Victor A. Kovner

Cantor Fitzgerald Securities
Ongoing
Served as co-lead counsel of the Plaintiffs' Steering Committee in litigation arising out of the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center leading to a judgment on liability in favor of plaintiffs affirmed by a unanimous appellate division. Representing Cantor Fitzgerald in its ongoing action seeking damages for its business interruption losses.

Claude Cassirer
Ongoing
Action under Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act to recover Pissarro painting looted by Nazis from plaintiff's grandmother in 1939 and now held by the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid. The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld the lower courts' denial of defendant's motion to dismiss, holding that the FSIA immunity exception for claims involving property taken in violation of international law was not limited to the country that actually seized the property. The Ninth Circuit remanded the case to the lower court for further proceedings.

Clear Channel Outdoor, Inc.
Ongoing
Major First Amendment challenge to New York City’s prohibition against outdoor advertising along its arterial highways in commercial and manufacturing districts.

DLA Piper
2009
Represented DLA Piper U.S., LLP, in New York state court, successfully defeating the petitioner’s motion for pre-action discovery in aid of framing a complaint for libel arising from the publication of an allegedly false and defamatory article about the petitioner, who was a party to a federal discrimination lawsuit. Supreme Court of the State of New York, New York County, Index No. 08100448.

Third Church of Christ, Scientist
2008
Obtained a permanent injunction on behalf of the Third Church of Christ, Scientist against the New York City Department of Buildings' revocation of permits to renovate a church in connection with a lease of space to caterer. The case was brought under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 (RLUIPA). This result allowed the church to save its historic building and continue in operation. The case was covered by the New York Times on Dec. 2, 2008, the New York Daily News on Dec. 3, 2008, and in the New York Law Journal ("City Discriminated Against Church That Caters, Judge Says," Dec. 3, 2008).

Home Box Office (HBO)
2006
Defense of claims arising out of comments made in course of HBO series "Family Bonds," a documentary series about a real-life family of bail bondsmen.

Yellow Book USA, Inc.
2004
Represented Yellow Book USA in a false advertising and product disparagement action brought by Verizon Directories Corp. concerning Yellow Book's advertisements and sales practices. Secured dismissal of product disparagement claim and successfully settled false advertising claim.

2002
Successfully vacated a $2 million punitive judgment against pharmaceutical manufacturer Merck & Co. and its advertising agency, Harrison & Star, in a libel action based on use of a model’s photograph in promotional brochure for an anti-AIDS drug.

Buena Vista
2001
Secured First Amendment protection for statements on the covers of the “Beardstown Ladies” books in class action alleging consumer fraud for erroneously reporting the ladies' stock-market returns.

Business Week
1996
Represented Business Week in successfully overturning a prior restraint against publication of sealed court records.