Lecturer Bios
Scott Berman
Scott M. Berman has a varied complex securities and commercial litigation practice. He
represents large institutional investors, funds of funds, investment advisors, and wealthy
individuals in securities and fraud litigations involving hedge funds and their auditors,
administrators, prime brokers, and other professionals ( e.g. , Madoff feeder funds,
Lancer, Beacon Hill, Lipper, Livingston, Granite, Manhattan). He also represents hedge
fund receivers and liquidators (e.g., Carlyle Capital Corporation Limited (in Liquidation)
and Beacon Hill) as well as hedge fund investors in bankruptcy and receivership
proceedings (e.g., Bayou, Wood River) and other matters (e.g., Amaranth). Mr. Berman
also represents companies, officers and directors, and high net worth individuals in
federal and state courts, and in arbitrations in jurisdictions across the country. He has also
litigated numerous bankruptcy matters on behalf of creditors, equity holders, and debtors.
In addition to his litigation practice, Mr. Berman counsels hedge funds, funds of funds,
and investment managers.
Among other things, Mr. Berman currently is representing investors that lost many
millions of dollars in Madoff feeder funds in litigation against the funds' manager, parent,
and auditor, and the liquidators of the failed Carlyle Capital Corporation hedge fund in
litigation against various Carlyle entities. He has obtained favorable settlements on behalf
of investors who lost many millions of dollars in the Granite, Manhattan, Beacon Hill,
and Lancer hedge funds.
Other recent representations include the defense of a public company and its president in
a class action and SEC investigation; defending against guaranty claims asserted by the
Federal Reserve Bank of New York; representing partners in partnership disputes;
commencing and defending against fraudulent conveyance actions; and commencing
arbitrations against broker-dealers on behalf of former high-level employees and
defrauded investors.
Mr. Berman is frequently quoted in the financial press on hedge fund-related issues. His
many speaking engagements have included a July 2010 appearance at a Hedge Fund
Accounting, Auditing and Administration Conference sponsored by Financial Research
Associates, where he spoke about "Avoiding Litigation in a Post-Madoff World; " two
appearances at 2009 Madoff & Ponzi Scheme Litigation Conferences presented by HB
Litigation Conferences; "Meeting Investor Demands While Protecting Strategies" at the
2008 Hedge Fund Risk Management Conference; "Hedge Fund Due Diligence for Private
Investors" at the 2008 Annual Wealth Management Forum sponsored y Institutional
Investor Events; "Avoiding the Perils of Operational Oversight: What Can Be Learned
From the Latest Fund Failures and Lawsuits" at the 2008 Annual Meeting of the Hedge
Fund Business Operations Association; "Case Study of Hedge Fund Blowup" at the 2006
MARHedge Cayman conference on Hedge Fund Best Practices; "Hedge Fund
Symposium" at the 2006 Securities Forum hosted by the Connecticut Department of
Banking, Securities and Business Investments; and "Enforcement/Fraud Concerns" at the
2003 SEC Hedge Fund Roundtable. He also is a frequent lecturer on federal practice at
bar association programs.
Richard Williamson
Mr. Williamson joined the firm as a partner in 1977. He handles commercial litigation, trials and appeals, product liability, mass torts, professional liability, partnership, corporate and commercial matters. Clients also regularly rely on him for advice concerning their business affairs and strategies.
Upon the outbreak of 9/11 litigation following the terrorist attacks, Mr. Williamson was selected by the World Trade Center defendants (i.e., the Silverstein affiliated net lessees of the buildings at the World Trade Center site) and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to represent them in 9/11 litigation throughout New York and New Jersey in the state and federal courts. Both the New York State Supreme Court and the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York appointed Mr. Williamson as Liaison Counsel for the Ground Defendants (one of the two groups of defendants) in the wrongful death, bodily injury, property damage, and business interruption cases and as Co-Liaison Counsel for all defendants in cases alleging respiratory injury.
Mr. Williamson served as national counsel for one of the nation's largest and most prestigious professional firms when it was on the brink of financial collapse. Working together with investment bankers and financial and management consultants, he led the legal team in developing and implementing a complex, long-term strategy that included negotiation and nationwide litigation with a number of major groups of creditors that resulted in the restructuring of the firm's debt. That firm has survived and is now thriving.
In asbestos personal injury litigation, Mr. Williamson served on the national trial lawyers teams for several defendants over the last twenty-five years. He also devised and supervised the implementation of a dramatically new, far more aggressive approach to the defense of tens of thousands of cases on behalf of a major defendant that enabled it to settle cases, on the average, for less than half the amount it had been paying. In asbestos-in-buildings litigation, Mr. Williamson was appointed by the Court as Co-Liaison Counsel for all defendants and headed up our representation of two large corporate defendants for more than a decade.
