Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman

Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman
Headquarters Paramount Plaza
New York City
No. of offices 9[1]
Major practice areas Litigation
Key people Marc Elliot Kasowitz, founder and chief administrator[2]
Date founded 1993
Company type Limited liability partnership
Website
http://www.kasowitz.com/

Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman is a New York law firm founded in 1993. It employs 350 lawyers and maintains offices in several states.[3] The firm focuses on product liability litigation, corporate, family and employment law, as well as intellectual property, bankruptcy and creditors' rights.[3] Despite layoffs in 2013 the company is ranked as the 119th largest firm in the United States. Notable clients have included Celanese, ArvinMeritor, Liggett Group, Enron, WorldCom, Robert De Niro, Donald Trump and Mia Farrow.

The primary administrator at the firm is Marc Kasowitz and his fellow partners. The company's average per partner profit was $2.9 million in 2004 and $2.08 million in 2009. The firm has a "diverse culture" with an exceptional number of young lawyers. The firm has had some minor controversies regarding a client and a few former employees but these were resolved without any judgments against the firm.

History

Founding

The company was founded as Kasowitz, Hoff, Benson & Torres in 1993 when Marc Kasowitz left the Mayer Brown law firm with 18 other lawyers and two clients.[4] David M. Friedman was added as a partner in May 1995,[5] and William Bruce Hoff, Jr. left the company in November.[6]

Expansion

The firm began in New York City with 18 lawyers and after 6 months expanded to include a Houston branch office.[3][4] Friedman joined the firm in 1996 and opened its bankruptcy practice.[4] That year several new lawyers joined the firm to begin its employment and matrimonial practices.[4] It opened a New Jersey office in 1997, Atlanta in 2001[4] and in 2003 the fiirm opened a San Francisco office while former assistant district attorney, Leslie Crocker Snyder, joined the office in New York.[7] By 2004 the firm had increased to 160 lawyers and included an additional office in Atlanta.[4] The firm opened its Miami, Florida office in 2006 and expanded its San Francisco, California office in 2007 by merging with the seven lawyer firm, Topel & Goodman.[3] The 2005 launch of the intellectual property arm of the company led to several personnel changes with various key lawyers arriving and departing.[3] This included Peter J. Toren who left the intellectual property department in the spring of 2007.[3]

In 2009 the firm hired Marcos Daniel Jimenez, former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, to lead its Miami, Florida office[3] and added insurance recovery litigation to its practice.[8] In January 2010 the company added Robin Cohen and her insurance team from the firm, Dickstein Shapiro.[3]

In November 2012 the firm opened an additional office in Silicon Valley.[9] They opened a Los Angeles, California office in May 2013 led by partners that were lured away from Jenner & Block.[10][11] In June, former U.S. Senator, Joe Lieberman, joined the firm as Senior Counsel[12] and his former Senate Chief of Staff, Clarine Nardi Riddle launched a Government Affairs branch of the company in Washington D.C.[13] In October, two senior litigation attorneys from NBC Universal joined the firm's Los Angeles office to begin an entertainment litigation practice.[14]

In 2014, following the resolution of several large cases, Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman laid off approximately 30 of its 350 attorneys.[15][16] In 2014, Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman was ranked as the 119th largest firm in the United States by Law360.[17] In June, the firm was awarded the Chambers USA 2014 Award for Excellence.[18]

Notable clients and cases

In 2003 the firm successfully opposed a chemical company called Celanese and won an asbestos lawsuit involving the auto parts supplier, ArvinMeritor.[4] They also overturned a $799 million punitive damages award levied against the Liggett cigarette company.[4]

In 2004 the company received the "largest toxic tort settlement in U.S. history" in a case involving one of Monsanto's company plants in Alabama.[4] By 2005 the firm had participated in the bankruptcy cases of Enron, WorldCom, Global Crossing and Adelphia Communications and the matrimonial proceedings for Robert De Niro, Donna Hanover and Mia Farrow.[4] In January 2006, the firm filed a defamation lawsuit (dismissed in 2009) on behalf of Donald Trump against the author and publisher of TrumpNation:The Art of Being the Donald.[19][20] In 2010 the firm's clients included Fortress Investment Group, Liggett Group, MBIA and Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited. [3]

