Category: News on the Homepage

Campolo, Middleton & McCormick, LLP congratulates Senior Partner Christine Malafi on being recognized as one of the 25 Most Powerful People in Long Island Law. The LIBN Power 25 Lawyer List honors dedicated, accomplished attorneys who have persevered through challenges and positively shaped Long Island by making inspiring impacts on the lives of their clients and our region.

“Long Island Business News is proud to honor its 2022 Power 25 legal professionals who exemplify the region’s best and brightest legal minds and who show that they also give from their hearts,” said Joe Dowd, LIBN Editor & Associate Publisher. “Long Island’s top legal professionals generously donate their time to provide education and youth mentorship, support a diverse array of charitable initiatives and offer pro bono services for those in need. They are leaders in our communities, serving not only our businesses but also the needs of our youth, the elderly and those who special needs, working to make a difference and strengthen all of Long Island’s diverse populations.”

As Chair of the Corporate department, Malafi has led the CMM legal team in closing countless M&A deals worth billions of dollars. She has vast experience advising on both buy-side and sell-side M&A transactions in a variety of industries. Malafi has the unique perspective of being a corporate lawyer who spent the first half of her career as a trial court litigator and appellate attorney with extensive experience in municipal, insurance coverage, and fraud issues. She brings her deep understanding of litigation and the court system to all aspects of her corporate work and uses this experience to help protect clients from a variety of critical angles.

In addition to her legal work, Malafi serves on the Executive Board of Directors of Family Service League and the Board of Governors of Touro Law School. She has been featured in The Best Lawyers in America® in the category of Employment Law for five consecutive years and was recently recognized with a Leadership in Law Lifetime Achievement Award. Malafi has also been featured in the Long Island Business News Who’s Who in Labor Law section, was honored as one of the Top Outstanding Women in Law by the Center for Children, Families and the Law at Hofstra University, and was named to LIBN’s Top 50 Most Influential Women in Business.

Malafi is frequently quoted on various legal topics in Newsday and Long Island Business News. A sought-after presenter, she has given numerous lectures and presentations at business resource centers, education groups, and bar associations.

CMM’s litigation prowess extended far beyond New York’s borders in a recent case filed in Arizona. 

CMM represented one of the defendants, a remote former consultant/independent contractor who sold his business to the plaintiff company. The company, headquartered in Arizona, commenced a lawsuit against our client and others in the Superior Court of the State of Arizona, alleging that our client and his business partner plotted to misappropriate the company’s confidential information, steal its property, and solicit and interfere with its customers and business relationships.

CMM’s team of Senior Partner Patrick McCormick and Associate Richard DeMaio strategically removed the action from Superior (state) Court in Arizona to Federal Court in the District of Arizona, and then moved to dismiss the action in its entirety based on lack of personal jurisdiction. The team argued that as an out-of-state resident and independent contractor, our client had no contacts with the state of Arizona that were sufficient to confer jurisdiction over him in Arizona. (For example, he did not own property in Arizona, never paid taxes there, and had visited only a handful of times for business meetings.)

Thanks to CMM’s hard work and strategic decision-making, the Court agreed, granting the motion to dismiss based on lack of personal jurisdiction.

CMM’s commercial litigation practice includes success at the state and federal level. Learn more about our litigation practice here.

CMM’s groundbreaking Economic Impact Study examining the potential economic impact of more inbound flights at Long Island MacArthur Airport was revealed at the HIA-LI “Future of Tourism” event on March 2. Demonstrating exponential growth potential, the study attracted enormous media attention and community support for Long Island’s hometown airport and tourism industry.

Spearheaded by Joe Campolo and his team at CMM in partnership with HIA-LI, Discover Long Island, the Town of Islip, and MacArthur Airport (“ISP”), the study is based on forecasts and assumptions regarding overall air travel capacity at ISP and general economic indicators in the Long Island tourism sector. A primary goal of the study was to demonstrate how critical both MacArthur Airport and tourism are to the Long Island economy. The staggering results are already mobilizing the business community to support the airport, Discover Long Island, travel and tourism.

Essentially, the study examined the potential economic and tourism impact if the airport increased its daily inbound flights. Using the standard metric that approximately 10% of MacArthur Airport deplanements are tourists, the study calculated the additional tourists that could be attracted to Long Island through more nonstop destinations and inbound flights. The study further calculated the spend of these tourists across the sectors of Food & Beverage, Transportation, Recreation, Retail & Service Stations, and Lodging using Long Island tourism data from the Tourism Economics database. Overall, the results show that the addition of more nonstop flights into ISP has the potential to generate unprecedented new revenue for Long Island, creating a win-win scenario to help Long Island thrive.

