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Bankruptcy and Creditors' Rights

Venable’s New York bankruptcy team has substantial experience in all areas of bankruptcy, restructuring, creditors' rights, workout, and related litigation issues faced by troubled companies, creditors, and bankruptcy trustees. Our restructuring team has full-service capability, with extensive experience representing domestic and international clients alike in a multitude of industries and subject matters, including distressed commercial real estate, health care, manufacturing and industrial, telecommunications, financial services, hospitality and resorts, energy, and complex financial instruments including securitizations, derivative contacts, and repurchase agreements.

Commercial Litigation

Venable’s commercial litigation practice in New York is well-established and well-respected. In addition to knowing our way around federal and state courtrooms in New York and in other jurisdictions, our New York litigators have a great deal of experience handling private arbitrations before domestic and foreign tribunals.

We focus on complicated commercial disputes, often with cross-border implications. We have litigated disputes over complex financial transactions, fiduciary duties, corporate governance, and business dealings of all kinds. Our New York attorneys are on the forefront of federal and state litigations involving all manner of players in the financial industry. We are versatile – equally comfortable representing plaintiffs in these cases as well as defendants, and because we have no international offices, are adept at working seamlessly with lawyers around the world in solving client problems on a global basis.

We litigate business torts, securities claims, antitrust claims, real estate disputes, lending disputes, construction disputes, labor and employment issues, and fights over intellectual property rights. We are well-known for representing sovereigns and corporate entities in international arbitrations of high-stakes commercial and investment disputes. We also handle class actions, false claims litigation, government contracts disputes, and international trade issues. Our litigators have achieved notable results in all of these kinds of cases and more.

Complex Business Transactions

The more complex the transaction, the more experienced and resourceful your legal team needs to be. When your deal involves multiple players and issues – foreign participants, debt and equity tranches, complex tax issues, multiple classes of stockholders, exacting due diligence – you need attorneys with a proven track record. We take the time to understand your business, what is important to you as our client, and what is critical for success in the next stage of your enterprise. We bring in exactly the right people – Venable attorneys with the skills and experience needed to create pragmatic solutions grounded in the context of your business and industry. Working with your team, we knit together complete solutions, drawing on experience throughout Venable by blending the political and regulatory insights of former regulators and policymakers with the real-world experience of Venable business lawyers, who include experienced corporate dealmakers and former in-house counsel.

Lawyers in our New York office are adept at structuring, negotiating, and documenting a wide range of complex commercial transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, divestitures, intellectual property licensing, and the financing of sophisticated infrastructure and energy projects. Our practice is both national and international in scope and covers a wide array of industries – including consumer products, financial services, power and energy, media and entertainment, natural resources, and information technology. Our New York-based corporate lawyers also work closely with lawyers from our other offices, pursuing the development of public/private partnerships – a relatively new brand of financing that brings private capital and know-how to projects traditionally undertaken by public entities, helping to build and improve the country's transportation system and other elements of the nation's critical infrastructure.

Consumer Regulation

Venable attorneys know the intricacies of federal and state consumer laws. There is virtually no aspect of advertising and marketing where Venable has not played a role in shaping the rules that govern the product that you are advertising, and our New York lawyers are at the center of that knowledge base.

Our elite advertising and marketing group provides regulatory, business, intellectual property, law enforcement, and litigation counsel related to the advertising and marketing practices of Internet and telecommunications companies, entertainment companies, dietary supplement and cosmetic companies, quick-serve restaurant franchises, food distributors, hospitality companies and hotel chains, clothing retailers, automotive manufacturers and suppliers, credit counseling organizations, debt management companies, marketing agencies, and many other businesses and organizations. We cover every avenue of advertising distribution, from traditional media like television, radio, print, direct mail, and telemarketing, to cutting-edge Internet, mobile marketing, social media, word-of-mouth marketing, affiliate marketing, direct selling and multi-level (network) marketing channels.

Emerging Companies and Venture Capital

The road from idea to market requires more than money, management, and vision. Early stage companies also need a solid team of lawyers who can build value, avoid hazards, and help entrepreneurs move quickly in implementing their business plans. Venable’s New York office offers emerging companies just such a team, well-versed in representing entrepreneurs through all stages of their operations – from structuring, to financing, IP asset protection, and the creation of an exit strategy.

We also serve institutional venture capital and private equity investors in connection with their investments. Our New York corporate team has deep experience negotiating and structuring investments in early-stage companies, and can advise clients in connection with alternative and nuanced financing structures. Venable will also advise board members and companies in connection with best-practices, corporate governance issues, and fiduciary duties.

Intellectual Property

Venable's New York office has a leading intellectual property practice. Global market leaders in technology, consumer products, entertainment, media, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, financial services, and many others have entrusted their intellectual property to our care. With more than 50 intellectual property attorneys firm-wide, including over 30 registered patent practitioners, we collaborate together and with a highly developed network of correspondent firms to protect and enforce intellectual property rights across the world and to identify opportunities to enhance the value of intellectual property assets. We represent clients throughout New York and beyond in a host of domestic and international intellectual property issues, including litigation, licensing and other intellectual property transactions, counseling, anti-counterfeiting, and patent and trademark prosecution. Among other things, we help our clients obtain, defend and assert patents, trademarks and copyrights, and stop the sale and importation of counterfeit goods.

We look at the management of IP assets the way our clients do – as a strategic issue. Thus, we have developed people, processes, and technologies not only to support the technical legal aspects of maintaining and protecting patents, trademarks, and copyrights, but also to tackle commercial, financial and tax issues associated with sound stewardship of intellectual property.

