Edward A. Friedman
Edward A. Friedman represents clients in complex business and financial litigations and arbitrations, both domestic and international, involving diverse issues and claims, such as accounting malpractice, breach of fiduciary duty, breach of M&A agreements, employment discrimination, fraud and securities fraud, fraudulent conveyance, insurance, non-competition, and raiding. The firm, with Mr. Friedman as lead counsel, has achieved victories for its clients (i) in trials in New York (state and federal courts, including bankruptcy court), Delaware (Chancery Court), and California (federal court); (ii) on appeals in the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Second, Third, Fourth, and Ninth Circuits, the New York Court of Appeals, and the intermediate appellate courts in New York; and (iii) in arbitrations under the auspices of the AAA, CPR, and NASD, as well as innumerable favorable settlements in litigations and arbitrations that did not proceed all the way to trial and appeal in these and other judicial and arbitral fora. The clients Mr. Friedman has represented include well-known companies such as Bertelsmann Inc., Delphi Corporation, Loral Inc., Sorrento-Lactalis Group, T-Mobile Inc., and numerous privately-held companies, investment firms, bondholder groups, and investors. Mr. Friedman has also been retained by AmLaw 100 law firms facing claims for, inter alia, legal malpractice, and by corporations and their boards in internal investigations.
Mr. Friedman's recent and current matters include representation of (i) a litigation trust formed in the bankruptcy case of Marvel Entertainment Group for the prosecution of claims in federal court in Delaware for breach of fiduciary duty against Marvel's former controlling shareholder and affiliated directors (the case ended with a substantial settlement for our client after a successful appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Cantor, et al. v. Perelman, et al., 414 F.3d 440 (3d Cir. 2005)); (ii) a European-based multinational corporation in defending against claims for fraud, negligence, and breach of contract arising out of our client's sale of a domestic subsidiary; (iii) a major U.S.-based global supplier to the automotive industry (Delphi Corporation) in litigation in bankruptcy court against a group of investment banks and hedge funds alleging breach of a $2.55 billion equity financing commitment; (iv) a multinational steel and manufacturing company that was sued in New York for failure to close a multibillion-dollar merger transaction; and (v) a major government-sponsored financial institution in Asia in an UNCITRAL arbitration arising out of the sale of non-performing loans to a major U.S. investment bank.
Mr. Friedman was the lead lawyer at trial and on appeal for the winning side in two frequently-cited cases involving, respectively, an employee's duty of loyalty to his employer, and the limitations on the authority of a general partner to bind a partnership -- S & K Sales Co. v. Nike, Inc., 816 F.2d 843 (2d. Cir. 1987), and Chelsea National Bank v. Lincoln Plaza Towers Associates, 61 N.Y. 2d 817 (1984). Also, Mr. Friedman and other lawyers at the firm have represented Columbia University in a wide variety of employment, tenure, and commercial matters including one unusual and widely-publicized case in which we were retained to pursue an appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (argued by Mr. Friedman) and achieved a reversal of an adverse judgment against our client. Columbus America Discovery Group, et al. v. Atlantic Mutual Insurance Co., et al., 974 F.2d 450 (4th Cir. 1992).
Mr. Friedman graduated from Yale College in 1971 and from Harvard Law School in 1974, both with honors.
In addition to his practice, Mr. Friedman serves as a court-appointed mediator in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. He has been a member of the Committee on Federal Courts of the New York City Bar and the Intellectual Property Committee of the American Bar Association's Section of Litigation. Mr. Friedman has been a panelist at the New York Law Journal Seminars-Press conference on Employment Law and Litigation and the American Bankruptcy Institute New York City conference on bankruptcy litigation.
Mr. Friedman has been selected for inclusion by Law & Politics in Super Lawyers® 2009 New York Edition for having attained the highest degree of peer recognition and professional achievement in the multiphase Super Lawyers selection process, which includes, among other factors, peer evaluation. He also received this designation in 2007 and 2008.
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