The Economic Impact Study follows closely on the heels of CMM and HIA-LI’s August 2021 survey that examined the current and future travel needs of the local business community. With over 500 businesses responding, the results of the survey were revealed in October 2021 and indicated that the addition of more nonstop flights from MacArthur could result in a 218 percent increase in travel dollars spent on flights at the airport – an unparalleled economic opportunity for the region. These results were instrumental in attracting Breeze Airways, the newest airline created by JetBlue founder David Neeleman, to MacArthur with its inaugural flight in February 2022.

CMM Senior Partner Scott Middleton successfully defended the Town of Smithtown in a recent slip and fall case, securing a unanimous verdict on behalf of the Town on the issue of liability. 

In 2015, the plaintiff was putting her grandchild on the school bus in the hamlet of Nesconset when she allegedly slipped and fell on an icy residential roadway. She sustained a fractured hip and femur that required pinning of the hip and placement of an intermedullary rod in the femur. In her lawsuit against the Town of Smithtown, the plaintiff claimed that the Town’s winter plowing efforts created the icy conditions that led to her accident.

After a four-day trial on the issue of liability, Middleton established that the Town was not liable in creating the condition that caused the accident, resulting in a unanimous defendant’s verdict, saving the Town from significant legal exposure.

CMM has a proven track record in defending Suffolk and Nassau County towns and villages. Visit our Municipal Liability page to read about more successful cases.

CMM represented Alure Home Improvements in its acquisition by Audax Private Equity. Led by Sal Ferro since 1998, Alure has been the preeminent full-service home remodeling company on Long Island for over 75 years and has 30,000 loyal customers. Audax Private Equity has been a leader in acquiring and scaling middle market companies for over 20 years.

CMM Partner Donald Rassiger and Senior Associate Vincent Costa led various aspects of CMM’s deal team to close the sophisticated transaction. CMM’s Marc Saracino and Zachary Mike provided critical support along with corporate paralegal Kat Campolo. The team worked with Protegrity Advisors, our client’s M&A advisor, to close the deal.

Learn more about our M&A practice here and contact us today.

Long Island’s East End real estate market is booming as sales volume increases with no signs of slowing down. Despite inventory hitting record lows, it seems that everyone wants a piece of the East End.

This is great news for our client, who owns a trucking and excavation company on the East End. The company provides demolition, land clearing, excavation, drainage, and sanitary system installation services and also specializes in all phases of site development. In addition to owning that business, our client was also a 50% partner in multiple LLCs that owned four East End commercial properties. CMM recently closed a transaction in which our client acquired his business partner’s membership in the LLCs, becoming the sole owner. Closing the deal required navigation of not just the myriad legal issues, but also the personal and emotional issues that often arise among business partners parting ways.

While “business divorce” is often challenging, CMM’s Donald Rassiger received these kind words from our client: “I can’t thank you enough for your help! It’s been a rocky road for sure, but the weight that’s been lifted was worth the wait. There are many people that are glad to finally be done with this chapter.”

With an office in Riverhead and a longtime presence on the East End, CMM represents East End clients ranging from towns and villages to small businesses in matters such as land use, municipal liability, and mergers & acquisitions.

Contact us today to learn more.

Arthur Yermash is a partner at Campolo, Middleton & McCormick, LLP. A corporate lawyer, Yermash provides practical, business-focused guidance to clients. Since launching his career at CMM over a decade ago, Yermash has directly supported the general counsel and full legal and business teams for a national retailer, serving as their go-to resource and primary outside counsel on an extraordinarily wide range of business and employment matters.

He has also represented Long Island and NYC companies in countless business-related matters and transactions from the routine to the complex, with a particular emphasis on guiding businesses through labor and employment issues from an employer perspective.

It has become exceedingly challenging for employers to comply with many different COVID-19 requirements and guidelines, Yermash said.

“The rules and requirements are changing at an unprecedented pace, creating difficulties for business decisionmakers to keep up with seemingly weekly changes,” he said. “The CDC and federal OSHA are focused on vaccination requirements, masks, and quarantine guidelines. State and city leaders are focused on paid sick leave, unpaid sick leave, quarantine leave, HERO Act, testing, and more.”

