which the claim originated, as well as an understanding of the applicable law.

Led by the firm's General Counsel, our Professional Liability Team provides presentations on legal malpractice updates in the law, as well as loss prevention techniques – topics on which our professionals have frequently presented. Being the subject of an ethics grievance or formal ethics complaint can be a stressful and frustrating experience. The possibility of disciplinary action and sometimes personal feeling of betrayal where you provided quality representation to the client are trying enough. Having to take the time away from your practice to cooperate in the investigation or disciplinary proceeding only aggravates the situation.

Ethics Defense and Counseling: CSG Law has experience at all phases of the disciplinary system in New Jersey, which is overseen by the New Jersey Supreme Court, with the Disciplinary Review Board, Office of Attorney Ethics and volunteer District Ethics Committees throughout the State all charged with investigating, prosecuting and hearing ethics complaints, and/or reviewing recommendations for discipline imposed by hearing panels established by the District Ethics Committees. In addition to representing those charged with violations of the Rules of Professional Responsibility, we also serve as ethics counsel to law firms or companies seeking advice relating to the Rules of Professional Conduct. We also provide written ethics opinions where appropriate.

Securities Litigation & Enforcement

Financial services companies face unprecedented challenges as they navigate today’s complex and often turbulent economic and regulatory environment. In order to meet these challenges, companies need direct access to the right resources when resolving legal issues and achieving business objectives. The CSG Law Securities Litigation & Enforcement Team meets that need with the knowledge and experience required to handle the tougher issues facing the financial services industry. Our attorneys provide each client with the tailored resources and counsel necessary for a successful outcome.

We advise broker-dealers, private banks, investment banks, commercial banks, investment advisers, hedge funds, clearing firms and others on a broad range of litigation-related and regulatory matters—including responding to regulatory investigations and inquiries; internal investigations; enforcement of restrictive covenants and trade secrets, as well as assertion of unfair competition claims; defense of investment-related claims and resolution of information security issues. Our practice is augmented by direct access to colleagues across the firm's diverse range of disciplines – including white collar criminal defense, employment, bankruptcy, tax, mergers and acquisitions and ERISA.

State Attorneys General

Today’s regulatory environment is increasingly complex and includes a host of federal agencies and regulators: the Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Trade Commission and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, among others. Adding to the complexity, state attorneys general (AGs) are active in enforcing their states’ data breach and privacy laws, false claims acts, consumer protection laws, environmental laws and even antitrust laws. AGs are increasingly acting in concert with one another – and sometimes federal regulators – to share resources, augment their investigative capacity and ultimately increase their prosecutorial footprint.

CSG Law offers a dedicated State Attorneys General Practice led by former United States Senator and New Jersey Attorney General Jeffrey Chiesa. Additionally, our State Attorneys General Practice features lawyers with deep connections in Congress, at the various federal regulatory agencies and strong relationships with current and former attorneys general across the country. The firm's practice is enhanced by Lee Vartan, who served as New Jersey’s chief deputy attorney general – the state’s second-highest ranking official.

The CSG Law State Attorneys General Team is wide-ranging:

  • Regularly interact with attorneys general, chief deputies and attorney general offices across the country through our involvement with the National Association of Attorneys General, the Republican Attorneys General Association and the Democratic Attorneys General Association
  • Keep abreast of enforcement trends – most notably including areas and industries where multi-state investigations are likely to proliferate
  • Engage with attorneys general on state statutes, regulations, policies and enforcement trends on behalf of clients
  • Represent regional, national and international companies in investigations spearheaded by attorneys general both acting alone and in concert
  • Counsel clients on preventing an investigation launched by a single attorney general from developing into a multi-state investigation

Multi-state attorney general investigations, already numerous, are sure to proliferate over the next few years as states attempt to fill the perceived enforcement void left by the current administration. The CSG Law State Attorneys General Team is uniquely positioned to handle these investigations – having ourselves built them in our former careers and understanding the confluence of law, politics, media and policy needed to efficiently resolve them. We do it every day.

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December, 2019

August, 2019

July 1, 2019

May 11, 2017

May 12, 2016

August 24, 2015

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December 5, 2014

November 12, 2014 - November 14, 2014

NJAJ Educational Foundation, Inc.'s Meadowlands Seminar 2014

October 10, 2011

 
Matthew E. Beck

Matthew E. Beck

Member
Chair, White Collar Defense & Investigations Group, Chair, Litigation Group
Phone (973) 530-2024NY Phone (212) 973-0572mbeck@csglaw.com

Jeffrey S. Chiesa

Jeffrey S. Chiesa

Member
Member, Executive Committee
Phone (973) 530-2050jchiesa@csglaw.com

Danielle M. Corcione

Danielle M. Corcione

Member
Member, Executive Committee
Practice Group Leader, White Collar Defense & Investigations Group
Phone (973) 530-2055Fax (973) 530-2255dcorcione@csglaw.com

Sam  Della Fera, Jr.

Sam Della Fera, Jr.

Member
Co-Chair, Bankruptcy & Creditors' Rights Group
Phone (973) 530-2076sdellafera@csglaw.com

Adam K. Derman

Adam K. Derman

Member
Member, Executive Committee
Chair, Litigation Group
Phone (973) 530-2027Fax (973) 530-2227aderman@csglaw.com

Adam P. Friedman

Adam P. Friedman

Member
Practice Group Leader, Fidelity & Surety Group
Phone (973) 530-2029Fax (973) 530-2229afriedman@csglaw.com

Robert L. Hornby

Robert L. Hornby

Member
Chair, Equipment Leasing & Asset Based Lending
Phone (973) 530-2032NY Phone (212) 973-0572rhornby@csglaw.com

Marie L. Mathews

Marie L. Mathews

Member
Deputy General Counsel, Practice Group Leader, Litigation Group
Phone (973) 530-2099Fax (973) 530-2299mmathews@csglaw.com

Alan S. Mohl

Alan S. Mohl

Special Investigations CounselPhone (973) 530-2233amohl@csglaw.com

Robert E. Nies

Robert E. Nies

Member
Chair, Bankruptcy & Creditors' Rights Group
Phone (973) 530-2012Fax (973) 530-2212rnies@csglaw.com

A. Ross Pearlson

A. Ross Pearlson

Member
Chair, Litigation Group
Phone (973) 530-2100Fax (973) 530-2300rpearlson@csglaw.com

Melissa A. Salimbene

Melissa A. Salimbene

Member
Practice Group Leader, Employment Law Group
Phone (973) 530-2092NY Phone (212) 973-0572msalimbene@csglaw.com

Armen  Shahinian

Armen Shahinian

Member
Member, Executive Committee
Chair, Fidelity & Surety Group
Phone (973) 530-2002NY Phone (212) 973-0572ashahinian@csglaw.com

Tremain L. Stanley

Tremain L. Stanley

Member
Practice Group Leader, Family Law Group
Phone (973) 530-2386Fax (973) 907-7094tstanley@csglaw.com

Dennis M. Toft

Dennis M. Toft

Member
Chair, Environmental Law Group
Phone (973) 530-2014Fax (973) 530-2214dtoft@csglaw.com

John G. Valeri Jr.

John G. Valeri Jr.

Member
Practice Group Leader, Environmental Law Group
Phone (973) 530-2030jvaleri@csglaw.com

Catherine P. Wells

Catherine P. Wells

Member
Chair, Employment Law Group
Phone (973) 530-2051Fax (973) 530-2251cwells@csglaw.com