Brian is an experienced and incisive litigator representing clients in high-stakes commercial disputes and white-collar matters.

Brian has over a decade of experience litigating complex business and commercial disputes and white-collar matters, in state and federal courts and in arbitration, including before FINRA, JAMS, and the American Arbitration Association.  Brian’s commercial litigation practice focuses on business torts, contract disputes, M&A litigation, partnership and investor disputes, and securities-related matters, and includes matters in the New York Supreme Court’s Commercial Division and the Delaware Court of Chancery.  His white-collar practice primarily focuses on representing clients in investigations and litigations involving the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Brian’s trial experience includes serving and prevailing as lead trial counsel in a Delaware Chancery Court trial on behalf of the co-founder of a consumer-products business in a dispute with his former business partner.

Brian also has experience litigating against New York government agencies in a dispute challenging the constitutionality of a cannabis-dispensary licensing program on behalf of four service-disabled military veterans.

Prior to joining Clark Smith Villazor LLP, Brian was an associate at a large international law firm.  Brian also clerked for U.S. District Judges Richard J. Holwell and William H. Pauley III, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Brian’s representative matters include:

Civil matters:

• Representing EOS Products co-founder Sanjiv Mehra and his family trust in multiple litigations relating to a dispute with his former business partner, including:
  • Litigation in the Delaware Court of Chancery, including two trials, resulting in a favorable judgment finding that the Mehras were entitled to share distributions equally with the former business partner and his related entities.
  • A successful books-and-records action brought in New York Supreme Court’s Commercial Division
  • A lawsuit against the law firm that advised the former business partner in his adverse actions against the Mehras
  • A derivative action in New York Supreme Court’s Commercial Division successfully challenging the former business partner’s use of company money to fund his defense of the Delaware action.
• Representing Knighthead Capital Management LLC, Certares Opportunities LLC, and related entities in breach-of-contract and fraud litigation against Morgan Stanley and private-equity backed private rail company Brightline in a dispute in New York Supreme Court’s Commercial Division arising out of a credit agreement
• Representing a family-owned broadband and communications company in expedited M&A litigation in the Delaware Court of Chancery seeking to require a private-equity firm to close on its agreement to purchase the company
• Representing four service-disabled U.S. military veterans in a suit against New York’s cannabis-industry regulators challenging—and successfully enjoining—a cannabis-dispensary licensing program in violation of New York’s statutory mandate for licensing prioritization
• Global asset-management firm AllianceBernstein in successfully defending a FINRA arbitration brought by a wealth-management client
• A private-equity firm co-founder in litigation and arbitration to enforce a settlement agreement

White-collar matters

• Representing GPL Ventures LLC and its owners in an SEC enforcement action, SEC v. GPL Ventures LLC, 21 Civ. 6814 (S.D.N.Y.), alleging unregistered “dealer” activity based on convertible-note investing
• Representing the former CFO of a publicly traded email-marketing company in an SEC enforcement action concerning disclosures of non-GAAP metrics
• Representing a subprime whole-loan trader in a civil FIRREA investigation and litigation into the securitization practices of a large investment bank
• Representing all defendants in SEC v. Yorkville Advisors, LLC, 12-cv-7728 (S.D.N.Y.), an SEC enforcement action alleging that a cherry-picked handful of positions in a hedge fund’s portfolio were over-valued in the midst of the financial crisis. We successfully excluded the SEC’s expert and won a partial summary-judgment ruling gutting the SEC’s claims.