Business and Organizational-Related Litigation

Karlinsky LLC is a New York litigation firm focusing on complex business, civil, commercial, and personal litigation, trial and appellate work, alternative dispute resolution, and business and non-profit legal advice and counseling. Our firm offers significant expertise, experience, and judgment in all areas of business and commercial litigation, representing plaintiffs as well as defendants. Its client representation runs the gamut from small businesses to multi-national corporations, with matters ranging in size from several hundred thousand dollars to hundreds of millions, and includes individuals and businesses in both direct actions and in class and derivative litigation. Litigation sub-practices include:

  • Securities and Commodities
  • Financial Services
  • Commercial (Contracts and UCC matters)
  • Business Torts (Fraud, Unfair Competition, Trade Secrets, Others)
  • Trusts and Estates
  • Real Estate
  • Partnership
  • Constitutional
  • Antitrust
  • Labor and Employment (especially in the Financial Services area)
  • Lawyers’ Professional and Ethics Matters
  • Franchising
  • Insurance

Personal Litigation

Karlinsky LLC frequently represents individuals in litigation matters, most of which is centered in the Surrogate’s Courts of New York State (although some cases are brought in the Supreme Court), and arise from the administration of wills and trusts, frequently relating to the conduct of trustees, but also extending to issues such as authenticity of testamentary instruments and competency of those executing them. Often, such cases involve New York real estate owned by a trust or includible in an estate. Mr. Karlinsky has practiced in these areas since virtually the inception of his practice, and is an experienced advocate for his clients. Other areas in which individuals are clients are on tort claims (or defenses against such), representative actions (derivative and class), disputes among owners of businesses, guardianship proceedings, and representation of wealthy individuals in all aspects of litigated matters.

Whistleblower Cases

Karlinsky LLC is eager to represent individuals in whistleblower (qui tam) cases before the federal and New York State courts, as well as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. If you believe you have a whistleblower tip, contact Alexis Cirel, Esq., at alexis.cirel@karlinskyllc.com or call her at 646-380-0035. Alternately, click here to contact us through our website.

Industry Areas

Having practiced in Manhattan for 36 years, founding partner Martin Karlinsky has handled matters across a wide-range of industries. He has distinguished himself in the financial services industry, representing broker-dealers, banks, and hedge funds.

He also has carved out a niche in the not-for-profit sector, representing the Anti-Defamation League and other not-for-profit organizations. Other areas in which the firm has experience include sports, media, insurance, real estate, higher education, hotels and hospitality, healthcare, school improvement, technology and venture capital, advertising and public relations, and the legal profession. In the latter, Mr. Karlinsky has often been called on to represent both lawyers and law firms in disputes between firms and their partners and in professional discipline matters.

Trial Practice

Trials, while rare, are the forum where advocacy skill, judgment, and experience are the sine qua non of practice. From early in his career, Mr. Karlinsky has thrived in the courtroom and in arbitrations.

From his early years as an advocate, Mr. Karlinsky strove to perfect a strong and commanding style of courtroom advocacy, tested in the heat of courtroom combat. Significant cases in his career that have been won at trial or thereafter include the successful prosecution of a securities class action for plaintiff class, a multi-million dollar plaintiff’s award to an executive who sued under the Americans With Disabilities Act, a bet-your-company case involving a contract to purchase stock, and a case for a leading advocacy organization where, following an adverse jury verdict, the court vacated the verdict and granted a new trial.

Appeals

Not all cases are won at trial, and even a trial win does not guarantee ultimate victory. Effective appellate advocacy, both written and oral, is a necessary weapon in the trial lawyer’s arsenal.

Mr. Karlinsky is an experienced, precise appellate advocate, whose briefs have been praised repeatedly, by courts, by opponents, and even in one case by the editorial writers of The New York Times. At oral argument, he is a persuasive and skillful advocate, able to convey difficult concepts and complicated facts in simple and direct terms. Mr. Karlinsky has filed briefs or argued appeals in all of the appellate courts of New York State, in the majority of federal circuit courts of appeals, and repeatedly over almost 20 years, in the Supreme Court of the United States.

Alternative Dispute Resolution

Litigation is not the only option for the resolution of disputes; even where parties have not agreed in advance to arbitration, it, as well as mediation, may be available and prudent procedural remedies.

Karlinsky LLC offers expertise and experience in domestic commercial and securities arbitration, in international commercial arbitration, and in mediation. Mr. Karlinsky has handled dozens of arbitrations before the principal securities industry forums, such as the National Association of Securities Dealers, Inc., the Financial Services Regulatory Association, the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board, and the New York Stock Exchange Inc, as well as before the American Arbitration Association and the International Chamber of Commerce.

General Business Law

Karlinsky LLC counsels a diverse business and private client clientele on dispute-related matters, general legal matters, governance issues, and compliance.

Non-Profit Legal Advice and Counseling

Mr. Karlinsky has represented numerous non-profit advocacy and charitable organizations, in both pro bono publico and paid matters…

including the Anti-Defamation League, the American Friends of The Hebrew University, the Human Rights Campaign, the American Jewish Committee, People for the American Way Foundation, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, and the National Council of Jewish Women, Inc. These matters have ranged from pro bono representation as amici in order to advance the mission of the organization to representing such entities in standard business litigation, to advising on governance and compliance matters.

The 1370 Group

Mr. Karlinsky is a founding member of The 1370 Group, a London-based group of lawyers from leading firms around the world originally organized by a leading international arbitration lawyer.

The 1370 Group stands as a client resource, reports on recent practice area developments and group news, and promotes the flow of international business among group members. Among the practices represented in the group are international litigation and arbitration; corruption and compliance; intellectual property; energy; corporate; and mergers and acquisitions.

Pro Bono Publico

Mr. Karlinsky has a decades-long commitment to pro bono publico (for the good of the public) legal representation. That commitment began in his law school career when he founded the first environmental law group of his school and acted for the Sierra Club as legal advisor relating to issues involving Yosemite National Park, and continued afterward in his representation of the Sierra Club pro bono in a federal Clean Water Act case.


In the early 1990s, Mr. Karlinsky authored the first of a long series of amicus curiae (friend of the court) briefs on behalf of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in a major case before the Supreme Court of the United States. In the years since then, he has been lead counsel (counsel of record) in approximately 15 cases before the Supreme Court as well as in cases in several other federal and state appellate courts, most of them filed for ADL but in several matters of behalf of other national civil rights and advocacy organizations as well. In his several law firms, Mr. Karlinsky played a key role in supporting the pro bono agendas of the firms. Karlinsky LLC has continued and will continue that legacy. In its first month of practice, it submitted an amicus brief in a New York appellate court on behalf of a New York City neighborhood group, and it is currently working on a pro bono amicus brief in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Additionally, throughout his career Mr. Karlinsky has represented numerous individuals who could not afford to pay for legal services in cases as diverse as landlord-tenant disputes to the defense of tort actions.