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Announcements
| Articles | The
Counselor
SUMMER 2005 • Vol. XLII
- We are Litigation Lawyers
- Get to Know the Litigation Department
- Summer 2005 Calendar Calls
Get to Know the Litigation Department
Partner-in Charge
Donald Jay Schwartz (St. John's University School of Law)
has been partner-in-charge of the FCSMCC Litigation Department
for nearly three decades. A veteran litigator and former
Assistant District Attorney, he has tried hundreds of jury
cases before courts of all of the counties in the metro
New York area and before numerous New York State Appellate
Division Courts, including the State's highest Court, the
Court of Appeals.
He successfully represented our client, Sandell Mostow,
in the landmark case of Mostow v. State Farm Insurance Companies,
from its inception right through the Court of Appeals. The
Mostow case is responsible for changing the interpretation
of insurance policies in New York and throughout the country
to the advantage of policyholders. It required insurance
companies to change the language in their policies to comply
with the Mostow case and caused the New York State Department
of Insurance to obtain emergency legislation to eliminate
ambiguities in insurance policies. The case appeared on
the front page of the New York Law Journal twice and was
written about in numerous litigation journals.
Mr. Schwartz also tried the case of Roosevelt Raceway Association
v. Nassau County, a tax certiorari case in which he obtained
a tax refund in favor of our client in the sum of over $4
million dollars, the second highest tax certiorari verdict
in the history of Nassau County. He has successfully tried
cases on behalf of such corporate giants as Cablevision
Systems Corp, Northrop Grumman Corp, Sbarro, and ABF Freight
Systems, Inc., as well as innumerable cases on behalf of
individuals.
Mr. Schwartz serves on the Nassau County Bar Association
Commercial Law and Supreme Court committees, and is a member
of the Nassau County Bar Association Committee on Grievances.
This committee deals with the discipline of attorneys and
is the only committee in the Nassau County Bar Association
that requires its members to be specially selected. He is
a member of numerous other Bar Associations and is admitted
to practice before NY State and Federal Courts.
Partners
Richard Blumberg (The John Marshall Law School) has focused
his practice on commercial and real estate litigation since
joining the firm in 1998. He has litigated a wide variety
of claims including homeowner association disputes, commercial
and residential landlord/tenant proceedings, tax lien matters
and boundary line disputes. Mr. Blumberg has substantial
experience in appellate practice and has appeared before
the state's highest court, the New York Court of Appeals.
He is a member of the Nassau County Bar Association. Andrew
E. Curto (Hofstra University School of Law) has been at
the firm for six years and concentrates his practice in
civil litigation. He has litigated claims in both federal
and state courts in a wide variety of commercial claims
including corporate dissolution and derivative actions,
contract and real estate disputes, employment and discrimination
claims, estate litigations, regulatory claims and compliance
issues arising out of municipal zoning and code enforcement
proceedings. He has substantial experience in appellate
practice, with the United States Environmental Protection
Agency, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office and
the Matthew Bender Co., a well-known legal publisher. He
is a member of the Nassau County, Suffolk County, and New
York State Bar Associations and is admitted to practice
before the New York State Bar, as well as the United States
District Court for the Eastern and Southern Districts of
New York.
Associates
Joseph Nocella, Jr. (Columbia University School of Law)
is an experienced litigator. Prior to joining the firm in
2004, Mr. Nocella was an Assistant United States Attorney
for the Eastern District of New York and tried numerous
state and federal jury and nonjury trials, including real
estate construction and civil RICO cases. As a senior associate
at White & Case, LLP, Mr. Nocella supervised and managed
complex national and international litigations. He is counsel
to the Building Inspectors Association of Nassau County
and serves on the Advisory Board of Pave the Way Foundation.
He is admitted to the United States Court of Appeals for
the Second and Ninth Circuits, the United States District
Court for the Eastern and Southern Districts of New York
and the Central District of California, as well as the States
of New York and California.
New to the firm, Joseph A. Adams graduated from Hofstra
University School of Law, earning his J.D. in 2004. A resident
of Rockville Centre, he was Transportation Manager at the
2004 Republican National Convention.
The attorneys in the Litigation Department wish
to acknowledge the contributions made to the success of
the Department and to the firm by:
Peggy Dato, Ines Rodriquez and Betsy Greene
Dato, secretary to Donald Jay Schwartz for 23 years, also
undertook duties for Richard Blumberg when he joined FCSMCC
in 1998. Her hard work, dedication and knowledge of the
litigation process increases the efficiency of each attorney
and her abilities are appreciated by every client who has
contact with her.
Ines Rodriquez and Betsy Greene are indispensable to the
work of the Litigation Department and their contributions
are appreciated by FCSMCC.
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