News (All)

Wine & Dine Benefit

Posted: September 13th, 2019

Event Date: October 21st, 2019

CMM Cares’ 1st Annual Wine & Dine Benefit will celebrate some of the world’s best wines with a global taste experience. Travel around the world with expertly paired wines and delectable dishes at this special event held at the spectacular St. George’s Golf & Country Club. Enjoy wines from Spain, Italy, France, and America, curated by certified sommelier Pascal Zugmeyer, paired with masterfully refined regional dishes. Meet this seasoned expert, learn the story of his wine choices, and experience the harmony of delectable wines. The event will also feature live music, hand-rolled cigars paired with premium bourbons, a fully stocked raw bar, and an open bar, with all funds raised benefiting Family Service League.

True wine lovers won’t want to miss our exclusive VIP hour where Michael Romano, certified sommelier and owner of Romano Brands Fine Wines, will share his wealth of knowledge in the art of wine during this dynamic event. In an intimate setting you’ll enjoy rare fine wines as he teaches you the secrets of wine pairings. You’ll experience how premium imported cheeses and luxury chocolates come to life when expertly married with the right wines. Space is limited; don’t miss this opportunity! 

CMM Cares is the firm’s volunteer initiative established to benefit the Long Island community with donations of time, dollars, and support. We host a variety of volunteer and fundraising events throughout the year to benefit local nonprofits. Sponsorship dollars and ticket sales offset the costs of our programming and events so that every dollar possible will go to organizations that need it. 

General Admission: $150
5:30 – 8:00 p.m.: Includes wine tasting, food pairing, live music, cigars

VIP Pass: $250
The VIP Exclusive Preview Hour includes a special tasting with high-end wines, cheeses, and chocolates curated and guided by Michael Romano from 4:30 – 5:30 pm before joining us at the main event.

Sponsorship opportunities available!

Payment for and/or attendance at CMM Cares events and programming does not create an attorney-client relationship.

Thank you to our sponsors:

VIP Experience Sponsor:

Romano Beverage

Live Music Sponsor:

Cerini & Associates

Cigar Sponsor:

sunation

Wine Sponsors:

MFB Logo
Sasserath & Zoraian
Citrin Cooperman Logo
Protegrity Advisors Logo
HKM Logo

Photography Sponsors:

National Business Capital & Services
Klein Wealth Management

Wine Bag Sponsor:

CMM Senior Partner Christine Malafi Earns 2019 “Super Lawyers” Recognition

Posted: September 12th, 2019

Campolo, Middleton & McCormick, LLP, a premier law firm with offices in Westbury, Ronkonkoma, and Bridgehampton, is proud to announce that Senior Partner Christine Malafi has been recognized by Super Lawyers. The rigorous selection process is based on evaluation of 12 indicators including peer recognition and professional achievement in legal practice.

Malafi chairs the firm’s Corporate department, one of the most robust teams in the region. Her practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, routine and complex transactions, labor and employment, and other business matters, as well as municipal and insurance issues. She represents buyers and sellers in multimillion-dollar transactions and serves in a general counsel role for many of the firm’s internationally-based clients.

Learn more about CMM’s outstanding legal professionals here.

Christine Malafi presents Employees vs. Independent Contractors

Posted: September 11th, 2019

Event Date: September 20th, 2019

Employees vs. Independent Contractors: Does Your Business Know the Difference?

Improper classification of employees as independent contractors can have a serious impact on a business if the U.S. Department of Labor and/or State Department of Labor don’t agree. Join Senior Partner Christine Malafi to take a closer look at the differences.

Friday, September 20, 2019
8:00 AM at the Miller Business Center, 101 Eastwood Blvd., Centereach, NY 11720. The event will include networking and light refreshments.
Tickets are complimentary, but registration is required. Register here.

Remembering

Posted: September 11th, 2019

On this difficult anniversary, CMM Managing Partner Joe Campolo shared these words with our team.

18 years ago, I was an associate at a firm in Uniondale.  I had arrived early that morning because I was stressed out about a motion that needed to go out that day.  When the first plane hit, my secretary Shelia came into my office and calmly told me that plane had hit one of the towers but she assumed it was an accident.  There was a small TV in one of the conference rooms where some people had gathered and were watching the news.  It was then, as I was watching, that the second plane hit and everyone gasped.  From the windows of the west side of our office (we were in the west tower of the old EAB, which is now RXR Plaza) you could see the city skyline and the smoke billowing in the distance.  My mind was racing, doing quick math and realizing very quickly that this was not going to be good.  It was then I felt an immediate reaction, or compulsion rather, to get out of there and make sure my daughter was safe.  I called my ex-wife and she was on her way to pick up Kat from her Montessori school, and I drove like a bat out of hell from Uniondale to Setauket so I could see she was safe with my own eyes.  I will never forget the immense comfort and joy I felt when I finally saw Kat and was able to hug her. 