Internal and Regulatory Investigations

Venable’s attorneys – and the firm as an institution – have considerable experience conducting internal investigations for corporate clients, representing clients in administrative and grand jury investigations, responding to investigations initiated by various federal and state regulators, and litigating white-collar criminal cases in court and before governmental agencies. We have four former prosecutors in our New York office who are well-known in our local, state and federal courts.

Our New York attorneys also have deep experience advising companies on matters relating to suspicious activity reporting and detection, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and internal controls. Our attorneys in New York regularly handle confidential matters that simultaneously require rigorous legal analysis and the utmost discretion.

International Dispute Resolution

Trained in common law, civil law, and international law, Venable’s New York lawyers have extensive experience handling cross-border disputes in a variety of forums, in multiple languages, and under diverse procedural and substantive laws. Our lawyers routinely represent companies and individuals before U.S. state and federal courts in international commercial disputes. We are especially experienced in counseling non-U.S. clients on the U.S- litigation process and have advised clients based in Spain, Italy, and various Latin American countries, among other nations. Our lawyers also represent private parties and sovereigns in multimillion-dollar investment-treaty arbitrations before the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes and in international and domestic arbitrations under the ICC, LCIA, ICDR/AAA, UNCITRAL, and other rules. From representing a foreign country resisting an attachment of assets to pre-litigation counseling and multimillion-dollar arbitrations, our attorneys are well prepared to assist our clients in complex cross-border litigation and arbitration matters.

Labor & Employment

Venable’s New York-based Labor and Employment team is part of a national group of nearly 40 attorneys. The New York team of labor and employment attorneys represents clients throughout the nation and in the New York metropolitan and tri-state areas. Our representative clients include those with national and local operations in the hotel, hospitality, financial services, insurance, manufacturing, retail, restaurant and food service, performing arts and theatre, private club, construction, and healthcare industries.

We advise clients and represent them in a broad spectrum of employment law matters and in proceedings and investigations before all federal, state, and local agencies and courts, including litigation relating to discrimination, harassment and retaliation, unpaid wages, wrongful termination, breach of contract, defamation, and claims arising under employment agreements or in the context of unfair competition. We regularly counsel clients on issues such as employee relations, policy and practice development, employment contracts and separation agreements, termination of employment, and reductions in force. We also represent employers in government audits and investigations.

In the traditional labor law context, we advise and represent clients on all labor relations issues, including remaining union-free and the administration and negotiation of collective bargaining agreements. We regularly appear on behalf of our clients at labor grievance and arbitration hearings, and in unfair labor practice proceedings before the National Labor Relations Board.

Products Liability

Together with our colleagues throughout the firm, attorneys in Venable's New York office form an important piece of a nationally renowned team of over 50 products liability and toxic tort attorneys who are highly experienced in the full range of products liability and toxic tort litigation involving the major issues of our time. Clients in the Tri-State Area rely on Venable for our outstanding record as lead counsel in high-stakes state and federal litigation. Among other things, we are often called on by other law firms for our understanding of complex scientific issues and our ability to work with experts to present sophisticated scientific concepts in plain and understandable language. We have deep knowledge in a wide variety of industries, augmented by our years of experience dealing with sophisticated issues, cutting-edge business tactics, and the hard realities of investigations and litigation.

Real Estate

Together with colleagues throughout the firm, attorneys in Venable's New York office comprise a nationally renowned team of over 50 real estate attorneys. We represent owners, developers, private equity funds, pension funds, tenants, and operators of all types of real estate. We advise clients in New York and beyond in all aspects of real estate law, and have significant expertise in counseling clients on real estate acquisitions and dispositions, commercial and retail leasing, private equity investment, pension and endowment fund investment, distressed real estate, and land use and development.

Tax and Wealth Planning

Venable's Tax and Wealth Planning attorneys create tailored asset-management, estate and business succession plans for individuals and families located in New York and around the country. We work closely with financial advisors to structure plans that protect wealth and facilitate support of charitable organizations and other interests. This includes providing counsel and solutions to make sure as much wealth as possible goes to our clients' heirs—and not to the government. Venable advisors know what the government is legitimately entitled to, and what you may rightfully leave to your loved ones. We are grounded in the rules and regulations governing income, gift and estate taxes. We help clients provide for their heirs, and, if desired, charitable, educational and religious institutions.

Technology Transactions and Outsourcing

Our New York Technology Transactions and Outsourcing practice provides a full range of experience and skills to meet our clients’ varied needs, from helping start-up companies secure financing and get their businesses up and running, to representing some of the world’s largest companies in structuring and negotiating complex international joint venture and strategic relationships, and nearly everything in between. Our clients span many industries, including financial services, technology, media, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, consumer products and communications.

Our core team has practiced together since 1998 and, combined, has over 30 years of experience representing clients in technology and outsourcing matters. Members of our team are recognized by Chambers USA, Legal 500 and IAM Licensing 250, and are particularly well-known for their significant experience representing both customers and vendors in nearly every facet of IT and business process outsourcing transactions, including real estate management outsourcing. Other core strengths include: software licensing and development; cloud computing/software as a service (SaaS); systems implementation; manufacturing, supply and logistics; medical device development and distribution; content licensing; e-commerce; data storage and handling; mobile apps; social media; and technology transfers. We also work closely with a network of legal experts outside of the U.S. to provide the necessary local experience in an increasingly global marketplace.