Administration

The firm's main administration consists of the partners, Marc Kasowitz, Daniel Benson, Hector Torres and David Friedman and its executive committee consists of Kasowitz, Benson and Torres.[3]The company is said to have a "streamlined management structure" with little bureaucracy. It is led primarily by Kasowitz who is described as a "benevolent dictator" that "rules by consensus". The company's average per partner profit was $2.9 million in 2004[4] and $2.08 million in 2009.[3] According to a 2004 article in American Lawyer the firm had a "diverse culture" featuring an exceptional number of young lawyers but fewer than the average number of women and minority employees.[4] In contrast, a 2014 a report by American Lawyer ranked the firms cultural diversity as 59th out of the 223 firms they evaluated. [21]

Controversy

In September 2007 the firm was dismissed by its client, Biovail Corporation after a Southern District Judge found Biovail Corp. had used legal documents in violation of a protection order.[3] The firm denied knowledge of the protective order and was later rehired by Biovail.[3]

In December 2007, one of the firm's partners, Jeremy Pitcock, was fired for "extremely inappropriate personal conduct." Pitcock sued the firm for wrongful firing and defamation and the firm countered with a suit claiming Pitcock at sexually harassed 12 female employees. A panel of the Appellate Division, dismissed both suits.[3]

A former associate filed a lawsuit against the firm in August 2011 alleging negligent misrepresentation, breach of contract and wrongful termination. The suit's 2012 dismissal was upheld upon appeal.[22][23]

References

  1. ↑ Unknown author (2013) Offices Official website
  2. ↑ Kasowitz's firm bio
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 (Raymond, Nate (September 13, 2013) Kasowitz Holds Power Close As He Grows Firm, Lures Business, New York Law Journal, accessed June 27, 2014
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 "Fast Rise to the Top" (PDF). The American Lawyer. Incisive Media. August 2004. p. 11. Retrieved 17 January 2010.
  5. ↑ PROFILES/EXECUTIVE MOVES Crain's New York Business
  6. ↑ William Bruce Hoff Jr.: Lawyer, model ship builder, dies Chicago Tribune
  7. ↑ Unknown author, (September 2003) Supreme Court Justice Leslie Crocker Snyder Joins Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman Official web site
  8. ↑ Lowe, Zach. "It's Official". Am Law Daily. AmLawDaily. Retrieved April 8, 2015.
  9. ↑ Staff Writer. "KBTF Open Office in Silicon Valley". JD Journal. JDJournal. Retrieved April 8, 2015.
  10. ↑ June, Daniel, "Kasowitz Benson Poaches Two Partners, Sets Them Up in New LA Office"
  11. ↑ Staff Writer (June 7, 2013). "Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman". Insurance Weekly News.
  12. ↑ Unknown author, (June 6, 2013) Senator Joseph Lieberman Joins Kasowitz News, Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman LLP
  13. ↑ News Reporter (June 5, 2013). "Kasowitz Opens DC Office with Clarine Nardi Riddle to Lead Government Affairs Practice". China Weekly News.
  14. ↑ Johnson, Ted. "NBCU Legal Execs Joint Litigation Firm". Variety. Variety.
  15. ↑ Simmons, Christine (21 February 2014). "Kasowitz Layoffs Tied to End of Credit Crisis Cases". New York Law Journal.
  16. ↑ Lat, David (10 February 2014). "Nationwide Layoff Watch: Casualties At Kasowitz Benson". Above the Law.
  17. ↑ Simpson, Jake, "Law360 Reveals 400 Largest US Law Firms" Law360
  18. ↑ Staff Reporter (June 13, 2014) Kasowitz Insurance Policyholder Recovery Group Receives Chambers Award for Excellence, Insurance Weekly News
  19. ↑ "Trump Sues Writer and Book Publisher". The New York Times. 25 January 2006.
  20. ↑ Goodman, Peter (15 July 2009). "Trump Suit Claiming Defamation Is Dismissed". The New York Times.
  21. ↑ Staff writer (May 29, 2014). "Diversity Scorecard: How the Firms Rate". The American Lawyer. Retrieved June 2, 2015.
  22. ↑ Weiss, Debra Cassens (Jan 23, 2013) Associate Who Told Partners of His Superior Legal Mind Loses Appeal ABA Journal
  23. ↑ Pearson, Brendon (Jan 23, 2013) New York Law Journal
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