Since its founding in 1986, Friedman Kaplan has built a reputation for excellence in complex, cutting-edge, and high-stakes litigation. Across all of our practice groups, we have a long track record of representing both plaintiffs and defendants with tenacity, creativity, and attention to detail, especially in matters of particular complexity and first impression.
Our experience on the leading edge of business and law ensures that we bring a sophisticated perspective to every matter we handle, and our attorneys excel in all aspects of dispute resolution, from providing pre-litigation advice to representing our clients in significant jury and non-jury trials and arbitrations. Furthermore, due to the focused nature of our practice, we are often available to assist clients in situations where other lawyers – because of conflicts or other business considerations – cannot.
Friedman Kaplan’s antitrust practice draws upon the insight and intellectual rigor for which the firm is known. We have substantial experience acting on behalf major companies across a broad range of industries, including financial services, telecommunications, e-commerce, commodities, and others, in antitrust class action cases.
The thoughtful, strategic, and rigorous approach that Friedman Kaplan attorneys bring to each matter we address is perhaps nowhere more in evidence than in our appellate practice.
Reflecting the work of the firm overall, Friedman Kaplan’s bankruptcy and creditors’ rights group excels in handling cutting edge, high-stakes, and exceptionally complex matters. The firm has played an active role in several of the most significant bankruptcy and insolvency proceedings of the past several years.
Since Friedman Kaplan was founded in 1986, complex commercial litigation has been one of the cornerstones of the firm’s practice. The firm litigates cases of national and international significance on behalf of major institutions in a variety of industries and has become the go-to firm for high-stakes, high-profile, and complex disputes.
Friedman Kaplan has years of experience serving as trusted counsel and advisor to institutions of higher education, including a prominent Ivy League university. Our education law practice is as complex and diverse as the many issues that currently face colleges, universities, and other educational institutions. Our attorneys have represented and advised these institutions in a wide variety of litigation, employment, regulatory, and investigations matters. We regularly advise on governance issues and help clients develop, document, and implement school policies and procedures. Our education lawyers also often collaborate with our firm’s employment and corporate teams to provide our education clients with multi-disciplinary perspectives and advice.
Friedman Kaplan has a robust and multi-faceted employment practice that exemplifies our strength in approaching challenges with creativity and sensitivity to our clients’ needs. Our vast experience and expertise in multiple practice areas enable us to apply whatever skills are necessary to address even the thorniest employment issues.
Friedman Kaplan has extensive experience in both transactional matters and litigation involving partnerships and close corporations in numerous industries, serving such firms and their owners at all stages of the corporate life cycle, from formation to expansion, reorganization, dissolution, and, in many cases, through a "business divorce."
Friedman Kaplan has extensive experience prosecuting and defending malpractice and other tort claims involving professionals – most notably accountants and lawyers. It speaks volumes about the high-caliber of our attorneys and our reputation for intelligent, aggressive, and creative advocacy that other top-tier lawyers turn to Friedman Kaplan when they find themselves in trouble.
Friedman Kaplan knows the real estate and hospitality industries well. We represent and advise entities across all segments of these industries - developers, construction companies, hotels and hotel management firms, securitization trustees, special servicers, public companies, hedge funds, private equity funds, families, and condominium boards - as both plaintiffs and defendants in complex commercial, financial, and employment litigation matters.
Friedman Kaplan represents both plaintiffs and defendants in civil securities litigation involving claims under federal and state statutes as well as common law, and we are frequently retained to handle unique "bet-the-company" securities matters that present novel and complex factual scenarios and legal issues. Our insightful, tailored, creative approach is ideally suited to these unique, high-stakes matters.
Comprised of attorneys from both the litigation and corporate departments, our team has substantial experience representing and advising boards of directors, special committees, major shareholders, and senior members of management of public and private companies across a wide variety of industries in connection with controlling-shareholder and interested-party transactions as well as investigative matters.
