Laurel R. Kretzing, CHAIR
Laurel R. Kretzing is Chair of the Commercial and Federal Litigation Section of the New York State Bar Association.
Laurel R. Kretzing is the Chief of the Litigation and Appeals Bureau in the Office of the Nassau County Attorney where she oversees civil litigation for the County of Nassau. Prior to taking this position Ms. Kretzing was a partner at Jaspan Schlesinger LLP serving in the firm's Litigation Practice Group, where she represented both private and public entities, and its Construction and Appellate practice groups. She concentrated her practice in commercial litigation, civil rights, employment law, land use, environmental law and construction law. She has substantial trial and appellate experience litigating complex matters in both the state and federal courts and has lectured on construction law topics.
Ms. Kretzing received her Juris Doctor from Hofstra University School of Law and her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Pennsylvania State University. From 1986 to 1989 Ms. Kretzing served as a Deputy County Attorney in the Nassau County Attorney's Office where she handled tax certiorari, construction, municipal litigation and environmental matters. She also served as Chairperson of the Nassau County Recycling Task Force from 1988 to 1989.
In addition to her experience as a Deputy Nassau County Attorney, Ms. Kretzing served as Assistant Village Attorney for the Village of Northport and represented the Village in a wide variety of litigation matters including Article 78 proceedings, employee disciplinary proceedings, land use and construction litigation. Ms. Kretzing has also successfully represented numerous towns and villages in Civil Rights and 42 U.S.C. §1983 actions brought in the federal courts. In addition to her litigation practice, Ms. Kretzing is experienced in advising clients on all aspects of public bidding, procurement law, prevailing wage law and the administration of construction projects.
She was a recipient of the 2003 Pro Bono Attorney of the Year Award presented by Touro College Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center and was named to the Long Island Business News List of Who’s Who in Women in Professional Services for 2009 and Top 50 Most Influential Woman in 2011. She was named to the Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University's Long Island Top Women in Law for 2016. In addition, Ms. Kretzing was named to the 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 New York Metro area Super Lawyers list. She received the recognition in the practice area of business ligation. The Super Lawyers list is issued by Thomson Reuters. A description of the selection methodology can be found at http://www.superlawyers.com/about/selection_process.html
Ms. Kretzing is a member of the Nassau County Bar Association, the Nassau County Women's Bar Association, the Suffolk County Bar Association (commercial division committee), the New York State Bar Association serving as the Nassau/Suffolk District Leader for the Commercial & Federal Litigation Section from 2014 -2017 and the American Bar Association. Ms. Kretzing also serves as a Town of Huntington Park Steward.
Ms. Kretzing is admitted to practice in New York as well as before the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and the United States District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York.
JONATHAN B. FELLOWS, CHAIR-ELECT
Jonathan
B. Fellows is a partner of Bond, Schoeneck & King PLLC, in the firm’s
Syracuse office. He joined the firm in
1986, and was named a partner in 1994.
He has served as a member of the firm’s Management Committee, as
co-General Counsel of the firm, and currently sits on the firm’s Compensation
Committee.
Mr.
Fellows has tried numerous cases to verdict in both state and federal courts,
as well as in administrative forums and arbitrations. In 2009, he represented the claimant in a
FINRA proceeding in which his client was awarded $40 million in damages against
a major brokerage firm, one of the largest awards ever in a FINRA
arbitration. He has been lead counsel in
numerous class actions. He has represented
a wide array of clients, including higher education institutions, financial
institutions, pharmaceutical companies, medical device companies, media
companies, public authorities, municipalities, school districts, and religious
institutions. He regularly handles
commercial disputes, employment disputes, civil rights cases, and complex
product liability cases.
Mr.
Fellows also has an active appellate practice, and has argued over one hundred
appeals in New York’s Appellate divisions, seven appeals in the New York Court
of Appeals and numerous appeals in the Second, Sixth and Eighth Circuits of the
United States Court of Appeals.
In
addition to his litigation practice, Mr. Fellows serves as General Counsel of
Hamilton College and as Chancellor of the Episcopal Diocese of Central New
York.
Mr.
Fellows is a cum laude graduate of Hamilton College. He is a magna cum laude graduate of the
Cornell Law School, where he was elected to the Order of the Coif and served as
Editor-in-Chief of the Cornell Law Review.
After graduating from Cornell, he served as a law clerk to the Honorable
Phyllis A. Kravitch of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh
Circuit.
Section Delegates to the NYSBA House of Delegates:
Robert N. Holtzman
Robert N. Holtzman is the
Immediate Past Chair of the Commercial and Federal Litigation Section of the
New York State Bar Association.
Mr. Holtzman is a partner in
Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP in New York, where he represents
employers in employment law and executive compensation matters and is co-chair
of the firm’s Executive Compensation practice. He counsels employers regarding the
full range of legal and business issues that touch upon or concern the
employment relationship, including advisory matters and the design and conduct
of manager and employee training, and, when disputes arise, represents
employers in federal courts, state courts, and arbitration. Mr. Holtzman also
advises and represents companies and executives in connection with the design,
implementation, drafting and negotiation of executive compensation
arrangements, and he regularly represents buyers, sellers and management teams
in connection with mergers and acquisitions, and other transactions.
A summa
cum laude graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, Mr. Holtzman
earned his law degree from Columbia Law School, where he was a Harlan Fiske
Stone Scholar and an Editor of the Columbia Law Review.
PAUL D. SARKOZI
Paul Sarkozi is the Co-Chair of
the Litigation and Dispute Resolution Practice at Tannenbaum Helpern Syracuse
& Hirschtritt LLP. From 2014-2015, Paul served as Chair of the
Commercial and Federal Litigation Section. He currently serves on the NY
Chief Judge’s Commercial Division Advisory Council as Co-Chair of the
Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee and on the Chief Judge’s ADR Advisory
Committee as Chair of the Commercial Subcommittee. Recognized by Super
Lawyers in the New York Times each year since 2012 as one of the Top 100
Lawyers in the New York Metro area, Paul represents business entities in a
broad range of industries to counsel them on the best ways to prosecute, defend
and resolve their complex commercial disputes. He has represented, among
others, Fortune 500 companies, hedge funds, private equity firms, real estate
developers, global media and public relations firms, clothing wholesalers and
retailers, and restaurant owners and microbreweries. Paul handles a broad
range of common law and statutory business disputes in federal court, state
court, arbitration and mediation – ranging, for example, from breach of
contract to fraud to business breakups to trade secret and restrictive covenant
enforcement.
GREGORY K. ARENSON
Greg Arenson has been a partner in
Kaplan Fox & Kilsheimer LLP since 1993. He is principally a
plaintiffs’ antitrust lawyer. Among others, he argued the appeals in In re
High Fructose Corn Syrup Antitrust Litig., 295 F.3d 651 (7th Cir. 2002),
and In re Hydrogen Peroxide Antitrust Litig., 552 F.3d 305 (3d Cir.
2009). In the New York State Bar Association, Mr. Arenson has been Chair of the
Commercial and Federal Litigation Section, Co-Chair of the Task Force on the
State of Our Courthouses, Vice Chair of the Sections Caucus, member of the
Special Committee on Standards for Pleadings in Federal Litigation, and member
of the Special Committee on Discovery and Case Management in Federal
Litigation. He is currently a member of the Association’s CLE Committee. Mr.
Arenson has published numerous articles on discovery. He serves as a mediator
in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, and he is an
active alumnus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
