Commercial and Estate Litigation

Sometimes the best laid plans go awry. Business deals fail to come to fruition, fiduciaries may fail to meet expectations, siblings fail to get along, provisions in documents are unintentionally ambiguous, or a disgruntled relative or disinherited child wants to contest your will. Our approach to litigation is to consistently focus on the client's individual goals and attempt to achieve those goals in an efficient and cost-effective manner.

Experience and comfort with your attorney are critical when you find yourself in a litigious dispute, particularly in the emotionally-fraught realm of estate litigation. We aim to advocate without being unnecessarily adversarial, and to staunchly advocate for our clients' important interests.

Alison's notable cases in this area include:

• Negotiation of a million-dollar plus settlement of a dispute regarding a widow's right to benefits arising out of her husband's death in the World Trade Center disaster on September 11th.
• An industry-wide challenge on First Amendment grounds to a New York City zoning ordinance that restricted the right of several businesses to operate in a landmark case that went to the New York Court of Appeals.
• Assisting in obtaining a dismissal of all claims against a reinsurance company and its insurance broker in a seven week, multimillion dollar trial arising out of a transaction involving insurance-backed financing.
• Successful defense of claims brought by a well-known "vulture" fund seeking to recover a windfall from distressed debt in the form of senior notes issued by our client, a publicly traded telecommunications company.
• Successful litigation of restrictive covenants in employment contracts and anti-solicitation provisions in the health care and medical practice employment contracts, from both the employer and employee perspectives.

In these and other contexts, Alison Arden Besunder has advised corporations and individuals in connection with will contests, contested accountings and removals of trustees, as well as commercial disputes involving loan disputes, wrongful termination claims, non-compete agreements, commercial contract litigations, and business fraud claims.

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