“A workforce is the backbone of any business and making sure people are able to get their jobs done safely and efficiently is vital for every business.,” Yermash noted. “As we head into 2022, it is as important as ever to maintain policies that fit the unique needs of each business. At the same time, employers must stay vigilant regarding the ever-changing rules and guidelines to maintain a safe and productive workplace.”

Yermash also chairs the firm’s Cannabis Law practice group, providing critical guidance for cannabis businesses, entrepreneurs, and service providers on a wide range of matters in this emerging market.

Campolo, Middleton & McCormick, LLP is a premier law firm with offices across Long Island. Recently recognized as one of America’s Top Corporate Law Firms by Forbes, CMM has become the firm of choice for clients with respect to their most significant business transactions, challenging legal issues, and critical disputes.

In addition to voting them to the prestigious Forbes list, their clients and the business community have repeatedly chosen CMM as Best Law Firm in the “Best of Long Island” awards and their peers and adversaries have earned the firm and their partners AV-Preeminent® ratings, reserved for the highest level of professional excellence.

Founded in Suffolk County, CMM’s Long Island roots are deep. Over the past generation, CMM’s attorneys have played a central role in the most critical legal issues and transactions affecting Long Island. Started in Bohemia in 2008 with two lawyers, CMM now has over 30 lawyers and more than 50 total staff in their expanded Ronkonkoma headquarters and their offices on the East End and in Nassau County.

View the full Who’s Who book here.

In 2018, we reported that CMM litigators Patrick McCormick and Richard DeMaio, representing the St. James Fire District, successfully defended a petition that sought to punish the District for allegedly not complying with a multitude of conflicting F.O.I.L. requests – a victory that saved the District significant funds. In yet another victory, we are pleased to report that the 2018 decision was affirmed on appeal by the Appellate Division, Second Department more than three years later thanks to CMM’s hard work.

Between December 2017 and January 2018, Petitioner and his counsel, Cory Morris, Esq., made a series of requests to the Fire District pursuant to the Freedom of Information Law (F.O.I.L.) for over 40 categories of records spanning years. The claimed purpose of the requests was to provide the public with information concerning a proposal to sell the Fire District’s 100-year-old firehouse on Route 25A to the St. James Fire Department. In March 2018, Petitioner commenced a special proceeding pursuant to CPLR Article 78 seeking to compel the Fire District to comply with the requests, as well as pay him costs and fees.

In lieu of answering the petition, CMM’s litigation team moved to dismiss the proceeding, contending that the petition was moot because the Fire District responded timely to the voluminous requests – and that it did so notwithstanding that Petitioner had made multiple overlapping and duplicative requests with conflicting instructions and modifications. After a hearing and upon review of CMM’s detailed motion papers, the Supreme Court found that the Fire District responded timely, “notwithstanding the confusion and inconsistencies of position engendered by [Petitioner] and his counsel.”

Petitioner appealed, and the Appellate Division, Second Department, ultimately heard oral argument in October 2021. DeMaio’s oral argument, as well as McCormick and DeMaio’s appellate brief, demonstrated to the Court that the lower court decision should be affirmed. Indeed, the Court noted in its decision that (1) the Supreme Court properly determined that the branch of the petition seeking to compel production of the subject documents was rendered moot by the Fire District’s eventual disclosure; (2) the petitioner was not entitled to attorneys’ fees and costs; and (3) the Supreme Court had properly denied the branch of the petition seeking to retrain certain employees of the Fire District with respect to their F.O.I.L. obligations.

CMM has become a go-to appellate team for clients and trial lawyers alike. Learn more about our appeals practice here or contact us.

Pets are family, and one of the reasons our client’s veterinary hospital is so successful is the atmosphere of compassion that their animal-loving staff provides. This type of care has helped the family-oriented practice build their reputation in a NY suburb just north of the city and establish themselves as a leader not only in the surrounding community, but in the veterinary field. Their passion and dedication over two decades in business caught the attention of a larger veterinary group looking to expand, and CMM was thrilled to help our client navigate the multimillion-dollar sale.

Our client expressed their gratitude for CMM’s team, led by Senior Partner and Corporate Department Chair Christine Malafi, with the hard work of Associate Marc Saracino, Paralegal Kat Campolo, and Legal Assistant Cailey McByrne. The client was particularly appreciative of CMM’s ability to close the deal within a tight timeframe, keeping everything moving smoothly.

This business deal among animal lovers shows that anything is paw-sible when CMM’s M&A team is involved. Visit our M&A practice page to learn more or contact us for your next merger or acquisition.