Michael C. Lasky is co-chairman of the Litigation Department and partner of the Employment Practice Group of Davis & Gilbert LLP.  With over twenty-five years of commercial litigation experience, he has litigated a broad range of disputes, including:

• Complex contract and employment matters,
• Shareholder and partnership disputes,
• Restrictive covenant and “garden leave” disputes,
• Breach of fiduciary duty and “mass exodus” disputes; and
• Matters involving the protection and exploitation of trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets, and
• Disputes relating to the purchase and sale of businesses.

Mr. Lasky also devotes a significant portion of his practice to advising executives and owners of the public relations, advertising, investment banking and e-commerce firms on their employment, shareholder, incentive compensation and related arrangements.  A noted authority on the use and enforceability of various post-employment restrictions on competition and the movement of talent between competitive organizations, he has been quoted by The Wall Street Journal and other leading publications on this subject.

In recognition of his achievements, in 2007, Mr. Lasky was selected for inclusion in "Super Lawyers," New York Metro edition, published by Law & Politics. The magazine performs the polling, research and selection of Super Lawyers in a process designed to identify lawyers who have attained a high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement.

REPRESENTATIVE CASES:

• On behalf of an inventor, Mr. Lasky established both at trial and through successive appeals up to the highest court in New York, that his client’s computerized stock selection strategy was worthy of trade secret protection.  The case established new law in the trade secrets area and in the awarding anticipated lost profits for a new business venture that was never established by virtue of the wrongdoers’ actions.
• On behalf of many marketing and financial services companies, Mr. Lasky has both successfully obtained injunctions and damages in cases seeking to enforce non-competition, restrictive covenants and garden leave provisions and successfully defended against the enforcement of these post-employment restrictions between and among competitive organizations.
• On behalf of a marketing service company, Mr. Lasky successfully defended against claims that the en mass departure of a group of executives to join a competitor violated their common law and common law duties.
• On behalf of a private label electronics manufacturer, Mr. Lasky won a $5.2 million jury verdict against a national retailer based upon a breach of a twenty-five year course of dealing and by proving the existence of an oral distribution agreement.
• On behalf of a major video game developer, Mr. Lasky successfully defended against the entry of preliminary and permanent injunction to enjoin a comparative television commercial.
• On behalf of the world's largest chauffeured transportation company, Mr. Lasky obtained a federal court injunction to prevent over a dozen individuals from obtaining telephone listings in directory assistance under our client's name.  When the violations continued, Mr. Lasky worked with the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's office which ultimately led to a criminal indictment arrest, guilty plea, prison sentence and an award for financial restitution to our client from one of the wrongdoers.

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
Mr. Lasky began his legal career as the law clerk to the Honorable Lee P. Gagliardi, United States District Court, Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.  In 1991, Mr. Lasky was selected, and has continued serving since that time, as a Court-appointed mediator in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.  Mr. Lasky has also served on the Committee on Federal and Commercial Litigation Courts and The Intellectual Property Law Committee of the New York State Bar Association, and on the Editorial Board for New York Civil Procedure Before Trial (James Publishing 2001).

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
Mr. Lasky is on the Board of Trustees of the National Center of Learning Disabilities, and a Board member of the Alumni Association of Rutgers School of Law, Newark.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Co-Author, “An Electronic Subscription Prescription,” a chapter in Intellectual Property & Technology Law Journal, published by Aspen, October 2007
Author, “Who’s On The Move? Protect The Assets That Ride Up And Down In Your Elevator,” The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel, September 2007
Co-author of "Restrictive Covenants and Other Techniques to Protect Customer Relationships," a chapter in Human Resources 2007:  Answers To Your Top 25 HR Questions, published by Thompson
Co-Author, "Employment Roundtable: Updates in Discrimination Law,"  The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel, November 2006
Author, “Pro Bono Service: “It Makes Us Both Better Lawyers and Better Citizens”,”  The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel, August 2006
Co-author, “Where Public Relations and the Law Meet in a Media Intensive Environment,” The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel, March 2006
Co-author, "The Background on Background Checks," Talentzoo.com, May 2004
Co-author, "Recent Developments In Employment Law," The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel, April 2004

AREAS OF EXPERTISE
Arbitration and Mediation; Commercial Litigation; Intellectual Property; Employment Law.

BAR ADMISSIONS
1979, New York

CONTACT
212-468-4849
mlasky@dglaw.com