In recalling this, I cannot imagine the level of joy the people who had family members and loved ones must have felt when they were able to see the ones who made it out of the towers safely. Conversely, I cannot imagine the pain and loss felt by the families who were never able to see or hug their loved ones again.  It is a senseless tragedy with loss that rises past our comprehension.

9/11 was not just a tragic accident, it was a monumental event on all humans who were alive to experience it, and its aftermath has devastating effect on humanity. Society as a whole now trusts less and hates more.  It cause humanity to become much more decisive and intolerant, none of which is good.

Today I ask that we all remember all the innocent men and woman who were murdered, and the brave fire fighters and police who risked and gave their lives to try and help save others.  I do not ask that we just remember their names, but I ask that we remember the good that was in their hearts, the fact that no one cared if a person was a democrat or republican, or black or white, but simply that we were all human beings trying to help each other.  That, to me, is the lesson of 9/11, one that has been entrusted to all us survivors: to use that experience and the memories of those who died to remind us every day that it is up to us to help make this world a better and more peaceful place before it’s too late.

Execution on the East End: The Discipline of Getting Things Done

Posted: August 30th, 2019

Event Date: November 6th, 2019

Presented by Joe Campolo, Esq.

You can make plans, write down goals, dream big – but none of that matters if you can’t execute.

How do you close the gap between results planned and results delivered? Join us for an in-depth look at the art of execution: how to get out there every day and implement the strategies to get things done. Whether you’re looking to boost the productivity culture at your organization, start a new venture, or otherwise make an impact, this seminar will help you translate words and thoughts into action.

Based on Long Island business leader Joe Campolo’s take on Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan’s bestseller Execution, this presentation will cover:

  • Setting clear goals and priorities
  • Building blocks of execution
  • Follow through
  • Shifting the culture at your organization
  • Expanding capabilities
  • Linking people, strategy, and operations to get things done

CMM Academy has provided a linear series of events for Long Island business leaders – from advanced negotiation to Marine Corps leadership principles to the management strategies of GE’s Jack Welch. Execution is the natural progression of these lessons, because no matter what we say or what we think, what truly matters is what we do.

8:30 a.m.: Registration, networking and breakfast
9:00-10:00 a.m.: Presentation

Located at Chancellors Hall at Stony Brook Southampton Campus.

Register here. 

Sponsored by:

Island Tech Services
HKM Logo
MFB Logo
Hampton Pest

Payment for and/or attendance at CMM Academy events and programming does not create an attorney-client relationship.

Transformational Leadership – View from the Top with Joe Campolo

Posted: August 29th, 2019

Event Date: October 2nd, 2019

How do leaders inspire their team to create change that will help grow and shape the future success of the company?

Hear from a distinguished panel of business executives discuss how to work with teams to identify needed change, create a vision to guide the change through inspiration, and execute change in tandem with committed members of a group at HIA-LI’s Transformational Leadership Event.

Wednesday, October 2. 2019
8:30 – 10:30 AM
LGBT Network, 125 Kennedy Drive, Suite 100, Hauppauge, NY 11788

Register here.

Moderator: David Kilmnick, President & CEO, LGBT Network

Panelists:
Joe Campolo, Managing Partner, Campolo Middleton & McCormick, LLP, and HIA-LI Board Chair
Daniel Doyle, President, Cardworks Merchant Services
Jon Ledecky, Co-owner, New York Islanders
Jay Waldner, Principal, Waldner’s

When to Call it Quits in Negotiation

Posted: August 29th, 2019

By: Joe Campolo, Esq. email

Tags:

When it comes to negotiation, sometimes you have to just walk away.

When a negotiation is going well, and you and your adversary have reached a win-win (or at least a win-not lose) deal, it’s obvious when to stop negotiating. But when a negotiation turns tense or difficult, how do you know when to push through and keep going, or stop and move on? Here are some signs it’s time to call it quits.

