Business and Commercial Litigation

Practice Area

Business disputes can take a significant financial toll on an organization and keep an organization from pursuing its critical goals. Harris Beach attorneys are acutely aware of the impact litigation can have on an organization and are committed to minimizing disruption and managing costs by efficiently resolving cases with a keen awareness of our clients’legal, financial, and organizational objectives.

Fortune 500 corporations and other entities have trusted Harris Beach business and commercial litigation attorneys to protect their investments and their companies in matters ranging from a need for sound litigation and arbitration strategies to aggressive representation in bet-the-company scenarios. We work closely with clients to determine the best avenue to help them achieve their goals. For many disputes, alternative dispute resolution methods such as mediation or arbitration may offer an effective option to traditional litigation. When litigation is necessary, we have an extensive team of highly-credentialed and seasoned trial lawyers with a strong track record of successfully taking cases to verdict or achieving a favorable settlement.

Over decades of practice, Harris Beach litigators have earned the respect of judges and counsel in a wide variety of venues including the U.S. Supreme Court, federal and state courts, administrative tribunals, and arbitral forums. Our litigators have a sophisticated understanding of the law and the intricacies of business entities, relationships, and finances. We help our clients minimize litigation risk, reduce dispute resolutions costs, and protect their business investments. Our approach is to apply ingenuity with a sharp eye on what is practical and cost-effective.

We regularly handle a broad range of business and commercial concerns including:

Contract Disputes, Torts, Complex Litigation, Class Actions

Harris Beach attorneys handle all types of business and commercial litigation, from simple breach of contract disputes to complex litigation involving multiple layers of relationships, extensively detailed agreements, and class actions. Our attorneys handle and litigate business disputes involving commercial contracts in a wide variety of areas including the purchase and sale of businesses, utility contracts, contracts for the sale or development of intellectual property, construction contracts, and partnership disputes. We litigate all types of cases under the Uniform Commercial Code including contracts for the sale of goods, security interests, loan transactions, banking procedures, and investment.

Our trial attorneys also handle allegations of improper conduct in business transactions including fraud, negligent misrepresentation, tortuous interferences with contractual or economic relations, and unfair competition. Our experience includes claims relating to federal and state RICO laws, consumer protection laws, and laws relating to unfair trade practices.

Harris Beach trial attorneys have wide-ranging experience litigating all forms of business relationships, whether it is a private contract between two direct parties, a common law tort, or a statutory legislative law. Our attorneys have made law in the New York State Court of Appeals clarifying the rules of competition for sellers of non-unique consumer goods and services (e.g., cell phones, refuse handling, linen supply). We also made law in an Appellate level trial where, for the first time in New York state, a large industrial property received a zero tax assessment value because of the cost of pollution abatement.

In addition, we handle defense against consumer class actions.Our attorneys litigate complex class action cases involving shareholder disputes, environmental matters, natural resources, intellectual property, labor and employment issues, and numerous other class action matters. We have defended financial institutions in RESPA claims and in residential mortgage escrow claims, and we have defended a large payroll company in ERISA disclosure claims.

For more information, please see the description of services for Mass Torts and Industry-Wide Litigation.

Securities Litigation

Harris Beach has long-standing and deep experience in claims involving securities. We handle claims before industry arbitration panels as well as actions before state and federal courts. In these settings, we prosecute and defend claims involving securities laws, claims for unsuitable investment advice, churning, breach of fiduciary duty, and claims for fraud and unauthorized trading. The firm has litigated claims arising out of public offerings of securities, involving promoters, underwriters, and accounting professionals. We have built a vast network of expert witnesses from numerous professional disciplines who are skilled at distilling down complex subject matters to help juries easily understand them. Many of our security litigation cases involve class action suits where we have represented institutional defendants including banking and securities firms.

Shareholder Disputes

Harris Beach attorneys litigate all types of shareholder disputes including claimed breach of fiduciary duty, self-dealing by business fiduciaries, usurpation of corporate opportunity, buy-sell agreements, redemption agreements, option agreements, tag along/drag along rights, minority owner squeeze-outs and freeze-outs, and shareholder appraisal rights. Our attorneys also recently successfully defended multiple class action claims brought by Fortune 500 shareholders challenging an acquisition.

Antitrust and Distribution Issues

Harris Beach trial attorneys handle civil and criminal cases in federal and state courts involving issues as diverse as price fixing, mergers, monopolies, dealer terminations, and exclusive dealing arrangements. Our firm has successfully defended the only two criminal antitrust cases brought in upstate New York in the last 25 years. In addition, our attorneys have represented clients before all federal and state antitrust enforcement agencies and have written extensively on antitrust issues including dealing with antitrust law in New York state. Because the best defense is often to deal with problems before they arise, our attorneys also have had significant experience counseling clients on how to avoid running afoul of antitrust laws.

Intellectual Property

Our practice includes the worldwide acquisition, exploitation, and aggressive enforcement of intellectual property rights. Harris Beach has considerable experience and success developing branding strategies, and enforcing these brand’s underlying trademarks, trade dress, product configurations, and advertising efforts. Our attorneys have litigated over a hundred trademark, counterfeit, and infringement matters in domestic and foreign jurisdictions. They also have experience thwarting illicit trade including smuggling, parallel imports, and the manufacture and sale of counterfeit goods, as well as the freezing and seizure of assets derived from such illegal activities. We have successfully represented national and international companies in numerous significant, high-profile patent infringement cases.

