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On November 2, 2022, United States Magistrate Judge Robert Levy swore in Long Island employment lawyer Matthew Weinick as a mediator for the Eastern District of New York. The moment marks the culmination of years of work Weinick has spent training to serve as a mediator for the EDNY panel.

Mediation is an informal way for parties to a dispute to work towards a negotiated settlement, instead of having a judge or jury decide the outcome. Advantages to mediation include that it is often quicker and less expensive than a lawsuit, and the parties control the outcome of the case, instead of a court. Because of the efficiencies of mediation, courts such as the EDNY, often order parties to try mediation before the case continues in court.

The path towards Weinick joining the EDNY mediation panel started many years ago. Weinick first applied for and was accepted to the EDNY’s pro bono mediation advocacy panel. On the advocacy panel, Weinick represented parties involved in lawsuits filed in the Eastern District of New York. The EDNY, as it is known, has jurisdiction over federal lawsuits arising in Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens, Nassau, and Suffolk counties.

In these uncertain times, New Yorkers are struggling to find reassurance wherever possible. In the context of employment, employees have been facing questions about job security, income security, and how to balance stay-at-home instructions coming from the government and employers’ attempts to keep their businesses running.

On March 18, 2020, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that New York State would be enacting laws to provide for leave and paid sick leave for coronavirus related work absences.  Today’s Long Island employment law blog discusses the law’s provisions.

Governor Cuomo issued a press release detailing the specifics of the new leave law.  Basically, the law provides for either paid leave or unpaid leave with job security, depending on factors such as employer size and revenue, and the reason for the employee’s leave.  The specifics are detailed below:

Long Island litigation attorney Peter Famighetti obtained a monumental victory for his client, a small business owner.  Famighetti defeated a plaintiff’s attempts to restrict the way the business owner operated his business and received profits from the business. Today’s blog discusses the dispute, Famighetti’s work to obtain a favorable result for his client, and the court’s decision.

As part of the firm’s general litigation portfolio of cases, Peter Famighetti represents the owner of a social media brand and who is a defendant in a lawsuit.  In the lawsuit, the plaintiff alleges that he is a 50% owner of the social media brand and that Famighetti’s client terminated and excluded the plaintiff from the partnership.

Upon filing the lawsuit, the plaintiff also sought an immediate court order enjoining the defendant from posting certain content on behalf of the brand which the plaintiff alleges could violate the social media platform’s policies. In the same application, the plaintiff sought a court order appointing a temporary receiver to receive all future assets of the brand. Famighetti appeared in court to argue against the application and submitted opposition papers.