1. It’s just not fair!”

It’s human nature for negotiators to determine their preferred outcome, then justify it based on fairness. A recent blog post from the Harvard Law School Program on Negotiation gives a great example: the Winklevoss twins’ case of “settler’s remorse” after receiving a $65 million settlement from Facebook. Arguing that Facebook had cheated them out of hundreds of millions of dollars, the twins waged an expensive and time-consuming battle based on dubious legal grounds to undo the settlement, claiming to be motivated not by money but by fairness.

The alleged pursuit of fairness can be a slippery slope. As the Harvard blog points out, say you’re splitting up with your business partner. Of course, you feel that you deserve a bigger slice of the pie, because you invested more money. But your partner feels that she deserves a bigger slice – because she invested more time. Our natural egocentrism can destroy a negotiation. If the negotiation has hit a wall because you or your adversary are claiming unfairness, take a step back. Ask a colleague or mentor for an objective reality check. It may be time to consider your opponent’s perspective more carefully – or move on.

2. You’re negotiating with the devil (or so you think).

Disputes can drag out over long periods of time – lasting months or even years. With each passing day, frustrations rise, impatience grows, and it becomes easier for the parties to stop seeing the humanity in each other and instead start to demonize each other. Ask yourself honestly: are you continuing to fight it out because you think you can get a better outcome, or because you want to stick it to your opponent? There’s tenacity, and then there’s obsession. In this situation, it may be helpful to ask a trusted advisor or colleague for an honest assessment about whether this fight it still worth pursuing.

3. No one’s budging.

Sometimes in a tense negotiation, no matter how much you prepared beforehand or how carefully you’ve determined your BATNA, a deadlock occurs and the parties simply cannot reach an agreement. When this happens, take some time to reconsider your own position and make sure you are actively listening to the other side’s concerns. (See some other tips here.) The deadlock may be a temporary setback that can be overcome. Still no movement? It may be time to walk away.

These difficult scenarios demonstrate why success in negotiation depends so strongly on your understanding of the psychological principles at play across the table. You owe it to yourself to prepare thoroughly and to keep in mind that a final resolution might not occur in the first round of negotiations. Calling it quits is a last resort, not a first.

The Second Circuit Declines to Extend the U.S. Supreme Court’s McDonnell “Official Act” Reasoning to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act

Posted: August 23rd, 2019

Published In: The Suffolk Lawyer

Tags:

In 2016, in McDonnell v. United States, the U.S. Supreme vacated the former Virginia Governor’s bribery conviction by limiting the definition of what constitutes an “official act.”  Critics argue the McDonnell decision legalizes, or at least substantially shields, public corruption and has already served to overturn (at least temporarily, in the case of former New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver) convictions of other public officials.  However, in a decision likely welcomed by good governance advocates, on August 9, 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit declined to extend the McDonnell “official act” requirement to Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) prosecutions, affirming the conviction of Chinese real estate developer Ng Lap Seng. 

On June 7, 2018, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (Broderick, J.) ordered Ng to serve concurrent 48-month prison terms after a jury convicted him of paying and conspiring to pay bribes in violation of 18 U.S.C. Sections 371, 666, and the FCPA, 15 U.S.C. Sections 78dd-2 and 78dd-3.  Ng, a billionaire real estate tycoon, paid more than $1 million to two United Nations diplomats to secure a U.N. commitment to use Ng’s latest Macau-based hotel and convention center as the site for an annual U.N. conference. 

The prosecution’s evidence at trial was detailed and overwhelming.  For instance, in exchange for monthly payments of $20,000 for alleged services rendered to one of Ng’s media companies, one U.N. diplomat and cooperating witness testified his “salary” was in fact bribes to secure for Ng not only general U.N. support for using the convention center, but also a formal documented commitment to do so.  In another instance, the then-President of the U.N. General Assembly travelled to Macau with U.N. staff to visit the convention site in exchange for a payment of $200,000 to the Office of the President of General Assembly.  The diplomats secured official letters and other records of ambassadorial support for Ng’s project and an early commitment to hold the annual conference at Ng’s facility.  Diplomatic efforts to finalize the U.N.’s commitment to the convention center were abandoned in September 2015 following Ng’s arrest. 

The bulk of Judge Raggi’s opinion addressed Ng’s argument that his conviction under 18 U.S.C. Section 666, which criminalizes theft or bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds, cannot stand because the U.N. is not an “organization” within the meaning of the statute.  Judge Raggi used precedential, textual, and historical analysis to hold that public international organizations, such as the U.N., are covered by Section 666 before moving on to Ng’s McDonnel challenge.  That the court, however, may have buried the lead as its holding regarding McDonnell’s application to the FCPA is arguably more significant than its holding regarding the U.N. falling within Section 666’s definition of an organization.

