LITIGATIONSWORD - Key Persons
Andrea S. Ferrante, Esq. is a New York trial attorney with fifteen years of litigation experience. She is a an experienced trial attorney, with in depth knowledge of criminal, family and guardianship law. She has been a guest lecturer at Seton Hall Law School on issues of Domestic Violence and earned her LL.M. in International Law with a focus on international child abduction. She is licensed to practice in both New York and New Jersey.
Arielle Gray, Esq. is a New York based attorney of counsel to LitigationSword since 2020, Arielle focuses her practice on real estate litigation, and employment law matters.
Job Titles:
- LEGAL CONSULTANT / Paralegal / Legal Consultant
Dan Ackman - Chief Legal Officer
Job Titles:
- Senior Counsel
- Journalist
Dan Ackman, Esq joined LitigationsWord as a top complex securities & commercial dispute litigator but also with a strong emphasis & focus on civil rights, administrative & constitutional action.
Dan Ackman, Esq joined LitigationsWord as a top complex securities and commercial dispute litigator but also with a strong emphasis and focus on civil rights, administrative and constitutional class action litigation. Perhaps best known for representing New York City's taxi drivers in a series of civil rights class action lawsuits, Ackman's cases have resulted in a half dozen City practices being declared unconstitutional or unlawful. He has also recovered millions of dollars in damages for taxi drivers whose licenses have been suspended or revoked. And he may be the only lawyer in America who has deposed both former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani and current President of the United States Donald Trump.
Dan's cases have resulted in:
A Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission Limousine (TLC) policy and practice of suspending drivers based on an arrest and then extending those suspensions after a hearing is unconstitutional;
A federal district court ruling holding that the TLC's Operation Refusal program denied taxi drivers Due Process of Law, which led to a multi-million dollar damage settlement for the plaintiff class;
A federal district court judgment that the NYC Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings summary suspension of a non-lawyer advocate for taxi drivers was unconstitutional in that it denied the advocate due process of law;
A pair of federal district court decisions that the TLC program of seizing vehicles without a warrant or hearing violated the Fourth Amendment and denied vehicle owners due process of law;
A federal district court decision holding portions of the TLC revocation-on-conviction policy to be unconstitutional, which led to a multi-million dollar settlement for the plaintiff class;
A federal court decision providing for a fairer assessment of attorneys fees in constitutional cases;
A state court decision opening TLC courts to the public.
Dan is also an accomplished journalist and has written widely about law and other topics for publications including the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The American Lawyer and Forbes Magazine, Slate and the Daily News.
A native New Yorker, Dan is a graduate of Wesleyan University and the Columbia University School of Law, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, a teaching assistant and an editor of the Journal of Law and Social Problems.
Garren Small is an experience NY litigator who has won jury awards; had success at mediations; arbitrations and settlement conferences for the group. He has worked at the Vera Institute of Justice, NBC. Inc as corporate counsel and at a litigation firm, Cannon and Acosta, LLP as a Partner.
Today Garren, handles commercial dispute and pi disputes for the firm as well a media law and copyright disputes.
With tremendous experience with NBC and braodcasting law and disputes Garren bring his expertise to LitigationSword's clients and to the team.
Garren is the Director of Community Legal Education; Moot CourtAdvisory Board; Contributing Editor, "Conscience"; Class Representative, Academic Standards Committee
Garren is Admitted to all New York State Courts, Southern and Eastern Districts
Qualification
BA with Honors, from Hofstra University.
Job Titles:
- Litigation of Counsel
- U.S Legal Counselor and Paralegal
Gulnaz Khanam is a U.S Legal counselor and paralegal, and an Indian attorney acting as international IP lawyer as well as a contracts and compliance Attorney for Business360 Law Group, in the UK, as a legal advisor for Mena Global, UAE, and a contracts attorney for Techmasterscorp, Singapore. She has served as a legal advisor for various corporations in India, USA, U.K, Australia, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Canada, Singapore, New Zealand, Germany, Estonia, Yemen and other countries in the world. She has been consistently top-rated attorney. For more that 2 decades, her practice has focused on contract drafting, review and negotiation for fortune 500 companies, drafting legal documents for Pro Se clients to win their cases in state and federal courts of USA, drafting and guiding companies in compliance as per new laws including GDPR, HIPPA, COPPA, etc.
