Commercial Litigation
The Law Office of Michael Schneider brings extensive experience representing small businesses, not for profit entities and individuals in a wide variety of matters in state and federal courts. We both prosecute and defend complex lawsuits to completion. We are adept at structuring creative settlements in order to obtain the best results for our clients.
We know how to win. We have realized substantial monetary recoveries for our clients on the plaintiff side, and significant avoidance of liability defending our clients in litigation. We also have successfully enforced and collected judgments awarded to our clients - including judgments entered in other jurisdictions.
When necessary, we commence and vigorously prosecute actions to enforce the contractual rights of our business and individual clients against parties who have breached their obligations, as well as defend our clients against lawsuits alleging breach of their contractual rights. We achieve successful outcomes for our clients in a wide variety of matters including real estate, partnerships and joint ventures, investment instruments, insurance policies, and arbitrations.
This firm has extensive experience litigating claims arising out of investment and business disputes, including breach of contract and fiduciary duty claims brought by minority and oppressed shareholders against business insiders. In one of our cases, we obtained a significant seven-figure dollar settlement on behalf of a large group of individual investors in a private technology that was acquired by a Fortune 500 company. Our clients were very substantially diluted by means of a self-dealing recapitalization transaction that benefitted the insider directors at the expense of our clients.
This office has substantial experience litigating insurance disputes arising out of both property and life insurance policies. We have represented policyholders, whose claims were improperly denied by insurers, enabling our clients to obtain the recoveries to which they were entitled under their insurance policies. We have also represented parties in life settlement disputes involving the sale of life insurance policies. In one notable case, we successfully defended a woman whose was sued for over a million dollars as a purported guarantor of a loan issued to finance the premiums on a life insurance policy by demonstrating that her signature had been forged on the loan documents.
Fraud
We have particular expertise in representing parties who have been victimized by fraud. We have successfully represented many businesses and individuals in obtaining sizeable judgments, settlements and recoveries for our clients. For example, we successfully represented a New York not-for-profit corporation in recovering large sums of money embezzled by the director of this institution. Similarly, we successfully represented an Asian corporation that was defrauded by a U.S. corporation that it contracted for services and whose principal misappropriated approximately one million dollars in our client’s funds, by tracing the diversion of its funds and obtaining judgments and injunctive relief against the recipients of these fraudulent transfers. See Capital Distribution Services, Ltd. v. Ducor Express Airlines, 440 F.Supp.2d 195 (EDNY 2006).
State & Federal Courts
We have handled matters primarily in the state and federal courts of New York, but also in the courts of other states. Our firm successfully handled appeals in the New York State Appellate Division as well as the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Michael Schneider successfully argued before the Second Circuit that the District Court’s refusal to overturn an NASD arbitration award in favor of our client was proper, and that the District Court’s imposition of Rule 11 sanctions on our adversary should be upheld in light of his bad faith conduct. See Perpetual Securities, Inc. v. Tang, 290 F.2d 132 (2d Cir. 2002). In another matter we succeeded in persuading the Appellate Division to overturn the trial court’s dismissal of our client’s claims for breach of contract and fraud in connection with the granting of a release.
We have successfully represented our clients in a diverse array of commercial litigation matters, including disputed matters arising under the Uniform Commercial Code, the Internal Revenue Code and other state and federal statutes. We have handled litigation arising out of real estate transactions and many types of contracts and business disputes.
We have also represented clients in arbitration and mediation proceedings, both in matters originating in arbitration and in litigated matters which went to mediation upon the parties consent and were resolved through settlement in mediation.