Mr. Williamson also has been selected by judges to assist in the resolution of numerous high profile matters, for example, by serving as Special Settlement Mediator in the Bank of New York shareholder derivative actions arising out of the Russian money laundering scandal, as the Successor Liquidating Trustee for two large hedge funds, and as the Liquidating Trustee for the Bondholders Liquidating Trust of a large publicly held company. In his capacity as Liquidating Trustee, Mr. Williamson oversaw the successful recovery through the lawsuit he commenced of $480 million plus other consideration from AT&T, Cox Communications, Inc. and Comcast Corporation. In these capacities, Mr. Williamson has collected and disbursed over $1 billion. In addition, he also has served as a court-appointed Special Referee, as an arbitrator and as a private and court-appointed mediator in major business disputes.
Mr. Williamson also is regularly retained to represent law firms and other partnerships (including individual partners) in connection with partnership disputes and break-ups. He is the author of the chapter entitled Partnerships, in Commercial Litigation In New York State Courts, 3rd ed., Thomson West and NYCLA, 2010 plus annual supplements.
In addition, Mr. Williamson devotes substantial time and energy to lecturing and training other lawyers in litigation and trial techniques, including teaching regularly for the National Institute of Trial Advocacy and lecturing on American Lawyer, Practicing Law Institute, New York State Bar Association and New York County Lawyers’ Association panels. Topics include: advanced trial advocacy, responding to a federal court complaint, opening statements, direct and cross-examination, expert witnesses, provisional remedies, and other litigation and trial related topics.
Paul Hanly, Jr.
Paul J. Hanly, Jr. is the founding partner of Hanly Conroy Bierstein
Sheridan Fisher & Hayes LLP, a litigation-only law firm, and a member of the
bars of New York and Texas. He began his career as a law clerk to a United
States District Judge and in more than 30 years of practice has tried to verdict
dozens of jury cases on behalf of plaintiffs and defendants in state and federal
courts in more than 20 jurisdictions, including approximately 20 verdicts in the
Southern District of New York.
Gregg Kanter, Esq.
Gregg Kanter is a commercial litigator practicing before state
and federal courts in New York City and Philadelphia.
Mr. Kanter has litigated and tried a wide variety of commercial
matters, ranging from contract actions, commercial torts,
intellectual property, employment law, and creditor's rights.
His higher profile cases include class actions concerning
Holocaust-era insurance policies, the World Trade Center net
lessees' property damage claim arising from 9/11, and Madoff
"clawback" claims against European banks.
Mr. Kanter has been a leader of the bar, a Faculty Member and
Program Chair of CLE programs on federal court practice (click
here), and has authored numerous articles and bar association
reports (click here).
Mr. Kanter has worked in Philadelphia for Sprague & Sprague
and in New York for Flemming Zulack Williamson Zauderer and
Cahill Gordon & Reindel.
NYCLA President Barbara Moses
Barbara Moses handles complex business disputes in state and federal courts nationwide,
in arbitration, and in administrative proceedings. She has extensive experience in
securities fraud and shareholder rights litigation, securities regulatory proceedings, class
and derivative actions, partnership disputes, and copyright, trademark and trade secrets
litigation. She also handles attorney disciplinary matters and conducts internal corporate
investigations.
In addition to her work at the Firm, Ms. Moses teaches a full-year, first-year course at
New York University Law School. From 2006 to 2008, she served as an Adjunct
Professor of Law at Seton Hall University Law School.
Barbara received an A.B. magna cum laude from Dartmouth College and a J.D. cum
laude from Harvard Law School. After clerking for the Honorable Vincent L. McKusick,
Chief Justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, and serving as a litigation partner at
Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe for twelve years, she joined Morvillo Abramowitz as a
principal in 2002.
Barbara’ numerous articles on securities litigation and trade secret issues include: “They
Were Shocked, Shocked: The ‘Discovery’ of Analyst Conflicts on Wall Street” (70
Brooklyn L. Rev. 98, Fall 2004); “Litigation Stemming From Hiring Decisions: The
Defense Perspective” (New York Law Journal, October 28, 1999); “Measures to Prevent
Trade Secret Theft” (New York Law Journal, November 24, 1997); and “Securities
Litigation Reformed?” (Review of Securities & Commodities Regulation, Vol. 29, No. 4,
February 1997). She has appeared on ABC’s Nightline as a securities litigation expert
and has been a frequent speaker at the ALI-ABA’s Broker-Dealer Regulation course,
which she co-chaired from 1997 to 2006. Barbara has been listed in the New York Super
Lawyers – Metro Edition every year since 2006.
Barbara is a member of the American Law Institute and a director of the New York
County Lawyers’ Association, where she previously served as Chair of the Federal
Courts Committee. She is also a member of the American Bar Association, the New
York City Bar Association, and the Securities Industry and Financial Markets
Association.
Barbara is admitted in New York, California, and Washington, D.C., and is admitted to
practice before the Supreme Court of the United States, the Second, Ninth, and District of
Columbia Circuits, and numerous federal district courts.