She has supported various clients in handling complex contracts and saved from liabilities. She also works as a back bone of USA law firms in litigation, contracts and IP. She has been supporting IP attorneys in filing, tracking and compliance as per USPTO. She has been supporting litigation attorney in legal research and drafting litigation docs. She has incorporated her clients' companies both in USA and India, and taking care of all compliances as per applicable laws.
Recently, she joined LitigationSword as a support research jurist and paralegal support.
In the year 2000, she was registered as an attorney with the Bar Council of India, Karnataka. She started her carrier as a litigation attorney in Bangalore High Court, Civil and Criminal courts and successfully won cases. Since 2007, she started working for international clients on various areas including contracts drafting, review and negotiation, litigation support, IP services, company formation, legal compliances and legal advice to corporates.
Education
B.A.L. LL.B (Bachelor of Law), Vivekanand College of Law, Bangalore, India (2000) National Moot Court Team
After 25 years of practice in New York City, first as an associate at Weil Gotshal & Manges a major law firm and then as a founding member of my own law firm.
Job Titles:
- Case Manager
- in 2021 As a Special Counsel
Joe has joined LitigationSword in 2021 as a special counsel / case manager coordinating the strategies and input on litigation. He has 15 years of experiences with corporate securities
Phylicia is a fierce litigator and a warrior for her clients. She joined JS Barkats in 2021. She is a former prosecutor whose current experience ranges from general civil litigation to criminal defense.
Job Titles:
- Litigation of Counsel
- Litigation of Counsel / Georgetown University Law Center
Reeves joined LitigationSword as a special litigation of counsel for complex commercial matters. Reeves is an experienced commercial litigator with strong legal drafting and litigation skills, including the ability to assess and avoid legal risk and exposure, articulate and defend against claims, manage and conduct all aspects of litigation ranging from the discovery process (including related motion practice) to preparing key witnesses for deposition and trial. As a former trial attorney with the US Department of Justice, Reeves has extensive trial experience, and in private practice, he has first-chaired hearings, trials, mediations, and arbitrations concerning a variety of complex legal matters. Equally important and when appropriate, he has successfully negotiated settlements in order to avoid the cost, uncertainty, and inconvenience of litigation.
Reeves started his career with the US Department of Justice via its Honors Program as a trial attorney practicing in the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York. Next, he joined McDermott, Will & Emery as a litigation associate. Thereafter, he practiced at boutique law firms, where he developed an expertise in intellectual property matters, including licensing, branding, registration, prosecution, portfolio management and litigation of copyright, trademark, and unfair competition disputes. He has also successfully prosecuted applications, oppositions and cancellation proceedings before the US Copyright Office, US Patent and Trademark Office, and Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. Further, he has conducted trademark and brand clearance, evaluated and resolved obstacles to copyright and trademark registration, as well as negotiated and drafted licensing agreements.
In connection with corporate transactions, he has conducted due diligence concerning the valuation and acquisition of intellectual property rights. In addition, he has nearly a decade of the experience as in-house general counsel, where he oversaw daily business operations as well as managed outside legal counsel, tax consultants, and various other third-party vendors. >
Reeves has also litigated and settled numerous employment disputes involving privacy issues, noncompete and non-solicitation clauses, as well as the misappropriation of trade secrets. On behalf of clients, he has conducted internal investigations concerning alleged workplace misconduct and wrongful termination matters.
Sergei Orel founded LitgationSword to service Crypto litigation clients, provide I.P services in the blockchain realm, and general corporate services. He is a multilingual top Crypto, Corporate and trademark, design, copyright and I.P and trade secrets attorney and handles complex matters for his selective clients. With almost two decades of experience and speaking French, Russian and Ukrainian, and also Polish and some Spanish, Mr. Orel has acquired an extensive and varied experience in the areas of international corporate law, crypto offerings trademark and copyright prosecution and litigation, both in the US and abroad.