Practice Description

Mr. Sesser has an unusually diverse commercial litigation practice, with more than three decades of experience successfully litigating cases ranging from art law to antitrust, from maritime law to trusts & estates. He also has a stellar appellate record in complex and difficult cases, highlighted by his victory before the Third Circuit en banc in the Cybergenics case, involving the derivative right of a creditors committee to prosecute fraudulent transfer claims on behalf of a bankruptcy estate; his 2010 win in the Second Circuit in Cohen v. Viray, 622 F.3d 188 (2d Cir. 2010), in which he persuaded the Court to overturn the settlement of a shareholders’ derivative suit by arguing that the indemnification of the company’s CEO and CFO was illegal under Section 304 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, an issue of first impression; and, most recently, by his successful petition to the New York Court of Appeals to review a dispute over ownership of a Jacques Lipchitz sculpture, an appeal that will be argued in the fall of 2011 involving issues at the intersection of personal property law and estate administration. Mr. Sesser regularly advises clients on corporate compliance issues, including the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and successfully assisted a shipping client in obtaining complete immunity from criminal prosecution for antitrust violations under the Justice Department’s Corporate Amnesty Program. Mr. Sesser is chair of the firm’s Ethics Committee and acts as a court-appointed mediator for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. He is a Life Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, has received the highest ratings for professional competence and ethics from Martindale-Hubbell®, and has been recognized by Super Lawyers and Best Lawyers in America since 2009.