Kaye Scholer Secures $1.9 Million Jury Verdict For Hair Salon Chain Shareholder Wrongly Cut Out Of Profits
NEW YORK—Kaye Scholer secured a $1.9 million unanimous jury verdict for one of its private clients, a shareholder in one location of high-end NYC hair salon chain Amour de Hair, who was cut out of the profits due to underreporting by her former partner, who also happened to be her ex-husband.
Due to various procedural delays, the case (Zekry v. Zekry & R. David Ben Barouck Corp., New York County Supreme Court) took five years to get to trial. However, following a nine-day trial Kaye Scholer Litigation Counsel Michael Lynn was able to secure a unanimous jury verdict for the plaintiff in just three hours. In addition to $466,000 in compensatory damages and additional prejudgment interest expected, the jury awarded her $1.4 million in punitive damages. Kaye Scholer had earlier secured a receivership over the salon and an order of attachment against the assets of the ex-husband.
Lynn was assisted at trial by Associate Kyle Gooch, who served as second chair, and also by Partner Manvin Mayell. Lynn practices in Kaye Scholer's Litigation Department with an emphasis on complex commercial litigation, including merger- and acquisition-related litigations, defense of shareholder derivative and securities fraud class actions, actions involving fraud in the purchase and sale of corporate securities and assets, fraudulent conveyance litigation, and bankruptcy and real estate litigation.
Kaye Scholer’s Private Client Practice counsels individuals, their families, family offices and closely held businesses. To help our clients achieve their family planning and dispositive goals, we address family governance and related issues, and mitigate exposure to tax, both for current and future generations. Our role often involves structuring clients’ business affairs and family investments, investing in financial products, using trusts and other vehicles to structure investments, and dealing with tax or litigation-related issues arising from life-changing events such as marriage, divorce or death, on a US and global basis.
The Private Client team brought on Lynn and Mayell when it became apparent that what the client needed was highly skilled trial lawyers with a history of success handle a wide variety of commercial disputes. Kaye Scholer’s Complex Commercial Litigation Practice comprises of highly regarded litigators, including several former high ranking Assistant United States Attorneys and State Assistant District Attorneys. Over the years, we have developed significant experience in many areas, having litigated cases involving significant contract disputes, business torts, franchising cases, energy and utility actions, construction claims, disagreements among shareholders, and other corporate-related litigation. We offer clients quality, creativity and persistence, always bearing in mind that the goal is to produce results that justify the means.
