Steven Wolowitz

Financial: Steve represents commercial and investment banks, corporations, directors, and officers in securities, commodities, and antitrust litigations. He represents clients in class actions, and in complex cases involving derivatives, foreign exchange, structured investment vehicles, securitizations, insurance, asset management, and fixed-income instruments. 

Cross-border: US and foreign institutions rely on Steve in connection with cross-border disputes, cross-border discovery issues, and cross-border investigations and enforcement matters.

Compliance: Steve represents bank, securities, and issuer clients in SEC, DOJ, CFTC and state attorneys general investigations and proceedings. He also conducts internal investigations and reports to boards of directors and audit committees for public companies.

Steve previously served as a partner at another prominent law firm in New York.

Clients served by Steve include Société Générale, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, and First Caribbean International Bank.

• Société Générale — Resolved class actions and opt-out claims against SG involving the market for municipal bond guaranteed investment contracts, which asserted claims under the Sherman Act, RICO, and state law.
• Société Générale — Represented SG before U.S. governmental agencies relating to the market for municipal bond guaranteed investment contracts.
• Credit Lyonnais Rouse, Ltd. — Defended CLR in class actions asserting claims under the Sherman Act, the Commodity Exchange Act, RICO, and state law, which alleged a conspiracy to manipulate the worldwide physical copper and copper futures markets; the cases included federal class actions in New York, state class actions in California, and multi-district litigation in Wisconsin.
• Vermont Telephone Company — Defended VTel in an antitrust action involving the market for Internet access service; plaintiff had asserted claims of monopolization, attempted monopolization, monopoly leveraging, predatory pricing, denial of an essential facility, and common law unfair trade practices.
• Institute of International Bankers — Filed an amicus brief for IIB successfully supporting the view that, in order for a New York federal or state court to issue a post-judgment turnover order against a banking entity, that entity itself must have actual, not merely constructive, possession or custody of the assets sought, and it is not enough that the banking entity's subsidiary has possession or custody of the judgment debtor's assets.
• Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce — Obtained dismissal of a lawsuit arising out of a series of loans for which our client was both a lender and the Collateral and Administrative Agent; plaintiffs alleged that our client breached fiduciary duties and breached contractual provisions when, in its capacity as Collateral Agent, it released liens on certain collateral; the court agreed with our showing that contractual terms required the dismissal of all claims.
• Bank of America — Obtained dismissal of an action against an indenture trustee involving the interpretation of frequently-used terms in a CDO indenture, at the intersection of payment waterfall and subordination provisions.
• Holden International Inc. & IEC Holden Inc. — Won an arbitration for Holden International Inc. and IEC Holden Inc. before the International Centre for Dispute Resolution. Following a two-week trial, a three-member arbitration panel awarded Holden $12 million in contract damages and lost profits.
• Alloy, Inc. — Represented the Audit Committee of Alloy, Inc., a publicly held media and merchandising company, in an independent investigation of allegations asserted against Alloy and its senior officers; based on our report, which reflected a thorough investigation and consultation with a forensic accounting firm, the Company’s outside auditor accepted our findings and approved Alloy’s Form 10-Q for filing.
• Société Générale — Obtained the dismissal of a $1 billion consequential damages claim asserted by the plaintiff, a Cayman Islands hedge fund; plaintiff claimed that our client's alleged failure to post approximately $70 million in collateral with the fund caused a creditor to file for the liquidation of the fund; the trading involved a series of non-deliverable forward contracts tied to US dollar/Russian ruble exchange rates; the court agreed with our showing that (1) the liquidation was not proximately caused by our client's alleged collateral shortfall; and (2) the claimed damages were not reasonably foreseeable by our client at the time it entered into the derivatives contracts.
• Bank of America — Represented Bank of America in trade secret litigation arising from a large CDO securitization transaction; the case involved defending claims against the bank in New York and prosecuting claims on behalf of the bank in Charlotte; defeated the other side's application for a TRO to enjoin the bank's transaction, and then achieved a dismissal of the plaintiff's lawsuit; obtained a TRO and a preliminary injunction enjoining the other side from interfering with the bank's transaction.
• EMI Records Limited & Capitol Records — Represented EMI and its sister company, Capitol Records, in the high-profile case brought by the Beatles and Apple Records seeking alleged underpaid royalties regarding sales and promotions in North America.
• Bank of Montreal — Obtained a dismissal, with prejudice, of causes of action for breach of contract, breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, negligence, negligent misrepresentation and fraud, in connection with the bank's alleged withdrawal of a commitment to finance the plaintiff's proposed acquisition of a broadcast company; the case set important precedent regarding the meaning of "material adverse change" clauses in bank commitment letters.
• CIBC World Markets Corp. — Obtained reversal and order to dismiss complaint alleging breach of contract and fraud arising from an investment management agreement between our client and the plaintiff, involving a portfolio of Japanese warrants and convertible bonds having a market value of at least $100 million; the trial court dismissed the contract causes of action based on the agreement as written and the alleged oral understandings of the parties, and plaintiff's fraud-based cause of action.
• Prudential Securities Inc. — Defended PSI in multi-week arbitration trials involving claims by former employees alleging discrimination, retaliatory discharge and defamation.
• Merrill Lynch — Defeated certification of a securities class action involving a $135 million offering of hotel limited partnership interests and, following successful motion practice, obtained a favorable settlement for the client in a "mass" action involving more than 1,400 plaintiffs.
• Brunswick Corp. — Opposed, on behalf of Brunswick, a shareholder action seeking to require the company to include a national health care proposal in its proxy materials.

• “Superb interpersonal skills and judgment…is, according to clients, 'great at getting to the heart of the matter.'" - Chambers USA
• “An accomplished commercial litigator and trial lawyer whom peers describe as 'client-friendly, yet aggressive in court’…'thoughtfulness and insight' in litigation most frequently benefits members of the financial sector.’" - Chambers USA
• “Breadth of vision in the preparation and execution of cases…[h]e is telescopic when identifying problems on the horizon, wide-angled in his ability to see who is coming at us sideways and microscopic when picking up on trial-winning details.'" - Chambers USA