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Arthur Yermash is a Partner based in our Westbury office. 

CMM: Talk to us about how a boy from Ukraine wound up as a Partner at a Long Island law firm! Tell us about your immigration to the United States.

AY: I left Ukraine in the winter of 1991 and landed at JFK on January 31, 1991.  As a seven-year-old, I didn’t give much thought to the life-altering change where we moved from one country to another where the language, customs, and nearly every aspect of life was different.  My family and I adapted quickly.  New York was now our home.   I started second grade shortly after while still dealing with a language barrier.  Through hard work, extra study, and ESL immersion, I caught on quickly.  By third grade, I felt on par with other students.  I’ve strived to excel and to do as best I could ever since.

CMM: You graduated from Brooklyn Tech, then Baruch College (Macaulay Honors College) before heading to Touro College, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center. Why did you decide to become a lawyer?

AY: Becoming a lawyer was a goal even before high school.  Our profession has a certain mystique and respect about it that always drew me in.  Lawyers are expected to be reliable problem solvers and deal makers.  From a young age I saw myself as a problem solver and knew this was always the path for me.  I worked at several law firms through high school, college, and law school.  Fortunately, each experience reassured me that I was making the right decision.

CMM: You came to CMM as a law school intern when the firm was just starting out. Talk to us about how you came to the firm and what it’s been like experiencing and contributing to CMM’s exponential growth over the past decade.

AY: I started at CMM as a part time intern during my second year of law school.  I worked after class and on weekends, and, really, as many hours as I could without compromising my education.  Law school hardly provides the type of practical training that is needed to be a practicing attorney.  I sought to get as much as possible with my opportunity at CMM to learn to be an advisor, not just someone with legal training.  Since law school, I’ve worked extremely hard to provide our clients with the best possible service and experience.  In addition to growing my own knowledge base, I’ve focused on training other team members to make sure that the entire CMM team provides the highest quality legal service.  Each of us is only as good our team.

CMM: What practice areas do you focus on?

AY: I generally focus on representing employers with labor and employment matters.  I help businesses improve policies and make sure businesses are doing everything they should be to provide their workforces with the best possible working environment.  I also have a strong background in corporate transactions and have advised businesses on many difference corporate transactions – from basic confidentiality agreements to complex private equity investments.

CMM: If you couldn’t be a lawyer, what would you be doing?

AY: I would probably be a long-haul truck driver.  I’ve always had respect for truck drivers that are able to travel the country and see and experience all that this country offers.  There is something special to me about being able to travel as far as the eye could see.

CMM: You’ve toughed out a long commute from Brooklyn to Suffolk County for over a decade. Jokes about a better commute aside, why is it so important that CMM decided to open a Nassau County office?

AY: I certainly appreciate the added freedom of being closer to home that the Nassau office affords, but it certainly wasn’t the most important factor for opening this new office.  CMM has always sought to provide convenience and impeccable service to our clients.  While technology has made communication more efficient, it hardly replaces the comradery and effectiveness that meeting in person provides.  As we look to improve the services we provide to our Nassau County and NYC clients, being closer to their business was a no brainer.  We always welcome clients to stop by and discuss any issues they may have.  Giving our clients a closer presence only strengthens our ability to provide exceptional service.

CMM: What has been a challenge you’ve faced as a lawyer?
AY: Time management is a critical part of performing as a lawyer at the highest levels.  Planning is always critical, but often, even the best plans are derailed when client needs require it.  Often, we are also faced with balancing business urgency with taking the time necessary to do the best job possible.  As a result, I constantly strive to become more efficient with time, more focused on foreseeable and unforeseeable outcomes, and making sure that I am communicating those issues to our clients.

CMM: What is the most valuable thing a lawyer can do for his or her clients?

AY: I believe the most valuable thing a lawyer could do is to listen.  Many lawyers often make assumptions about clients’ needs and fail to focus on what the client seeks to accomplish.  Every situation is unique, and no fact pattern is ever the same.  By listening and paying close attention to our clients’ needs and desires, we can better advise them towards the goals they want to achieve instead of the goals we think they should achieve.

CMM: How do you spend your weekends?

AY: Weekends these days certainly aren’t what they used to be.  After the birth of my now four-year-old daughter, weekends have become filled with kid activities, birthdays, day trips, and naps.  I still, however, enjoy adult outings and dinners out without the kids from time to time.

CMM: What is an interesting trend happening right now related to your field of practice?

AY: There has been a tremendous growth of employment regulations that have made it tough for business owners to operate to the fullest letter of the law.  While many of these regulations are necessary and protect the workforce, the constant change and regulation growth has made it tougher for smaller businesses to comply.  With the ever increasing and changing regulations, our focus is to make sure we are providing our clients with as much guidance and communication as possible so that they can do what is necessary to run their businesses as efficiently as possible.

