As a business litigator with 40 years of experience, Stuart brings to his clients a practical sense of how to achieve their business goals in the most businesslike way — without litigation, if possible, but by winning when litigation is unavoidable. Stuart is known for his careful preparation, finely honed listening skills, well-considered strategic sense, clear presentation style, and consistent record of producing results.
Stuart handles a wide range of complex commercial, corporate, securities, intellectual property and creditors’ rights disputes for both American and international clients. 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.
In addition to representing clients in disputes, Stuart also serves as an arbitrator. He is on the Commercial Panel of the American Arbitration Association and qualifies to serve both as an Association-appointed arbitrator and as a party-appointed arbitrator. Being selected to serve as an arbitrator is a sign that parties to disputes trust the arbitrator to decide their controversy fairly and in accordance with the law.
Stuart writes and lectures extensively about cross-border disputes (often with a focus on US discovery for foreign disputes under 28 USC § 1782), intellectual property, arbitration, corporate privilege and work product issues, and litigation strategy. He has been named to the list of New York Super Lawyers every year since 2007.
Stuart is active in the American Bar Association Business Law Section and the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. He is immediate past Chair of the Business and Corporate Litigation Committee in the ABA Business Law Section and is currently a member of the Business Law Section’s governing Council and of its Committee Oversight and Support Board. The President of the American Bar Association recently appointed Stuart to a three-year term on the ABA Standing Committee on Professionalism.
Stuart is a member of the American Counsel Association and has been named a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and of the Litigation Counsel of America.