News (All)

Campolo, Middleton & McCormick, a premier law firm with offices in Westbury, Ronkonkoma, and Bridgehampton, proudly announces that Senior Partner Patrick McCormick has been elected to the Executive Committee (as Secretary) of the Suffolk County Bar Association. This election is a significant professional milestone for McCormick, who has just completed a successful two-year term as Dean of the Academy of Law, the SCBA’s educational arm. McCormick will be sworn in at the SCBA’s 111^th Annual Installation Dinner on June 7, 2019.

McCormick chairs the Appellate Practice group at CMM, having built a reputation as a strategic and talented appellate attorney over nearly three decades in the field. Representing clients in civil and criminal matters in both federal and state court, McCormick has argued numerous appeals, including three arguments at the New York State Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court. He is also a respected trial attorney, litigating all types of complex commercial and real estate matters, and also represents national commercial shopping centers, retailers, and publicly traded home builders in commercial and residential landlord-tenant matters.

The Suffolk County Bar Association is one of the largest voluntary bar associations in New York State. As Dean of the Academy, McCormick spearheaded the continuing education of thousands of New York lawyers. During his tenure he helped bring the Academy into the future by increasing the number of programs, utilizing new technology, and offering an unprecedented range of topics, scheduling, and formats. In addition to his new role as Secretary and prior roles on the Board of Directors and as Academy Dean, McCormick has served the SCBA as Chair of the Appellate Practice Committee as well as on the Commercial Division, Landlord/Tenant, and Real Property Committees. 

Relationships between business partners can sometimes sour. And other times, they can turn downright ugly.

CMM’s client, a well-respected environmental engineering firm with multiple locations, reported that one of its shareholders (who was also an employee) had abruptly resigned. He began intimidating the company with bogus criminal complaints and threats to report them to governmental agencies, with the sole aim of gaining an advantage in buyout negotiations. He also continued to communicate with and intimidate the company’s employees and consultants. On top of that, our client also learned that the shareholder had violated the duties he owed to the company during his tenure as an officer by commingling business and personal funds, among other wrongdoing.

The shareholder’s egregious behavior had the potential to damage the company’s reputation and business relationships and resulted in delayed business operations and unnecessary costs. Our client therefore sought to restrain the shareholder from any further dealings with the company. In addition to filing a Complaint against the shareholder, CMM moved by Order to Show Cause for a temporary restraining order barring the former shareholder from accessing our client’s credit line or bank accounts, interfering with our client’s business operations, contacting our client’s customers or potential customers, inducing employees to leave the company, or interfering in our client’s day-to-day business operations.

Thanks to the hard work and extraordinary advocacy of senior partners Scott Middleton (who argued the motion in court) and Patrick McCormick, associates Richard DeMaio and David Green, and paralegal Kathleen Johnson, the Court granted all the relief we sought. The Court agreed with CMM’s arguments that the defendant’s continued misconduct violated both the Shareholder’s Agreement and his fiduciary duties. Our client can now move forward by parting ways with the shareholder and starting the company’s next chapter.

Learn more about our wealth of experience handling all types of business divorce matters here.

Many injured or disabled workers fear that a denial of insurance coverage or disability benefits marks the end of an already-frustrating road of red tape and dead ends. But that’s precisely when CMM was retained to turn a client’s difficult journey around.

A Fortune 500 insurance company had denied coverage for long-term disability benefits to our client, insisting that he “did not meet the policy definition of Disability” despite well-documented medical records to the contrary. CMM fought back. Christine Malafi appealed the finding, arguing that our client’s medical records and physician assessments provided well-documented and overwhelming evidence of significant impairment such that our client was wholly unable to work.

CMM further argued that the insurance company’s denial was egregious as it was based entirely on the opinion of their own medical assessor, which was not only a clear conflict of interest but also entirely unsupported by the record. The appeal affirmed that our client was legally entitled to coverage in light of his fully-disabled status as confirmed by the Social Security Administration.

In a major win, CMM’s appeal was so persuasive that the insurance company reversed its own decision within weeks. As anyone who has attempted to obtain disability or insurance benefits knows, such a turnaround time is extraordinary. Our client can now collect benefits, stay in his home, and have financial stability during a difficult medical crisis.

CMM not only represents businesses and individuals, but is also well known for providing superior legal services to towns, villages, school districts, cities, and counties. Our litigation team recently demonstrated their strength in advocating for municipal clients by securing a victory for a Suffolk County Village in a contested land use matter.

