Anil K. Vassanji

Anil K. Vassanji represents major public and private companies as well as individuals in the financial services, industrial, real estate, media, and other industries in connection with complex commercial litigation in federal and state courts and in arbitration, as well as in connection with government and internal investigations and white collar matters. His civil practice includes a wide range of complex commercial disputes, including breach of contract, fraud, securities, breach of fiduciary duty, employment, asset recovery, and related matters. Anil also has a substantial pro bono practice and serves as co-lead attorney in coordinating and strengthening the firm’s overall pro bono efforts. Anil is a member of the firm’s AI Task Force.

Prior to joining Friedman Kaplan, Anil was an associate at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP. During his time there, he represented a wide range of corporate and individual clients on an array of civil and criminal disputes, including securities, environmental, class action, intellectual property, antitrust, appeals, cybersecurity, and regulatory matters.

Representative Matters

• Representation of WeWork co-founder and former CEO and Chairman Adam Neumann and affiliated company We Holdings LLC in a Delaware Chancery Court action, which was consolidated with an action commenced by a Special Committee of WeWork’s Board of Directors, challenging the decision of WeWork’s majority institutional shareholder to terminate a multibillion dollar tender offer.
• Representation of Health and Hospital Corporation Marion County in a closely watched appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court, in Health and Hospital Corp. of Marion Cnty. et al. v. Talevski, concerning the Federal Nursing Home Reform Act and the applicability of private enforcement rights under Section 1983 of the Civil Rights Act.
• Member of Friedman Kaplan defense team that represented the former Chief Financial Officer of Archegos Capital Management in a prosecution by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, including through a 2024 nine-week criminal trial involving charges of RICO conspiracy, securities fraud, and mail and wire fraud relating to the 2021 collapse of the family office. In related civil actions, Anil previously helped the firm obtain the dismissal of a CFTC enforcement action filed in the SDNY and continues to assist in representation of the client in a related SEC enforcement action and in a case brought by a former Archegos employee.

• Representation of members of LLCs owning multi-family residential properties in Manhattan, including as trial counsel, in bringing breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, and related claims against their manager in New York Supreme Court.

• Representation, including serving as trial counsel, of a CDO collateral manager and recovery service provider in litigation brought by a CDO trustee.

• Representation of a major law firm and one of its partners in defense of alleged legal malpractice claims in which the plaintiff seeks approximately $60 million.

• Representation of real estate investors before the N.Y. Court of Appeals in a dispute over a luxury high rise development in New York concerning federal preemption of state tort law claims.
• Obtained a major victory overturning the problematic “passport rule” that blocked those without valid passports from applying to the U.S. Diversity Immigrant Visa Program, which affected millions of aspiring immigrants across the world, with the most dramatic impact on those from Africa.
• Representation of a class of tenants before the N.Y. Court of Appeals concerning rent stabilization.
• Representation of legal scholars and law professors as amici curiae in the U.S. Supreme Court to advance an interpretation of federal law that preserves the authority of states and other governmental entities to enact and enforce laws that impose liability on gun industry participants whose unlawful conduct is a proximate cause of harm related to firearms violence.
• Representation of law professor as amicus curiae in the U.S. Supreme Court and D.C. Circuit to advance an interpretation of the U.S. Constitution that would provide Guantanamo detainees with rights to due process consistent with the due process rights of civilly committed defendants.

Outside the Office

Anil serves on the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of the New York Civil Liberties Union as Treasurer and on the board of OpenTelemed, a global health nonprofit that uses technology to provide access to healthcare. He is also part of the Legal Services Corporation’s Emerging Leaders Council, a group composed of up-and-coming leaders working to raise awareness of the civil legal aid crisis in the United States. Anil previously served on Law360’s Access to Justice Editorial Advisory Board and was a member of the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity’s 2021 class of Pathfinders.