For more information, please see the description of services for Intellectual Property Litigation.

Business Defamation and Disparagement

Harris Beach attorneys have extensive business defamation and disparagement experience. We have successfully defended such cases on behalf of businesses, as well as defended claims brought against our clients. Our attorneys successfully represented a plaintiff in what was, at that time, the largest sustained defamation verdict in the history of New York state.

Our attorneys help businesses defend their hard-earned reputations against defamation by competitors who seek to obtain an unfair advantage, and against defamation by the media. We also defend clients against defamation related to a range of Internet situations, such as blogs, forums, chat rooms, and other technology-driven vehicles that may provide a platform for assaults on a client’s name and reputation.

Tax Assessment Review

We represent municipal assessing units, school districts, and numerous commercial and industrial property owners and tenants in real property tax assessment. Our attorneys assist clients with a variety of services including, but not limited to, appearing before boards of review, filing petitions, gathering information for disclosure, preparing for trial, appellate work, and defending valuations for municipalities. We assist not-for-profit organizations with exemptions, and help private property owners gain partial exemptions through development efforts.

Harris Beach attorneys work with clients to help them identify if they have a reasonable tax assessment claim and, if so, we advocate on their behalf to mitigate the property tax burden. Working together with our public finance attorneys, we provide counsel on the use of creative financing methods to reduce taxes. We also work with utilities and other property owners with special franchises to achieve equitable tax valuations across the state (e.g., the assessment of an electric or gas utility line spanning multiple counties).

Eminent Domain / Condemnation

Harris Beach has assisted New York state and its municipalities in examining the exercising power of eminent domain and determining which administrative agency is best suited to take the lead role. We have represented state agencies, authorities, Industrial Development Agencies, urban renewal agencies, and municipalities in condemnation proceedings, preparing the series of postings, coordinating public hearings, arbitrating disputes and providing real property valuation, and serving as litigation counsel in courts throughout the state. Our attorneys work with the condemning authority to define the scope of the project, publish all required notices, and assist in preparing the required determinations and findings. We often represent the condemning authority against any challenges of determinations and findings and assist in all aspects of any litigation where claimants seek additional compensation and/or offers and negotiations in acquiring the property.

Construction and Surety

Our team of seasoned trial attorneys have represented owners, contractors, and surety companies in all areas of construction and surety law. This includes handling public bid disputes, drafting construction documents, and providing counsel on contract issues and disputes. We also specialize in asserting and defending surety bond claims and advising clients on claim issues, mechanics liens, labor disputes, and claims for liquidated damages. If an issue cannot be resolved amicably, our attorneys fervently litigate, arbitrate, and mediate to protect our clients’ best interests.

For more information, please see the description of services for Construction and Surety Law.

Fiduciary Litigation -Contested Accountings

Harris Beach has experience in all facets of contested fiduciary accounting proceedings, from trial through appeal to the Appellate Division and the Court of Appeals. These cases are based on claims that a trustee or executor has mismanaged the investments of the trust or estate. Recent Harris Beach trust accounting claim cases include the reversal of a $24 million dollar judgment against a major financial institution and the successful defense of a $28 million claim. We have also successfully prosecuted breach of fiduciary duty claims against an executor, resulting in the recovery of over $6 million for our client.

E-discovery Solutions for Litigation Support

The Harris Beach e-info℠ Electronic Information Counseling and Management Practice Group has been involved in complex litigation for decades. As a result, we have developed a proprietary approach to large case management and have extensive experience in all phases of e-discovery. We were named as a Go To® law firm for litigation e-discovery in the In House Law Departments at the Top 500 Companies 2011 8th annual edition, from the publishers of Corporate Counsel. When the stakes are high, Fortune 500 corporations and top ranking law firms trust our e-info attorneys and IT consultants to provide customized and comprehensive solutions to the new reality of complex litigation challenges.

There are a number of unique advantages to working with the Harris Beach law firm for e-discovery. First and foremost, our e-info team is led by attorneys and IT professionals who understand the legal and technological issues associated with electronic document preservation, collection, and production. With our law firm roots, we know what the legal requirements are, and work closely with you to meet your specific needs.

Our e-info services include counseling or representation at Federal Rule 26 conferences regarding ESI, implementing legally sufficient litigation holds to reduce risk of spoliation and infrastructure burden, developing “best practices” management and retention policies to reduce the amount of extraneous or redundant ESI, creating consistent ESI document sweeps and production processes, utilizing the safe harbor exception of Rule 37 to help avoid sanctions, preparing custodial and IT witnesses for Federal Rule 30 (b)(6) depositions, and assisting trial counsel by identifying case-winning documents. We also offer computer forensic services through in-house Certified Computer Examiners.

Whether providing stand-alone document counsel, or document and legal counsel, our e-info team can help you control costs, ensure compliance, avoid sanctions, foster collaboration, and increase efficiency. Working with the Harris Beach e-info team also ensures attorney-client privilege is maintained throughout the litigation process.

Our experience working with many of the nation’s leading law firms ensures that we bring the most current “best practices” for preserving, reviewing, and producing documents to your organization.

Harris Beach offers integrated solutions ranging from technical assistance associated with back end document and electronic information collection and processing, to service as separate document counsel where our attorneys and IT consultants collaborate to provide a complete solution to your electronic and paper document needs. In any scenario, our e-info team attorneys and IT consultants deliver cost-effective counseling and management.

For more information, please see the description of services for e-info℠.