Walden Macht & Haran LLP

Complex Commercial Disputes

All Practice Areas

Leading companies and individuals turn to WMH to resolve high-stakes business disputes.

Our attorneys use innovative legal strategies to produce outstanding results for clients involved in complex media and entertainment, antitrust, contract, debtor/creditor, fraud, and real estate litigation. Our former federal prosecutors, senior attorneys in business and government, and other accomplished lawyers translate extensive trial and boardroom experience into winning legal strategies.  We not only win at trial, but we also provide critical pre-litigation counseling to clients who rely on WMH for strategic advice on how to minimize legal exposure and resolve problems without going to trial.

From the courtroom to the negotiating table, we fight in every setting to achieve successful outcomes.

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Areas of Focus[Expand all]

  • Media and Entertainment Litigation+-

    WMH routinely represents media and entertainment companies in their most sensitive and high-profile matters. We have extensive experience handling complex contract disputes and innovative copyright matters and also work closely with clients as trusted advisors to identify risks and avoid potential legal exposure.

    Current and recent WMH clients include Charter Communications, FilmNation, IAC, Madison Square Garden, and News Corp.

  • Antitrust Litigation+-

    WMH has an exceptional track record representing plaintiffs and defendants in a wide array of high-stakes antitrust matters. Our attorneys regularly represent businesses in major criminal cases brought by the Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division and state authorities, as well as in private antitrust actions.

    As a testament to our extensive background in antitrust litigation, the DOJ Antitrust Division recently tapped members of our team to serve on a monitorship of an international shipping company that pled guilty to a global price-fixing conspiracy.

  • Fraud, Contract, Debtor/Creditor and Other Commercial Litigation+-

    WMH represents plaintiffs and defendants across industries and jurisdictions in all manners of fraud, breach of contract, debtor/creditor, and other commercial disputes.

    Our team includes accomplished civil litigators who have spent their careers successfully prosecuting and defending complex commercial disputes in state, federal and bankruptcy courts, and before arbitral bodies, as well as two former Deputy Chiefs of the Business and Securities Fraud Section at the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York who supervised securities, business, and tax fraud investigations and cases in that role.

  • Real Estate Litigation+-

    WMH regularly represents real estate developers, investors, building owners, and tenants in a wide range of real estate disputes. Clients value our creative strategies, quick action, and steady-handed diplomacy. WMH attorneys are savvy at resolving thorny disputes where property and assets are at risk and where potential harm to multiple parties exists.

    Large-scale real estate disputes in New York City often involve complicated land deals. WMH litigators have a strong understanding of New York’s byzantine building codes and the complicated zoning issues that can arise in these matters.

    WMH also provides critical pre-litigation counseling to clients who are considering bringing a lawsuit or are at risk of becoming a defendant in one.  Clients rely on WMH for strategic advice on how to minimize legal exposure and resolve problems without going to trial.

Experience

  • Represented art-leasing company and its managing member in a high-profile civil case inherited from an international law firm after a Court entered a preliminary injunction preventing the company from liquidating various artworks. Succeeded in reversing the injunction, and then secured a complete dismissal of the plaintiff’s case, with prejudice, after finding evidence to show that many of the core allegations made against the client were false and proving that the plaintiff had withheld critical documents and engaged in other discovery abuses.
  • Represented a leading insurance and investment organization and its Chairman and CEO in a dispute with the organization’s attorney and law firm over claims that the firm was owed over $100 million in contingency fees arising out of its prior representation in several actions, beginning in the early 2000s.
  • Represented the Superintendent of NYS Department of Financial Services in an action to investigate and pursue claims for fraud and breach of fiduciary duty against the former directors of an insurance company in liquidation.
  • Represented a cryptocurrency stablecoin company in a class-action lawsuit in federal court seeking more than $1.4 trillion in damages for alleged manipulation of the Bitcoin market.
  • Represented a power plant builder and operator in a federal interpleader action concerning competing investor claims to cash in the operator’s possession.
  • Represented leading business and financial markets industry organizations as amici curiae in a Supreme Court petition concerning fraudulent transfers and the extraterritorial reach of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.  
  • Represented a solar development company in an action relating to a landowner’s breach of contract and a competitor’s subsequent illegal strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP). After WMH fully briefed its motion to dismiss the defensive claims, the competitor voluntarily dismissed its $25 million tortious interference with contract claim.
  • Represented an American financier in connection with a commercial dispute over rights to various iconic artistic works by Keith Haring and other artists.
  • Represented the owner of a prominent New York City hotel in a commercial contract dispute with a sub-contractor.
  • Represented a media and internet holding company in litigation regarding the sale and disposition of air rights from a major development project in Manhattan.
  • Represented an international real estate investor and asset manager in connection with a dispute related to the acquisition of a property as part of a major Brooklyn development project.
  • Represented a real estate developer in connection with a dispute over proceeds from the sale of a commercial building and related acquisition of air rights.
  • Represented a significant energy and industrial company in a multimillion-dollar contractual dispute over a force majeure event.
  • Represented the former head of interest rate swap trading at a major multinational bank, as a third-party witness, in connection with private antitrust claims alleging that derivatives dealers colluded to restrain competition in the swap market.
  • Represented News Corp in defense of a multibillion-dollar antitrust class action that settled on the first day of trial for a small fraction of the total damages sought from News Corp.
  • Represented Charter Communications in a series of litigations stemming from the merger of Charter and Time Warner Cable, which were resolved on mutually agreeable terms.
  • Represented senior hedge fund manager in connection with his separation from–and redemption of investment in–hedge fund.
  • Represented a leading New York City-based technology company in a lawsuit brought by the city for overbilling and fraud. After we filed a powerful motion to dismiss, the city eventually settled the matter for less than 10 percent of its original demand.
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