Ng argued the FCPA requires proof of an official act satisfying the McDonnell standard and the district court’s jury instruction failed to satisfy that standard.  At issue in McDonnell was whether “arranging a meeting, contacting another public official, or hosting an event—without more—concerning any subject, including a broad policy issue such as Virginia economic development,” qualified as an “official act” as defined by 18 U.S.C. Section 201(a)(3).  In holding these actions did not qualify, the Supreme Court reversed McDonnell’s conviction and identified two requirements in the statutory text to prove an official act under Section 201: first, the government must identify a “pending” question, matter, proceeding, or controversy that involves the “formal exercise of governmental power.”  Second, the government must prove the public official took an action on that pending matter.  Ng argued not only did the district court not properly instruct the jury, but the facts at trial did not prove an “official act” by the U.N. diplomats. 

Judge Raggi begins with the premise that there is no universal statutory definition for what constitutes a “bribe,” but at the very least all involve a quid pro quo.   However, not all federal statutes define the “quo” in the same manner, much less an “official act” of Section 201.  The court reasons the very existence of different quos across related statutes demonstrates Congress did not intend all bribery or corruption-related laws to be treated identically to Section 201.  Judge Raggi easily dispensed with Ng’s arguments vis-à-vis Section 666, as the Second Circuit in United States v. Boyland previously held McDonnell’s “official act” standard for the quo component of bribery does not apply to the “more expansive language of Section 666, which nowhere mentions “official acts.” 

With respect to the FCPA, the court acknowledges the first quo references an “act or decision” of a “foreign official in his official capacity,” the FCPA does not cabin “official capacity” acts or decisions to a definitional list akin to Section 201’s understanding of official acts.  According to the court, the FCPA is broader and includes, for instance, acts or omissions that violate an official’s “duty” or affect or influence the act or decision of a foreign government.  Judge Raggi also observes the FCPA prohibits bribing a foreign official to “secure an improper advantage” in obtaining, retaining, or directing business without requiring the advantage be secured by an “official act.” 

By declining to extend the McDonnell requirements to the FCPA, the Second Circuit is reinforcing the reasoning of its sister courts holding the “official acts” requirement of Section 201 does not bleed into other statutory anti-bribery regimes, including the FCPA.  While prosecutors may find it more difficult to convict conventional domestic political bribery in a post-McDonnell world, corporate executives subject to the FCPA’s broad, extraterritorial reach cannot become complacent, particularly as the DOJ seeks ever more to hold individuals criminally liable for acts of international business corruption. 

The information contained in this article is provided for informational purposes only and is not and should not be construed as legal advice on any subject matter. The firm provides legal advice and other services only to persons or entities with which it has established an attorney-client relationship.

LIBN: HIA-LI scores grant to attract businesses to innovation park

Posted: August 19th, 2019

By Adina Genn

HIA-LI has landed a matching grant from National Grid to help attract businesses to the Long Island Innovation Park at Hauppauge, previously known as the Hauppauge Industrial Park.

The grant is from National Grid’s Cooperative Business Recruitment Program, which offers matching funds for marketing initiatives between a business and the regional and local economic development partners.

Through this grant program, National Grid is providing $24,750. Combined with the dollar-for-dollar match, the overall marketing program will be $49,500.

Through this program, HIA-LI will market the park to audiences in New York City, New Jersey, Connecticut, and the Lower Hudson Valley.

It includes cable-TV advertising and news-radio stations, as well as a public relations outreach to business publications. And it will feature e-mail blasts to 60,000 CEOs and business decision makers in the New York metropolitan area.

“As America’s second-largest business complex, the Long Island Innovation Park at Hauppauge offers compelling advantages as a corporate location,” Terri Alessi-Miceli, president and CEO of HIA-LI said in a statement.

”We’re extremely grateful to National Grid for lending their support to a marketing initiative that is certain to draw new businesses to the park,” she added.

Keith Rooney, National Grid’s director of Customer and Community Management, described the Park as a “premier spot for businesses to succeed.”

With the grant, “we’ll soon be launching an aggressive outreach campaign to broaden our tenant roster,” Joe Campolo, managing partner of Campolo, Middleton & McCormick and chairman of the HIA-LI board of directors, said in a statement.

Read more here.