The owners of a parcel of land located in the Village had requested a variance to divide their property in two to build another single-family house on the newly created second lot. The Village denied the variance request, citing the minimum required lot area per home pursuant to the local zoning district. Unhappy with the decision, the property owners filed an Article 78 petition (essentially, a legal challenge to the activities of an administrative agency or municipality) with the court, accusing our client of denying zoning variances in an “arbitrary, capricious and prejudicial” manner “contrary to the evidence presented” by the property owner and without substantial evidence to back the decision.

CMM strongly opposed the petition, arguing that the Village was well within its right to deny a variance that adversely impacted the physical and/or environmental conditions of the neighborhood as well as to preserve and protect the neighborhood’s character and the health, safety, and welfare of its residents.

Due to the hard work, diligence, and knowledge of the zoning laws by Senior Partner Scott Middleton and Associate Richard DeMaio, CMM successfully obtained a court order denying the petition and upholding the Village’s decision. Learn more about how we help municipalities here.    

Positioning Hauppauge Industrial Park for the future

By Adina Genn

A new analysis shows that the Hauppauge Industrial Park could position the region for economic growth, officials said.

Released Wednesday at the IBEW offices in Hauppauge, the 160-plus page report was commissioned by the Suffolk County Industrial Development Agency and written, produced and designed by James Lima Planning + Development and the Regional Plan Association.

The report identifies strategies to further advance revitalization opportunities by supporting and clustering together industries at the park. It also offers competitor analysis to define additional ways to collaborate, and lessons learned from economic hubs across the country.

In positioning for the future, the park will be renamed as The Long Island Innovation Park at Hauppauge. The new moniker reflects a finding in the report that the park can “further capture economic opportunities of the region and maximize its impact to become a key player in Long Island’s overall economic development.”

The park is home to 1,300 companies that employ more than 55,000 people and its $13 billion of annual output accounts for 8 percent of Long Island’s gross domestic product, according to a press release. And 58 percent of the companies are in “tradable sectors,” or exports of goods from the region.

One of the report’s recommendations includes fostering industry clusters, and the key ones in the region include aerospace vehicles and defense, biopharmaceuticals, business services, construction products and services, distribution and electronic commerce, education and research activities, financial services, food processing and manufacturing and information technology and analytical instruments.

Collectively, the park would benefit if companies within it saw each other as collaborators rather than competitors: “All parties on the Island should be uniting around common goals for workforce training, incubators, co-work space, high-tech shared equipment and housing policies,” according to the report.

“This comprehensive roadmap provides our region with the building blocks needed to strengthen, expand and attract key industry clusters that will push our innovative economy to the next level,” Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone said in a statement.

Five strategies within the report include facilitating business growth, attracting and retaining skilled workers, strengthening training and workforce development, promoting innovation and technology transfer, and connecting business, governments and institutions.

Noting that it’s the largest business park in the northeast, Hauppauge Industrial Association of Long Island President and CEO Terri Alessi-Miceli said that the park is “equipped to fulfill a growth scenario that will redouble its contributions to our regional economy.”

Both the Suffolk County Industrial Development Agency and HIA plan to support partnerships with institutions, business and nonprofits to foster growth and learn from one another.

Smithtown Supervisor Ed Wehrheim saw many ways for organizations to partner together.

“Imagine neighboring businesses working together to capitalize on mutual growth, a think tank of business professionals working to help innovate local companies to the next level, the private sector working with public institutions to plan for alternative energy or create walkable communities for the next generation of great innovators to live and play,” he said. “The possibilities are truly endless.”

A rendering showed the potential for housing, which could help attract workforce.

“While the Hauppauge Industrial Park already plays an essential role in powering the Long Island economy, it still has tremendous untapped value,” Joe Campolo, the board chair of HIA-LI and managing partner at Campolo, Middleton & McCormick in Ronkonkoma said in a statement. “After analyzing a full spectrum of strategic options, we now have a viable, clear-eyed, long-term plan that will maximize the park’s value for decades to come.”

Theresa Ward, chair of the Suffolk County IDA board of directors, said officials are “extremely proud of this report, which takes a deep dive into the challenges and opportunities inherent in Long Island’s key economic generator.”

“The Hauppauge Industrial Park has been a significant hotbed for economic development and growth and this reimagining of the Park gets everyone involved in economic development in this region excited because the potential is so real and obtainable,” she added.

Read more here.