Kasowitz Benson Torres

Kasowitz, Benson & Torres 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] The firm's notable clients have included Donald Trump,[4] Robert De Niro, Celanese, ArvinMeritor, Liggett Group, Enron, WorldCom and Mia Farrow.

Kasowitz Benson Torres
HeadquartersParamount Plaza
New York City
No. of offices9[1]
Major practice areasLitigation
Key peopleMarc Kasowitz, founder and managing partner[2]
Date founded1993
Company typeLimited liability partnership
Websitehttp://www.kasowitz.com/

History

Founding

The firm 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.[5] David M. Friedman was added as a partner in May 1995,[6] and William Bruce Hoff, Jr. left in November.[7]

Expansion

The firm began in New York City with 18 lawyers and after 6 months expanded to include a Houston branch office.[3][5] Friedman joined the firm in 1993 or 1994 and opened its bankruptcy practice.[5] In 1996 several new lawyers joined the firm to begin its employment and matrimonial practices.[5] It opened a New Jersey office in 1997, Atlanta in 2001[5] and in 2003 the firm opened a San Francisco office while former assistant district attorney, Leslie Crocker Snyder, joined the office in New York.[8] By 2004 the firm had increased to 160 lawyers and included an additional office in Atlanta.[5] 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.[9] 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.[10] They opened a Los Angeles, California office in May 2013 led by partners that were lured away from Jenner & Block.[11][12] In June, former U.S. Senator, Joe Lieberman, joined the firm as Senior Counsel[13] and his former Senate Chief of Staff, Clarine Nardi Riddle launched a Government Affairs branch of the company in Washington D.C.[14] In October, two senior litigation attorneys from NBC Universal joined the firm's Los Angeles office to begin an entertainment litigation practice.[15]

In 2014, following the resolution of several large cases, Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman laid off approximately 30 of its 350 attorneys.[16][17] In 2014, Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman was ranked as the 119th largest firm in the United States by Law360.[18] In June, the firm was awarded the Chambers USA 2014 Award for Excellence.[19]

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.[5] They also overturned a $799 million punitive damages award levied against the Liggett cigarette company.[5]

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.[5] 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.[5] The firm has represented Donald Trump since 2001.[20] 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.[21][22] In 2010 the firm's clients included Fortress Investment Group, Liggett Group, MBIA and Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited.[3] In 2016, the firm represented Harold Peerenboom of Toronto in an extended legal fight with his seasonal Palm Beach, Florida, neighbor, businessman Isaac Perlmutter.[23] In 2017, the firm had recently added the Russian Sberbank "in a case that accused it of conspiring to take over a Russian granite company".[24]

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's average per partner profit was $2.9 million in 2004[5] and $2.1 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.[5] In contrast, a 2014 a report by American Lawyer ranked the firms cultural diversity as 59th out of the 223 firms they evaluated.[25]

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 law 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 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.[26][27]

In October 2018, the firm was at the center of a fiery exchange between Senator Kamala Harris and then-US Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh during his Senate hearing. Harris questioned Kavanaugh on whether he had spoken to any individuals employed at the firm about the ongoing Mueller investigation, which at the time President Trump was a personal client of the firm. It ultimately resulted in an unclear answer from Kavanaugh with lawmakers in the chamber struck at partisan odds over the appropriateness of the posed question.[28]

References
  1. "Offices". Kasowitz, Benson, Torres. kasowitz.com. Retrieved December 16, 2016.
  2. "Marc E. Kasowitz Archived December 20, 2016, at the Wayback Machine". Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman. kasowitz.com. Retrieved December 16, 2016.
  3. Raymond, Nate (September 13, 2013). "Kasowitz Holds Power Close As He Grows Firm, Lures Business". New York Law Journal. Accessed June 27, 2014.
  4. Cassens Weiss, Debra. "Meet Marc Kasowitz, the litigator who often represents Donald Trump". ABA Journal. American Bar Association. Retrieved May 19, 2017.
  5. Amon, Elizabeth (August 2004). "Fast Rise to the Top" (PDF). The American Lawyer. Incisive Media. p. 11. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 13, 2011. Retrieved December 16, 2016.
  6. "Profiles/Executive Moves". Crain's New York Business. May 1, 1995.
  7. William Bruce Hoff Jr.: Lawyer, model ship builder, dies Chicago Tribune
  8. Unknown author, (September 2003) Supreme Court Justice Leslie Crocker Snyder Joins Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman Archived April 14, 2015, at the Wayback Machine Official web site
  9. Lowe, Zach. "It's Official". Am Law Daily. AmLawDaily. Retrieved April 8, 2015.
  10. Staff Writer. "KBTF Open Office in Silicon Valley". JD Journal. JDJournal. Retrieved April 8, 2015.
  11. "Kasowitz Benson Poaches Two Partners, Sets Them Up in New LA Office". JDJournal.
  12. Staff Writer (June 7, 2013). "Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman". Insurance Weekly News.
  13. Unknown author, (June 6, 2013) Senator Joseph Lieberman Joins Kasowitz News, Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman LLP
  14. News Reporter (June 5, 2013). "Kasowitz Opens DC Office with Clarine Nardi Riddle to Lead Government Affairs Practice". China Weekly News.
  15. Johnson, Ted (October 2, 2013). "NBCU Legal Execs Joint Litigation Firm". Variety. Variety.
  16. Simmons, Christine (February 21, 2014). "Kasowitz Layoffs Tied to End of Credit Crisis Cases". New York Law Journal.
  17. Lat, David (February 10, 2014). "Nationwide Layoff Watch: Casualties At Kasowitz Benson". Above the Law.
  18. Simpson, Jake, "Law360 Reveals 400 Largest US Law Firms" Law360
  19. Staff Reporter (June 13, 2014) Kasowitz Insurance Policyholder Recovery Group Receives Chambers Award for Excellence, Insurance Weekly News
  20. Morrow, Brendan (April 19, 2017). "Marc E. Kasowitz: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know". Heavy.com.
  21. "Trump Sues Writer and Book Publisher". The New York Times. January 25, 2006.
  22. Goodman, Peter (July 15, 2009). "Trump Suit Claiming Defamation Is Dismissed". The New York Times.
  23. Sorkin, Andrew Ross, "Lurid Suit Over Hate Mail Embroils Isaac Perlmutter, Marvel Chief", New York Times Dealbook, March 7, 2016. Retrieved 2017-06-09.
  24. Sorkin, Andrew Ross, "Trump’s Lawyer, Marc Kasowitz: ‘The Toughest of the Tough Guys’", New York Times Dealbook, June 5, 2017. Retrieved 2017-06-09.
  25. Staff writer (May 29, 2014). "Diversity Scorecard: How the Firms Rate". The American Lawyer. Retrieved June 2, 2015.
  26. Weiss, Debra Cassens (January 23, 2013) Associate Who Told Partners of His Superior Legal Mind Loses Appeal ABA Journal
  27. Pearson, Brendon (January 23, 2013) New York Law Journal
  28. "Exchange between Sen. Harris and Judge Kavanaugh on Mueller Investigation (C-SPAN)". YouTube.
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