My Work

Supreme Court

• Amicus Brief of The Rutherford Institute and Cato Institute in Support of Petitioner, First Midwest Bank v City of Chicago, Oct. 7, 2021 (Supreme Court of the United States)

Second Circuit

• Brief for Appellee, Jay v GLOBALFOUNDRIES U.S., Inc. (U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit)
  Question presented: May the plaintiff recover under New York Labor Law § 240 for injuries sustained when he was struck by an HVAC duct being manually loaded into the back of a pickup truck because he chose not to use an available mechanical lift and jumped into the back of the truck before the duct was loaded?
  Oral argument audio:
  • Decision

New York Court of Appeals

Merits Briefs

• Brief for Respondent, Coopertstown Holstein Corporation v Town of Middlefield (New York Court of Appeals)
  Question presented: May a local municipality use its zoning powers to ban fracking?
  • Decision

• Brief for Respondents-Appellants, Matter of County of St. Lawrence v Shah (New York Court of Appeals)
  Question presented: Do local social services districts have vested rights entitling them to Medicaid reimbursement for services provided to mentally disabled Medicaid recipients before the Legislature changed the law to say that no reimbursement is owed?
  • Decision

Amicus Briefs

• Amicus Brief in Support of Appellants, Matter of Adirondack Wild: Friends of the Forest Preserve v New York State Adirondack Park Agency (New York Court of Appeals)
  Question presented: Do the Rivers Act and Adirondack Park Master Plan prohibit the development of a community connector snowmobile trail open to the public through a wild river area of the Adirondack Park Forest Preserve?

• Amicus Brief in Support of Respondents/Appellants, Protect the Adirondacks! Inc. v New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (New York Court of Appeals)
  Question presented: When does a proposed cutting of timber in the State’s protected Forest Preserve run afoul of the Forever Wild clause of the New York Constitution’s express prohibition on the sale, removal, and destruction of timber?

• Amicus Brief in Support of Motion for Leave to Appeal, MBI Intl. Holdings Inc. v Barclays Bank PLC (New York Court of Appeals)
  Question presented: When does the statute of limitations for fraud based on discovery begin to run?

Motions for Leave to Appeal

• Motion for Leave to Appeal, Matter of United Jewish Community Board of Blooming Grove, Inc. v Washingtonville Central School District (New York Court of Appeals)
  Question presented: Does Education Law § 3635(1)(a) grant all nonpublic school students who reside within central school districts the same right to transportation to and from school every day their nonpublic schools are open for instruction, as is provided to public school students across New York State, including on days during the normal school year and normal school week that are not legal or statutory holidays but the public schools nevertheless choose to close?

• Motion for Leave to Appeal, Fox v 12 East 88th LLC (New York Court of Appeals)
  Question presented: Where a landlord and an ongoing rent stabilized individual tenant enter into a lease naming the individual’s wholly-owned corporation as tenant instead of the individual, who remains the ongoing actual occupant, resulting in a holding of deregulation under the Rent Stabilization Code, is the corporate lease void ab initio, and would a contrary result effectively establish a blueprint for landlords and tenants to collusively agree to deregulate rent stabilized properties?

• Motion for Leave to Appeal, Semlear v Incorporated Vil. of Quogue (New York Court of Appeals)
  Question presented: Do the Trustees of the Freeholders and Commonalty of the Town of Southhampton have power to regulate the use of the ocean beaches under pre-Revolutionary War grants from the King of England?

Appellate Division

• Brief for Appellants, Matter of Hart v Town of Guilderland Planning Board (Appellate Division, Third Department)
  Question presented: Did the Town of Guilderland Planning Board, as SEQRA lead agency, comply with all procedural and substantive requirements of SEQRA when reviewing a residential project and a proposed Costco Wholesale facility?
  • Decision

• Brief for Appellant, Paul Smith’s College of Arts and Sciences v Roman Catholic Diocese of Ogdensburg (Appellate Division, Third Department)
  Question presented: Did a title to a property that was conveyed exclusively for use for church purposes revert to the grantor when the Diocese closed the parish and stopped using the church building for worship?
  Oral argument video
  • Decision

• Brief for Respondents, Matter of Village of Woodbury v Seggos (Appellate Division, Third Department)
  Question presented: Did the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation properly grant a water supply permit to the Village of Kiryas Joel?
  • Decision