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Christine Malafi is a partner at Campolo, Middleton, & McCormick, LLP and a member of the firm’s executive management team in addition to its corporate, litigation and municipal law groups.

Malafi believes one of the singularly most important legal relationship in people’s lives is the employment relationship, and plans to continue to focus on assisting clients to navigate that relationship.

“Employment relationships are the primary source of support for most people and their families, as well as an important part of our non-work lives, Malafi said. “ A person’s employment can be a source of social relationships, friendships, and personal identity, and can add to- or subtract from – a person’s overall fulfillment.”

Some particularly interesting legal questions arise in the context of the employment relationship, Malafi noted. “All such relationships share a common interest in mutual success, yet the parties to the relationship benefit economically and personally at the expense of the other,” she said.

“In 2015, I intend to focus on such things as covenants not to compete, confidentiality of work products, solicitation, compensation issues, and the protection of intellectual property, and in training both sides in the area of discrimination law and compliance with federal and state legislation and administrative rules which govern this important relationship for both employers and employees.” Malafi said.

Prior to joining the firm, Malafi was senior corporate counsel to Leviton Manufacturing Co., Inc., where she handled corporate governance, acquisitions, routine and complex transactions, employment issues, and other business matters, both nationally and internationally.

In 2014, she was appointed Suffolk County Attorney, as the first woman and youngest person ever appointed to the position. In that position for eight years, Malafi was the chief legal officer of the county, supervising a legal team of over 65 attorneys in the Suffolk County Department of Law. During her eight-year venture, she focused on obtaining jury verdicts in favor of the county, making fewer settlements, streamlining contract procedures, enforcing anti-discrimination laws, and protecting children from harm.

Earlier in her career, Malafi was a partner with Lewis Johs Avallone Aviles & Kaufman, LLP where her practice focused on insurance coverage and contract analysis, appeals, insurance fraud issues, general liability litigation, municipal work and environmental defense work.

Malafi has taught undergraduate and law school classes on litigation, legal research and writing at Long Island University, C.W. Post and at Touro Law Center. She has also lectured on municipal issues, insurance coverage issues and claim handling. She has been appointed by Chief Administrative Judge Gail Prudenti to the New York State Pro Bono Scholars Task Force, and additionally, she was a speaker and member of Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman’s New York State Task Force to Expand Access to Legal Services in New York, the New York State Judicial Institute on the Professionalism in the Law, and was a presenter at the Chief Judge’s Convocation on Independence and the Government Lawyer in Albany, NY.

Malafi earned a juris doctor, magna cum laude, from Touro College, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Dowling College.
She is a member of the New York and Connecticut State Bars and is admitted to practice before the United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit; and the United States District Courts, Eastern and Southern Districts of New York .

Campolo, Middleton & McCormick LLP in Ronkonkoma is a full service law firm representing clients in a wide variety of legal matters, including business transaction matters, corporate, healthcare, intellectual property and technology, labor and employment, liability insurance and insurance coverage, litigation and appeals, matrimonial mergers and acquisitions, municipal liability and government relations, private equity, real estate development, white collar defense and wills, trusts and estates.

The firm has an established record of results for its clients, who range from individuals to global companies, and approached each matter with a unique understanding of the issues and the highest level of integrity. The firm is the recipient of the HIA-LI Business Achievement Award and has been voted the 2015 Best Law Firm on Long Island in the “Bethpage Best of Long Island” awards.

By Bernadette Starzee, Long Island Business News

Joe Campolo, managing partner at Campolo, Middleton & McCormick in Ronkonkoma, attended last year’s Stony Brook Film Festival “just to watch movies,” he said, but was especially impressed by a short film “This Is Ellen,” starring Michael Nathanson and directed by John Salcido. Nathanson and Salcido spoke on stage at the screening, and Campolo met them at the after-party.

“I wasn’t going to go to the party, but they were so talented, I figured I would go meet them to see what their story was,” he said.

The pair submitted a script for a short film called “Tribute” to Campolo, who found it “laugh-out-loud funny.” He decided to executive produce it in partnership with a client, Joe Zepf, with whom he formed the production company Campolo Zepf Productions.

Starring Nathanson and directed by Salcido, “Tribute” tells the story of a series of misadventures that happen when a man accompanies his girlfriend to a party honoring her ex-boyfriend. “Tribute” aired at last month’s Stony Brook Film Festival, generating a lot of interest for Campolo Zepf Productions.

“When starving actors and filmmakers hear people are interested in investing, they come in droves,” Campolo said.

“Tribute” is continuing to make the rounds on the film festival circuit.

“If shorts generate a lot of interest, they might be nominated for an Academy Award or picked up to be made into a feature,” said Campolo. Working on the film project in addition to his busy law practice has presented time management challenges for Campolo though.

“I don’t sleep,” he said. “But it’s a lot of fun. It’s a business and an investment, but it’s a new adventure that’s out of the day-to-day grind.”

 http://libn.com/2014/08/20/motions-and-pictures/

Watch the film trailer here! https://vimeo.com/95450122