Newark’s Sills Cummis & Gross enjoys a prestigious position as one of the Garden State’s frequent recipients of premium-level litigation. A client cheers the firm as "excellent generally, especially on communication of all facets of litigation. They are our only choice, we've had no reason to try others." A peer concedes, “I just don’t know of another firm their size in [New] Jersey that has that big and varied of a litigation bench.”
Joseph Fiorenzo, who a peer addresses as “a prodigious trial lawyer with very good clients, just a dynamo,” represented a neurosurgery practice in connection with the revocation of their staff privileges by Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, NJ. In October 2019, a Bergen County jury returned a unanimous verdict against Valley Hospital and awarded Fiorenzo’s client $24.3 million. “This was the biggest civil verdict in New Jersey,” testifies a peer, “and it landed right before COVID!” The case went to appeal and, in August 2022, a three-judge panel of the Appellate Division affirmed the verdict, as well as the trial court’s award of attorneys’ fees and pre-judgment interest based on a rejected offer of judgment. Fiorenzo also represented a 50% owner of a funeral home in a shareholder oppression buyout action. At trial, the competing experts valued the 50% interest at between about $1.6 and $2 million. After four days of trial, a settlement was secured for the purchase of the client’s 50% interest at $3 million, which also required the defendants to continue profit distributions through closing and to cease any use of the existing name of the business, including any signage, social media posts, or marketing material, with the exception of a historical narrative to explain the sale. An appellate specialist, Peter Verniero represented Max Spann Real Estate & Auction, arguing before the New Jersey Supreme Court in the fall of 2021 in a case involving real estate auction sales. In June 2022, the court issued its decision, agreeing with the client’s position and upholding the contract and particular auction in this case.
Another firm luminary, Beth Rose keeps busy in the product liability space with “something like 50 cases on the go right now, class and individual actions, for a couple of huge national clients that are confidential.” (Earlier this year, Rose notched up yet another year as one of Benchmark’s Top 250 Women in Litigation.) Jeffrey Greenbaum, chair of the firm’s class action practice group, and
James Hirschhorn scored big for Saint Peter’s Healthcare System and its pension plan after 10 years of litigation stemming from allegations by a former employee of the client it violated various ERISA provisions by operating its pension plan under the Church Plan exemption from ERISA. A February 2023 decision saw a motion for partial summary judgment granted and a plaintiff’s cross-motion denied, holding that the plan qualifies for the church plan exemption. Litigation head Joseph Buckley obtained a favorable decision on behalf of Mikael Salovaara in his efforts to collect a 2015 $2 million unsatisfied judgment against a former Goldman Sachs partner and head of Goldman’s LBO desk. Since the judgment was entered, Buckley has successfully obtained in excess of $500,000 for Salovaara to date. More recently, Buckley and future star Joshua Howley triumphed for Investors Bank when, in July 2020, the Supreme Court of New Jersey issued a unanimous 7-0 ruling in a case dealing with whether a transferee of a promissory note can enforce the note when the original note was lost prior to the transfer.
