Attorney Profiles
James Brian Lebow
Civil Rights / Constitutional Claims / Discrimination / White-Collar Defense / Civil RICO
James B. LeBow has effectively represented hundreds of clients charged with crimes in New York, Washington DC, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Through his trial and appellate experience, he has set himself apart as a powerful advocate for his client's defense matters. One of the top criminal lawyers in New York, his high-profile cases have been covered on 60 Minutes, local television news, national and local publications, and legal journals. His opinions and commentary have been featured on Fox News and local and national radio shows.
His vast experience in criminal defense includes trials, appeals, and habeas corpus challenges for complex criminal cases in federal and state courts. He has successfully defended such charges as RICO, RICO conspiracies, murder in furtherance of drug distribution conspiracies, drug trafficking, money laundering, money structuring, extortion, mail fraud, computer crimes, and counterfeiting.
A few of Mr. LeBow's most recent achievements include:
- Successfully overturning the 100-year-old mail fraud statute on unconstitutional grounds, as it applied to one of his clients
- Suppressing evidence of 18 kg of cocaine on charges against another client
- Obtaining a sentence of house arrest instead of a prison conviction for a client convicted under the RICO statutes
- Successfully appealed overturned convictions or sentences for money structuring, weapons possession, and criminal contempt in the Second and Ninth Circuit Courts of Appeals and the New York Appellate Division.
Mr. LeBow has also obtained not-guilty verdicts in 27 of his most recent 47 trials, which include capital homicide cases. He has also received outright dismissals in recent cases involving bank fraud, assault, forgery, and counterfeiting.
Mr. LeBow is a highly regarded New York criminal defense attorney, and is a member of the national Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the New York State Bar Association, and the Association of the Bar of the City of New York.
Daniel Rubenstein
Commercial Litigation / Contract Disputes / Civil Rights / Constitutional Claims / Discrimination
Daniel Rubenstein is an experienced attorney who brings a corporate lawyer’s insight to commercial litigation and contract disputes. He has spent several years working on corporate transactions including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and technology licensing, and on securities matters, with specific experience in international business transactions and in the representation of emerging technology companies. His litigation experience including civil rights, employment discrimination, and constitutional cases as well as commercial matters.
Representative Transactions
Corporate Transactions
- Performed substantial research on reverse shell mergers in order to advise a manufacturer of rehabilitation devices on whether its proposed reverse shell merger would be advisable and how the transaction should be structured. Drafted acquisition agreement and related documents for the reverse shell merger.
- Drafted joint venture agreement and distribution agreement for a joint venture between an American manufacturer of medical devices and its American distributor.
- Drafted detailed letter of intent for an American manufacturer of medical devices’ sale of its distribution rights for the Middle East and North Africa to a United Arab Emirates-based company.
- Assisted a Japanese software company seeking to enter into a joint venture with a French software company, redrafting a substantive portion of the joint venture documents. Revised documents initially intended for a 50%/50% joint venture to protect our client’s interests as the minority partner in a 70%/30% joint venture.
- Drafted joint venture documents, researched issues of corporate law, and conducted due diligence for a $412MM joint venture between a major Japanese conglomerate’s energy division and two multinational energy companies.
- Drafted proxy materials for shareholder voting on the restructuring of a corporate group of child care-related companies in which six affiliated companies were combined into three.
Securities Transactions and Securities Law Projects
- Drafted S-1 registration statement for a company developing technologies for use in the oil industry. Performed substantial research on the oil industry in order to draft the registration statement.
- Drafted private placement memorandum for an independent movie studio. Performed substantial research on the film industry in order to draft the PPM.
- Represented a technology company in connection with a recapitalization transaction involving the redemption, reissuance, and sale of multiple classes of its preferred stock. Researched and drafted memoranda regarding the application of American federal and state securities laws, and drafted and negotiated corporate documentation.
- Advised a securities firm with respect to compliance with American federal and state securities laws. Duties included performing research and drafting memoranda, and assisted in the drafting of a compliance manual for distribution to that firm’s employees.
- Represented a major international law firm seeking to explain Japanese securities law to its English-language clients. Researched applicable laws, and assisted in drafting a document detailing foreign parties’ obligations under Japanese securities law, including many comparisons of Japanese securities law to American securities law.
- Drafted memorandum for a software company considering a stock dividend of third party stock it acquired in an acquisition. Researched and analyzed securities law issues arising with respect to the proposed stock dividend.
- Drafted memorandum for a child care company considering a buyback plan to acquire a significant fraction of its publicly held stock. Researched and analyzed securities law issues arising with respect to the proposed buyback plan.
Admitted to Practice
- New York State Bar (2000)
Education
- Juris Doctor, Harvard Law School (2000). Cambridge, Massachusetts
- Bachelor of Arts in Economics, magna cum laude, Carleton College (1997). Northfield, MN
