ZEISLER - Key Persons
Aaron M. Zeisler counsels hedge funds, family offices, businesses and their principals on litigation, dispute resolution and dispute avoidance, whether involving their investments, trade secrets, real estate, employment issues, member/officer liability, boards of directors, intellectual property, libel claims or privacy issues. Aaron also serves in the role of outside "in-house" counsel for several funds, family offices and small businesses that view him as a trusted advisor given his long-standing relationship with these clients and his familiarity with their businesses.
As a trial attorney, Aaron has represented clients in numerous state and federal courts throughout the United States, both at the trial and appellate level, and has handled arbitrations and mediations before the AAA, ICDR, JAMS, and other private mediation services and court-assisted mediation programs. He is particularly experienced in disputes involving technology, intellectual property and financial instruments. Aaron also counsels clients on enforcing judgments, litigation avoidance, employment contracts, service on outside boards of directors, and partnership disputes.
Notably, as reported in the WSJ, Bloomberg, Financial Times, Dealbreaker and Reuters, Aaron and his colleagues recently secured the dismissal of all trade secret misappropriation, breach of contract and unfair competition claims in an arbitration in New York brought by Bridgewater Associates against two former employees four years after they left Bridgewater. The arbitration panel's Final Award cited Aaron's "withering cross-examination that compelled [Bridgewater's experts] to repudiate fundamental elements of [Bridgewater's] case that their reports and testimony were designed to support" and "conclude[d] [Bridgewater] filed its claims in reckless disregard of its own internal records, and in order to support its allegations of access to trade secrets, manufactured false evidence." The Final Award ordered Bridgewater to pay $2 million in attorneys' fees and costs for having brought its misappropriation claims in bad faith. (See the Final Award)
Brian A. Burns advises and represents clients in all aspects of litigation, dispute resolution, and dispute risk assessment. His clients are principally banks, hedge funds and their principals, private equity companies, telecommunications companies, and individuals. Brian is fluent in Spanish, and handles U.S.-based disputes for clients in Spain, Ecuador, and Uruguay. His recent cases include disputes about real estate purchases, cryptocurrency investments, telecommunication agreements, employment contracts, tax shelters, and commercial mortgage-backed securities.
Brian regularly appears in New York federal court and the New York State Court Commercial Division. He has also litigated cases in the Delaware Court of Chancery and the Delaware Supreme Court, as well as in federal and state courts across the United States. In his arbitration practice, Brian has tried cases before panels appointed by FINRA, the AAA, and the International Centre for Dispute Resolution. In his recent arbitration hearings, Brian successfully defended his clients against claims relating to synthetic auction rate securities and premium-financed life insurance. He also was part of a trial team that successfully represented a client through a 37-day arbitration hearing with claims totaling $7.65 billion, which at the time was the highest dollar value in any AAA arbitration.
Brian received his undergraduate degree in Political Science magna cum laude from the University of Vermont in 1989, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He earned his law degree from Columbia University School of Law in 1993, where he served as an Editor for the Columbia Human Rights Law Review.
Kirk H. O'Ferrall advises clients on issues involving taxation, employee benefits and executive compensation, and corporate law. With 30 years of practice, Kirk has extensive experience counseling domestic and international corporations, partnerships, limited liability companies, not-for profit entities, and individuals. He brings a pragmatic approach to solving complex problems.
In the area of taxation, Kirk regularly advises small and large businesses in structuring new ventures and conducting transactions in a tax-efficient manner. He represents clients in administrative proceedings and litigation with the Internal Revenue Service and state tax authorities and before the United States Tax Court. Representative recent matters include:
Advising a large foreign manufacturing company in structuring acquisitions/joint ventures in the United States.
Advising a family office regarding private equity transactions.
Assisting U.S. taxpayers with Voluntary Offshore Compliance Program filings to report previously unreported foreign income and accounts.
Providing advice to domestic and foreign clients regarding structuring tax-free like-kind exchanges of property.
Representing clients in residency audits by New York State and Connecticut.
Kirk's employee beneffits and executive compensation practice includes advising clients on creating and administering qualified retirement plans, nonqualified deferred compensation plans and equity-based incentive programs. He has extensive experience designing and implementing partnership profits interest plans. He assists clients with submissions under the Internal Revenue Service voluntary compliance program to correct qualified retirement plan document and operational failures. Recent representations include:
Structuring partnership profits interest programs for a technology company and a manufacturing company.
Advising a large foreign-based household products company regarding employee benefitmatters in a spin-off transaction.
Creating a performance-based incentive compensation program for a pharmaceutical company.
Advising a leading health care resources company in structuring executive equity-based compensation plans.
Not-for-profit organizations have long been a focus of Kirk's practice. He is involved in all aspects of advising charitable and other not-for-profit entities, from formation and obtaining initial income tax exemptions, to operational issues such as unrelated business income tax, employee compensation, charitable contributions, tax-exempt bond issuances, and compliance with IRS filing and reporting requirements. Recent activities include:
Advising a foreign food distribution company on establishing a U.S. foundation to address global hunger issues.
Providing a world-renowned educational institution with advice regarding employee incentive compensation programs and unrelated business income tax matters.
Assistance in structuring complex charitable gifts.
Kirk also assists clients with an array of corporate matters, including formation of start-up businesses, drafting partnership and limited liability company agreements and shareholder agreements, preparing and negotiating employment contracts and separation agreements, and corporate transactions. Recent transactions include:
Sale of a leading United States distributor of Sisal twine by a Brazilian owner to an Israeli purchaser.
Formation of a United States fundraising structure for a start-up company in India engaging in commercial lending and other financial services and advising the company through its early growth stages.
Advising the majority owner of a closely-held consulting firm regarding a proposed buy-out by a competitor.
Assisting an investment advisory company with restructuring its capital structure and establishing an equity-based compensation program for its key employees.
Trained as a Mediator, Mark has been selected for the Panel of Trademark Mediators by the International Trademark Association and for the
Steven R. Frankel advises clients on all aspects of real estate transactions, including sales and acquisition of commercial and residential real estate and interests in real estate, sale/lease-back transactions, financings representing both lenders and borrowers, real estate partnership syndications, real estate joint ventures and real estate limited liability companies, cooperative and condominium conversions, ground leases, and all forms of commercial leasing.
Among other transactions, Steven arranged the sale of a major New York City office building by a co-partnership in which one selling partner retained fee title to the property which was ground-leased to a third party who also acquired the fee title to the building. Subsequently, Steven handled a financing of the fee to the land and represented the owner during the tenant's bankruptcy. Steven has been involved in representing borrowers under securitized mortgage loan packages and Freddie Mac borrowings, as well as the sale of high-rise residential projects under the New York Mitchell Lama program.
Steven has also been involved in the supervisory management of real estate partnership investments that involve supervision of on-site managers, partnership asset management and arranging for property financing. These managerial activities include a 640-unit garden apartment complex in the Midwest of which 180 units were rehabilitated and sold as condominium units; a series of warehouse and industrial buildings in Buffalo, New York, and a shopping center mall and garden apartments in the Southeast.