Publication

The prosecution calls Ellingburg v. United States a case of “diminishing significance.”  Yet its outcome could quietly upend current restitution practice.  The upcoming Supreme Court argument asks whether restitution under the MVRA constitutes criminal punishment.   LSW examines the hidden constitutional stakes behind what appears to be a narrow sentencing dispute: a ruling in the affirmative could...

Lankler Siffert & Wohl LLP partner Katie Lemire, former head of enforcement at the New York Department of Financial Services (DFS), decodes recent DFS regulatory guidance on banks and crypto in her most recent article in Law360.

We are  pleased to announce the publication in Law 360 of “A Simple Way Courts Can Help Attorneys Avoid AI Hallucinations” by LSW attorneys John Siffert and Rosie Rubin, with co-author Terrence M. Connors.  AI use in legal drafting has surged, and so have sanctions for fabricated citations. Courts and bar groups are warning lawyers to...

Mediation is transforming legal practice by offering a faster, more cost-effective, and client-centered alternative to litigation. In their recent New York Law Journal article, mediators John S. Siffert and Nelson Edward Timken emphasize that effective mediation starts well before the session itself. Lawyers are encouraged to be proactive in scheduling, transparent about key deadlines, and to ensure...

In a recent New York Law Journal article, John Siffert and co-author Nelson Timken propose that litigators start to view mediation as another weapon in their arsenal to resolve litigated cases. Often mediations fail because litigators do not seize the opportunity to create an environment that makes it possible to achieve the client’s goal short...

In their latest Law 360 article, Jillian Berman, John Siffert and Ben Schwartz analyze proffer agreements — frequently used when a witness agrees to a voluntary interview with a federal prosecutor.  Once referred to as a “Queen for a Day” agreement, the practice of proffer agreements is evolving with the times.  This article considers from...

Until now, American courts have focused how to protect themselves from the use of AI by lawyers who cite non-existent cases that were “hallucinated” by generative artificial intelligence tools.  In their timely Law 360 article,  John S. Siffert and Allison Morse discuss the potential risk that generative AI poses to secondary sources that lawyers and judges...

LSW’s John Siffert co-authored with Cassandra Porsch an article in the upcoming issue of the New York Dispute Resolution Lawyer entitled “Why the NYC Bar Association Report on the State of Mediation Confidentiality in NY is Required Reading.”  The article describes the analysis and takeaways in the newly issued report by the New York City...

In our latest contribution to Law360 Expert Analysis, LSW attorneys Gabrielle Friedman, John Siffert and Jeannie Rose Rubin consider recent developments and open issues relating to the fugitive disentitlement doctrine as applied to foreign defendants who live outside the United States. When the U.S. Department of Justice criminally charges non-U.S. persons residing abroad, many courts...

LSW’s John Siffert and Brett Mead co-authored with  Steven Skulnik the lead article  in the upcoming issue  of Dispute Resolution Journal, entitled “Application of Mandatory Law in U.S. Arbitration.”  It describes how  international and domestic arbitral claims arising under mandatory laws are treated in jurisdictions other than where the claims arise.   The authors then analyze...

In a recent Law360 “Expert Analysis” contribution, Jillian B. Berman, John S. Siffert, and Zachary B. Shemtob consider the hurdles facing client and counsel– and suggest strategies– when a non-US person is sentenced by a US court for a white-collar offense. Foreign defendants prosecuted for white collar felonies face disparate treatment at sentencing as compared to similarly...

In their latest contribution to Law360, LSW partners Michael D. Longyear and John S. Siffert and associate Zachary B. Shemtob analyze a novel SDNY jury instruction on scienter in a recent open market manipulation trial. The defendant in United States v. Phillips was accused of manipulating the forex market by engaging in non-bona fide trades for...

In their newest contribution to Law360, John S. Siffert and Brandon G. Davis discuss a recent SDNY ruling of great significance for federal criminal cases involving expert witnesses.  Judge Jed Rakoff’s decision in United States v. Mrabet puts prosecutors on notice that courts will take seriously the disclosure requirements for expert witnesses in the new...

What does it mean to “use” another person’s identity in the context of a fraud?  Does the federal identity theft enhancement apply anytime a fraud is committed where the scheme involves the use of another person’s name? Or does “identity theft” involve more than that?  A two-year mandatory minimum prison sentence hangs in the balance....

In a contribution to the Law360 Expert Analysis column, John Siffert and Lise Rahdert propose that the low standard for mens rea in price-fixing cases that has been in place for the past 45 years should be reconsidered after two recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions, as well as the U.S. DOJ’s expansion of its enforcement...

In a contribution to the Law360 Expert Analysis column, Jillian Berman and Lise Rahdert of LSW along with co-author Julie Withers of Reichman Jorgenson Lehman & Feldberg LLP consider an important hearsay issue about co-conspirator statements, which applies in all conspiracy cases.  

In the interdependent global economy, and with growing cooperation among regulators, it is increasingly likely that international executives will experience a US-style corporate investigation at some point. In the February issue of Financier Worldwide, LSW partner Gabi Friedman and counsel Ramya Kasturi suggest some issues to consider when an executive is asked to provide an...

Certain extraditions to the US from the European Union just got harder.  In a contribution to the Law360 Expert Analysis column, LSW partner Gabi Friedman explores how a recent judgment of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) on double jeopardy could impact US DOJ efforts to extradite certain persons from the European Union.  Gabi also...

John Siffert and Angela Zhu teamed up with independent arbitrator and mediator Peter Pettibone to explore the increasingly common practice of engaging in mediation during an arbitration, often referred to as “Arb-Med-Arb.”  The resulting article, “An Examination of Institutional Arb-Med-Arb Protocols and Practices,” published in the American Arbitration Association’s flagship publication Dispute Resolution Journal will be of interest to any potential litigant (individual or...

Has Congress created a new tool to hold individual prosecutors responsible for failing to produce exculpatory material to defense counsel?  Is there more to be done? In the March 2021 issue of The Champion, official magazine of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, LSW founding partner John Siffert and the Honorable Donald W. Molloy,...

LSW partner Gabi Friedman and counsel Rosie Rubin consider the effects on criminal justice of the CARES Act (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act) signed into law of March 27, 2020. The article highlights some of the CARES Act’s important changes to procedures in federal criminal prosecutions, including its provisions relating to remote proceedings,...

LSW partner Gabi Friedman and co-author Jeffrey Udell published this article in the New York Law Journal discussing ethical and practical considerations for “pool counsel” representations– the increasingly common practice where  one law firm represents multiple witnesses in a white collar investigation or a lawsuit. The authors take as their starting point an ethics opinion...

LSW partner John S. Siffert and associate Leigh Llewelyn published “Insider Trading as Fraud: Economic Benefit as an Element” in the New York Law Journal. The article considers the upcoming Supreme Court argument in the insider trading case Salman v. United States, No. 15-628, and explore why the federal mail and wire statutes may affect the...

LSW partner John S. Siffert and associate Michael Herman published “Understanding Insider Trading as Breach of Duty of Loyalty” in the New York Law Journal. The article argues that the crime of insider trading is properly understood as a breach of a fiduciary duty and that the courts have failed to articulate precisely the nature of...