Westbury, NY – Campolo, Middleton & McCormick, LLP, a premier law firm, is pleased to announce the firm’s expansion with a new office in Westbury.  Opening March 1 to support CMM’s rapid growth and for the convenience of their extensive client base in Nassau County and New York City, the Westbury office is the firm’s third location (in addition to Ronkonkoma and Bridgehampton) and its first in Nassau County.

Centrally located at 1025 Old Country Road, the firm’s full-service Westbury office is close to Nassau County courts and government buildings in Mineola, as well as the bustling economic hubs that make Nassau County such a robust business community. The office is easily accessible by major highways and the Long Island Railroad and is home to several CMM attorneys and staff members, including CMM Partner Arthur Yermash.

CMM has enjoyed a rapid rise since its founding in 2008. Established with two partners in a small office, the firm now has a team of over 30 lawyers working out of three offices along the spine of Long Island. CMM has become the firm of choice for clients with respect to their most challenging legal issues, significant business transactions, and critical disputes. The firm is well known for its philanthropic efforts through its charitable arm, CMM Cares, as well as its attorneys’ dedication to moving the Long Island economy forward through involvement with HIA-LI, Stony Brook University, the Suffolk County Bar Association, and Touro Law School, among other organizations and institutions.

“We’re thrilled to make our expansion to Nassau County official,” said Managing Partner Joe Campolo. “We’re honored to serve our many existing clients in the area out of our convenient new space, and look forward to working with the local business community to continue to grow the Long Island economy. We’ve already received such a warm welcome, and we are eager to build exciting new business relationships in Nassau County!”

CMM recently demonstrated its agility and creative lawyering by resolving an impasse that others couldn’t, paving the way for a real estate deal to move forward.

Don Rassiger was brought in to take over the drafting and negotiation of the surety bond and environmental obligations on a transaction that included the acquisition of an environmentally sensitive real estate parcel subject to a remediation plan with the Environmental Protection Agency. In under 24 hours, Don resolved the impasse in the language with the EPA, the surety companies, and the seller. Our delighted client wrote, “Brilliantly executed! Thanks for the great turnaround. It will not be forgotten.”

CMM attorneys are adept at finding solutions where others have struggled or failed. Learn more about our Construction and Environmental work here.

First Amendment rights, social media, land use issues, and environmental concerns collided in Campolo, Middleton & McCormick’s latest litigation victory, spearheaded by attorneys Frederick Eisenbud and Richard DeMaio.

Our clients, an environmentally conscious couple, clashed with a developer who sought permission to construct a 176-unit condo project adjoining our clients’ property. Concerned about the condo project’s environmental impact, our clients (represented by other counsel) challenged the developer’s approvals by filing two Article 78 petitions (lawsuits to challenge the approvals), which ultimately were dismissed. They also maintained an active social media presence to keep the public informed about the project. In response, the developer sued them for slander, libel, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and malicious prosecution.

The couple hired an attorney to answer the lawsuit, then retained CMM for a second look. Eisenbud and DeMaio immediately recognized that many of the claims against our clients, while baseless, were also time-barred by the statute of limitations – but the prior attorney hadn’t raised this defense in the answer. CMM also counseled our clients that the developer’s lawsuit was a classic example of Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation – a SLAPP suit – designed to punish our clients for exercising their First Amendment rights and to deter others from opposing the project.

CMM moved for permission to file an amended answer that raised the statute of limitations defense as well as counterclaims against the developer pursuant to New York’s anti-SLAPP statute.  At the same time, we moved to dismiss all claims in the amended complaint against them as legally defective except those for slander which were not time-barred. As to those, we concurrently moved for summary judgment. In January, the Nassau County Supreme Court (Justice Roy S. Mahon) granted all of our motions and dismissed the entire complaint against our clients. Having succeeded in our efforts to get the entire complaint dismissed, the only causes of action remaining in the case are our clients’ counterclaims against the developer for damages for violating the clients’ First Amendment rights.

Learn more about our preeminent Environmental & Land Use practice here.

Campolo, Middleton & McCormick has successfully closed an asset purchase transaction in which we represented Canada-based Clairus Group in its first U.S.-based acquisition. Clairus Group, a fast-growing, vertically-integrated leader in automotive glass distribution, replacement, and claims management, acquired a majority stake in Ohio-based Advanced Auto Glass, a leading auto glass repair and replacement business, with an operational network comprised of nine in-bay locations, a fleet of 11 mobile service units, and a distribution warehouse serving Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. This was the first of several transactions that Clairus Group plans to pursue in the U.S. market. Based on the excellent results and hard work of the CMM team, including Corporate Department managing attorney Don Rassiger, the client has already engaged CMM to draft and negotiate another similar acquisition involving an independent auto glass repair and replacement business located in the northeastern U.S.

CMM’s Mergers & Acquisitions practice has closed billions of dollars’ worth of deals on the national and international stage over the past decade, and it continues to be one of the cornerstones of our practice.