Bringing exceptional quickness, insight, and experience to bear, Friedman Kaplan attorneys perhaps most distinguish themselves by their ability to think on their feet. For this reason, our firm especially shines at trial and in arbitration and mediation. We have significant, ongoing experience acting as lead counsel in significant jury and non-jury trials and arbitrations, and over the years have procured numerous victories and favorable settlements for our clients at trial in state and federal courts and before FINRA, the AAA, and other arbitration bodies. We also frequently help our clients to avoid litigation, or settle, by resolving their disputes through mediation.
Led by former prosecutors, our White Collar team is able to understand matters from the enforcement perspective and confront the government confidently and aggressively when needed. In each case, Friedman Kaplan crafts a response and strategy based on a comprehensive understanding of each client’s business or individual circumstances, aiming to address not only the client’s legal issues, but also business, operational, and reputational concerns, in an attempt to achieve an outcome that best fits the client’s interests and objectives.
Our white collar department represents public and private companies and individuals in a variety of industries, with particular emphasis on financial services and health care.
Friedman Kaplan has significant experience conducting internal investigations for corporations and other institutions on behalf of officers, boards of directors, special committees, audit committees, and outside directors or committees. Our work includes the investigation and evaluation of the underlying allegations, identifying responsibility, advising on compliance or other solutions to prevent recurrence, and representation in related external investigations or litigation.
As a result of Friedman Kaplan’s reputation for excellent work in investigations and white collar criminal defense, the firm and its partners have been appointed to monitorships for a variety of significant matters across a range of industries. In these roles, our responsibilities include, among other items, the review and monitoring of control and compliance mechanisms of the applicable parties.
"What distinguishes Friedman Kaplan attorneys from everyone else is that they understand the uniqueness and nuances of our problems and invest the time and energy to understand the particulars afresh and provide creative, informed, unique solutions, in many instances which have never been done before." - Chief Counsel, Corporate Department client
At Friedman Kaplan, we pride ourselves on the analytical, detail-oriented approach we take to helping our clients recognize and realize their goals. From the outset of every matter, each client receives attention from senior lawyers, who evaluate the matter and partner with the client to develop a strategy. We have found that this targeted, thoughtful approach leads to greater success not only in achieving the client’s goals, but also in avoiding inefficiencies and unnecessary expense. The dedication, focus, experience, and exceptional insight of our corporate attorneys give our clients an edge in negotiations and transactions.
Friedman Kaplan has a robust and multi-faceted employment practice that exemplifies our strength in approaching challenges with creativity and sensitivity to our clients’ needs. Our vast experience and expertise in multiple practice areas enable us to apply whatever skills are necessary to address even the thorniest employment issues.
Friedman Kaplan’s Family Office practice has grown organically over the years as many of our high-net-worth clients have asked us to provide advice to them concerning their personal interests after having worked with us in their professional capacities. We represent these individuals and families in connection with a broad range of financial, commercial and personal matters, including in private equity and hedge fund investments, real estate transactions, personal planning matters such as charitable grants and trust and estate matters, personal credit facilities, employment and financial arrangements with family office employees, and other personal and family office matters.
We regularly represent individual and corporate borrowers in connection with a variety of financing transactions, including entering into a new secured credit facility, conducting high-yield debt offerings, or negotiating a refinancing of an existing term loan. We staff these matters with small teams of great lawyers, so our clients receive high-level, creative advice in the most efficient manner.
Friedman Kaplan’s focus on emerging law and business positions us ideally to represent pre-IPO companies and their founders and executives, as well as investment funds and individuals making growth equity investments. Our active practices representing both investors and companies inform the advice we provide in all of our representations, giving us a deep understanding of the ever-evolving needs, risks, and opportunities present on both sides of the table.
Friedman Kaplan has deep experience representing and counseling hedge funds and other investment firms, and their principals and employees, in important transactions and other legal and commercial matters. These clients come to us when they are seeking sophisticated, practical advice from a law firm that understands their business and the legal environment in which they operate. Like our clients, Friedman Kaplan is strategic, forward-looking, and able to respond to real-time demands with practical solutions in a fast-paced setting.
