New York Attorneys JHA handles range the gamut of complex financial and commercial litigation and arbitration, including securities, RICO, corporate and contract disputes, credit default swaps, derivatives, and class, mass, and derivative actions. The firm also represents law firms in major disputes.

Commercial Litigation and Arbitration

New York Attorneys JHA handles range the gamut of complex financial and commercial litigation and arbitration, including securities, RICO, corporate and contract disputes, credit default swaps, derivatives, and class, mass, and derivative actions. The firm also represents law firms in major disputes.
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Privilege & Sanctions — Interception of Privileged Communications

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Somehow, the individual defendant in Eagle Hosp. Physicians, LLC v. SRG Consulting, Inc., 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 63242 (N.D. Ga. Aug. 28, 2007), intercepted at least five privileged email communications between the plaintiff and its counsel, attached them to court filings — and then asserted his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination when questioned about it. District Judge J. Owen Forrester considered this behavior to constitute a fraud on the court, adopting the First Circuit’s definition of a ‛fraud on the court as ‘where it can be demonstrated, clearly and convincingly, that a party has sentiently set in motion some unconscionable scheme calculated to interfere with the judicial system's ability impartially to adjudicate a matter by improperly influencing the trier or unfairly hampering the presentation of the opposing party's claim or defense’“ (quoting Aoude v. Mobil Oil Corp., 892 F.2d 1115, 1118 (1st Cir. 1989)). Looking to cases applying inherent power sanctions to remedy frauds on the Court in general and theft of attorney-client privileged materials in particular, the Eagle Hospitals Court held that:

Because Dr. Gerst took the Fifth Amendment -- as is his right -- on such a wide variety of topics in his April 2006 deposition, the court and the parties will never know the extent to which Dr. Gerst was able to "eavesdrop" on Plaintiff and Plaintiff's officers. Just as Dr. Gerst is entitled to take the Fifth Amendment, in this civil case, however, the court is entitled to draw adverse inferences against Dr. Gerst for that action.

The Court acknowledged that the plaintiff may not have been prejudiced but stressed that the Fifth Amendment assertion prevented the Court from being certain:

Dr. Gerst ... has already been privy to at least some communications protected under the attorney-client privilege. He cannot "unlearn" that information. Further, neither the parties nor the court will ever know the extent of Dr. Gerst's activities, substantially prejudicing Plaintiff's strategic position in the litigation.

Stressing the importance of general and specific deterrence, and given that the individual wrongdoer controlled the corporate defendants, the Court struck the defendants’ answer and counterclaim and directed the plaintiff to file a motion concerning damages and remedy.

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New York Attorneys JHA handles range the gamut of complex financial and commercial litigation and arbitration, including securities, RICO, corporate and contract disputes, credit default swaps, derivatives, and class, mass, and derivative actions. The firm also represents law firms in major disputes.
New York Attorneys JHA handles range the gamut of complex financial and commercial litigation and arbitration, including securities, RICO, corporate and contract disputes, credit default swaps, derivatives, and class, mass, and derivative actions. The firm also represents law firms in major disputes.

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