About

I am a New York Business Attorney

This means I practice commercial litigation, commercial law, business litigation, and business law, and I am headquartered in New York, New York.

I have aggressively represented both plaintiffs and defendants in business disputes for over 15 years to get results for my clients. As a New York business attorney, I have resolved over $100 million in business disputes; also as a New York business attorney, I work on transactional documents, including formation documents like limited liability company operating agreements, articles of incorporation, bylaws, purchase and sale documents (both stock and asset), confidentiality agreements, trade secret agreements, work for hire agreements, employment agreements, consulting agreements — just about every business or commercial agreement there is.

I have represented clients in cases in many states in the United States in federal court, state court, arbitration, mediation, before federal court judges, federal court magistrates, state court judges, referees, arbitrators, and mediators.

I have also represented clients and consulted with clients in international disputes.

I have represented clients in many industry sectors, including telecommunications, technology, sub-prime lending, social media, apparel, fashion, cosmetics, entertainment, sports, agriculture, real estate, medical, airline, construction, import export, non-profit, food and beverage, manufacturing and distribution, restaurant, transportation, diamond, security, household goods, large scale manufacturing (e.g., helicopter retrofitters and oil pipeline support rigs), retail, and financial.

Because I am an experienced New York business attorney, I intimately know how to navigate through the dispute resolution processes to most efficiently and effectively achieve the best results possible for you under your particular set of circumstances.

I can help you free up your time so that you can focus on running and growing your business, and spending time with your family.

I can help you get answers from recalcitrant business partners, vendors, and other adversaries so that you can have all of the information you need to run your business and make an informed decision to resolve your business dispute.

I can help you use the best procedures, mechanisms, and tools available for resolving your particular business dispute efficiently and effectively.

I can work with you on understanding and working through my processes and guides to maximizing your position and leverage in your business dispute.

I can fiercely and aggressively represent you in mediation, arbitration, litigation, in court, out of court, in settlement discussions, in negotiations, in drafting agreements to minimize your risk of getting into a business dispute, and maximizing your position and leverage if you do get into a business dispute.

To resolve a business dispute, it is best for all involved when one experienced New York business attorney consensually works out the dispute with another experienced New York business attorney, because both are more likely to speak the same language, both in terms of substantive and procedural New York law, which invariably has a profound effect on how a dispute plays out.

DCL’s Core Values

  • Take initiative.
  • Take ownership.
  • Be accountable.
  • Do the right thing.
  • Do what you will say you will do.
  • Follow through.
  • Communicate.
  • Be efficient.
  • Get results.
  • Do superior work.
  • Get shit done.
  • Innovate.
  • Think practically.
  • Deliver superior product.
  • Celebrate your successes, fix your failures.
  • Stay humble and stay hungry.
  • Win the day.
  • Be relentless.
  • Be the best.
  • Own it.

I Did Not Always Know I Wanted to Be a New York Business Attorney

Particularly in light of my childhood background. In terms of who I am personally, I was born in 1973 in Southampton, New York, to a local family. I am the eldest, and I have two younger brothers. My mother was a home maker until my brothers and I were in high school (she home schooled my two younger brothers for several years), and then she started working for herself selling Tupperware, and now she teaches swimming lessons in Manhattan and in the Hamptons, and she is also a licensed massage therapist. My father was a residential home builder who put my brothers and me to work at a very young age. We had an organized “chore chart” – well before the days of Microsoft Excel – with color coded tasks and who was supposed to do what by when, from taking out the trash, to washing the dishes, to vacuuming, and so on. We would also do carpentry around the house, and we would go to jobsites and work. My father always wanted us to have a basic understanding of the carpentry trade, in case something happened and we needed to rely on ourselves for shelter, either long term or short term.

One particularly fun fact is that my parents were what could best be characterized as hippies. Very easy going, very loving, very friendly, with good heads on their shoulders. Southampton, NY, is a beach community in the summer time, and in the winter time gets cold and snows; it has all four seasons. During the summer time, true to their hippy tendencies, my parents had us all live in a camper on the beach; it was a mobile camper, and whenever the local police would ask us to leave one beach, we would just go camp out on another beach. Then, if it got too much, we would go camp out in the woods for a few days, and then return to the beach. Come to think of it, my mother took us to the beach every day, all four seasons — we were three boys with lots of energy, and the beach was a great outlet.

New York Business Attorney The Lawyer James About

Growing up, I played team sports in middle school and high school, football, basketball, and baseball. I wasn’t very good at any of them, but it was a lot of fun. Also growing up I was on a sailing team, my parents had several boats (my father did pretty well as we got older, and he was able to buy and then fix wooden sailboats, his passion at the time), and I had lots of different jobs, from working in a fish market, to being a carpenter’s helper, to being a kitchen prep boy for local restaurants, to an estate caretaker, to being a waiter and bartender, to running my own car detailing business.

New York Business Attorney | About 1 Football
New York Business Attorney | About 2
New York Business Attorney | About 3 Sailboat

I graduated from high school in 1991, then I immediately went to school at SUNY Albany for two years, and then I transferred to the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville, Virginia, where I received a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish Literature. I was active in the community, joining the Spanish Theater Group, where we would travel and perform at a dozen or so locations each year, mostly different universities.

I graduated from the University of Virginia in 1995, and immediately moved to San Luis Obispo, California, where I sold educational books door to door, and was in the 20% in terms of sales. Thereafter, I recruited for the company for several months, and then moved back to Sag Harbor, NY, to be with family. I started law school in 1998, did my first year at Syracuse University College of Law, and then transferred to Georgetown University Law Center, where I graduated in 2001. I have been practicing law in New York ever since.

When I graduated law school, I wanted to practice code-based law, in particular, securities law. I had no interest in being in Court, and all I wanted to do was push paper at a big New York law firm. After three years or so of doing that, I decided that pushing paper like that was not really my thing, and after a few years, I moved into the large corporate bankruptcy and restructuring group at the same firm. From there, I was recruited to another big New York law firm, where I got my first taste of being a New York litigator, and I have been a New York business attorney, and I have not looked back, since then.