As a business litigator with more than 30 years of experience, Stuart brings to his clients a practical sense of how to achieve the client’s business goals in the most businesslike way — without litigation if possible, but by winning when litigation is necessary. Stuart is known for his careful preparation, well-considered strategic sense, clear presentation style, and consistent record of producing results.

Stuart has handled a wide range of complex commercial, securities, intellectual property and creditors’ rights disputes. He has represented clients in industries as diverse as hedge fund management, private equity, banking, entertainment, real estate, high technology, major league sports, manufacturing, biotechnology, niche lending, media, and aviation. His clients range from individual entrepreneurs and private-equity investors to publicly traded Fortune 100 companies and multinational companies based overseas.

Stuart’s cases include some highly visible, cutting-edge litigation that established new rules of law. For example:

• He argued the U.S. Supreme Court case that defined the scope of trade dress protection under the Lanham Act.
• He successfully established new law in the Eleventh Circuit about the reach of § 13(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
• He obtained a ruling from the Delaware Court of Chancery broadening the reach of arbitration clauses.

Stuart writes and lectures extensively about cross-border disputes, intellectual property, arbitration, corporate privilege and work product issues, and litigation strategy. He has been named a New York “Super Lawyer” every year since 2007. He is active in the American Bar Association Business Law Section and the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. Stuart is currently Chair of the Business and Corporate Litigation Committee in the ABA Business Law Section, and will be joining the Business Law Section’s Executive Council next year.

Stuart has been named a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation.  The Fellows is an honorary organization of attorneys, judges, law faculty and legal scholars whose public and private careers have demonstrated outstanding dedication to the welfare of their communities and to the highest principles of the legal profession.  Membership in the Fellows is limited to one percent of lawyers licensed to practice in each jurisdiction. 

• Integral part of a trial team that won a judgment totaling nearly $100 million against Deutsche Bank on behalf of a hedge fund client, in a case that centered on a breach of contract claim in a credit default swap transaction.
• Obtained summary judgment allowing minority owner of an LLC that owns 587 Fifth Avenue to purchase the majority owner’s interest in a buy-sell transaction.
• Represented Samara Brothers, Inc. in its litigation against Wal-Mart Stores on copyright and trade dress issues, winning at the trial and appellate levels.  Argued the case before the US Supreme Court, which granted certiorari to consider one of the trade dress issues.  The case is reported as Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Samara Brothers, Inc.  529 U.S. 205, 120 S.Ct. 1339 (2000).
• Defeated an attempt by investors in a $300 million hedge fund to remove a fund manager in a private expedited special arbitration before a retired federal judge.
• Obtained judgment exceeding $45 million in favor of a Portuguese construction company, against the Venezuelan national oil company, PDVSA.
• Obtained a dismissal on the eve of trial of a case accusing our client of fraud and breach of fidudiary duty in connection with a buyout of interests in a New York City office building.  Gourary v. Laster, 162 A.D.3d 482, 80 N.Y.S.3d 482 (1st Dep't 2018).
• Represented the 40/40 Club, a sports bar affiliated with the rapper Jay-Z, in copyright litigation arising from C.C. Sabathia’s 30th birthday party.
• Obtained 100 percent settlements for a client who purchased assets, including contracts, out of the Enron bankruptcy estate only to find that certain counterparties refused to honor the contracts. After moving to have the counterparties held in contempt of the bankruptcy court’s order approving the sale of assets, the counterparties paid what they owed, a nine figure settlement.
• Represented the minority owners of the Tampa Bay Lightning NHL team in resolving issues arising from the sale of the team by the league to new investors.
• Obtained disqualification of a named plaintiff and his counsel in a shareholders’ derivative case against the former chairman of a defunct public company. After the disqualification, the case ultimately was abandoned by the remaining plaintiffs and then dismissed for lack of prosecution.
• Successfully argued that a dispute concerning rights under a contract that did not contain an arbitration clause had to be arbitrated because of an arbitration clause in a contemporaneous contract.
• Represented a South African biotechnology company, its officers and shareholders in a case of first impression in the Eleventh Circuit, in which the court affirmed dismissal of an alleged tender offer fraud and § 13(d) claim.