Friedman Kaplan leverages our attorneys’ significant experience with mergers and acquisitions, financings, investments, employment arrangements, commercial transactions, formations, operational issues, and dispute resolutions to support Israel-based technology and other companies and their founders in connection with their U.S. business activities, and U.S. individuals and entities conducting transactions in Israel.
Forming a joint venture can be complicated. Clients don’t come to us looking for an off-the-shelf template. Rather, they come to us – and come back to us – when they are looking for a legal framework that they know will be tailored to their business needs.
Our lawyers draw on their deep M&A backgrounds – from representing multinational corporations to startup ventures to entrepreneurial individuals – to help clients identify and remain committed to their objectives, anticipate and take steps to mitigate risks, and best position themselves at each step in the transaction process.
Friedman Kaplan has extensive experience in both transactional matters and litigation involving partnerships and close corporations in numerous industries, serving such firms and their owners at all stages of the corporate life cycle, from formation to expansion, reorganization, dissolution, and, in many cases, through a "business divorce."
We believe it is critical for our clients that we understand their unique needs – whether as an individual looking to make his or her first seed capital investment in a startup tech company or a seasoned institutional investor looking to make a pre-IPO investment – and remain deeply involved through the transaction.
We understand that when a company has questions about whether the securities laws require a certain disclosure in an offering prospectus, or what an independent board committee conducting an investigation needs to do to satisfy its duty of care, they need an answer that is both complete and which comes with practical guidance.
Comprised of attorneys from both the litigation and corporate departments, our team has substantial experience representing and advising boards of directors, special committees, major shareholders, and senior members of management of public and private companies across a wide variety of industries in connection with controlling-shareholder and interested-party transactions as well as investigative matters.
At Friedman Kaplan, we have a longstanding and substantial commitment to pro bono work, and we bring the same strategic, insightful, and tenacious approach to this practice that we do to our other matters. We strongly encourage our attorneys to take on pro bono representations, and the nature of the work that they have chosen to do reflects the diversity of their interests and concerns. Among other matters, attorneys from Friedman Kaplan:
Alongside the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown University Law Center and African Communities Together, obtained a major victory overturning the problematic “passport rule” that blocked those without valid passports from applying to the U.S. Diversity Immigrant Visa Program, which affected millions of aspiring immigrants across the world, with the most dramatic impact on those from Africa.
Filed an amicus brief in the D.C. Circuit, in support of a Guantanamo detainee’s habeas corpus challenge to his ongoing detention, on behalf of an expert in due process and civil commitment standards.
Represented a refugee from Côte d'Ivoire as a petitioner for political asylum in a successful appeal before the Second Circuit, convincing the court that the immigration judge had ignored key facts suggesting that our client, who had suffered multiple beatings on account of his participation in a political rally, had a well-founded fear of future persecution in his home country.
Represented several victims of Hurricane Sandy in insurance and contract disputes related to their efforts to rebuild their homes following the storm.
Represented the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence as amicus in opposition to challenge to New Jersey’s regulations banning large-capacity ammunition magazines.
Represent individuals in connection with matters of gender and sexual orientation discrimination, and also in their efforts to legally change their names to reflect their gender identities.
Represented an elderly man who was denied disability benefits in a successful social security appeal.
Along with co-counsel at the Legal Aid Society, we represented a former national restaurant chain employee as plaintiff in an employment discrimination lawsuit alleging the employee was improperly fired from her job after missing work due to injuries suffered in a domestic violence incident.
Have represented several children dealing with disabilities and mental health issues in seeking proper care and resources.
Have represented survivors and families of victims of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in seeking awards from the Victim Compensation Fund.
Have volunteered with the Monday Night Legal Advisory Workshop of the New York City Bar Association and the Incarcerated Mothers Law Project of the Women's Prison Association.
Provide pro bono legal services to clients referred to the firm through inMotion, the Institute for Justice, Lambda Legal, the Fair Housing Justice Center, and Human Rights First.
Have represented a number of nonprofit organizations on a pro bono basis, including Freedom House, the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Synapse Productions, and the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center.
