| Biography:
Edwin Baum's practice is concentrated on representing sophisticated business clients in multi-faceted commercial and employment litigations. Ed principally represents preeminent business entities in the automotive, entertainment, financial services, information technology and pharmaceutical industries. He brings to clients the combined benefits of extensive experience in the arts of trial and appellate advocacy, and in-depth practical knowledge of multiple substantive disciplines that are often involved in today’s complex business disputes, including employment, financial services, insurance, product and professional liability, and unfair competition/theft of trade secrets litigation.
Ed regularly serves as national or coordinating counsel for clients facing putative class or governmental actions, or other potentially significant litigations, involving two or more such disciplines. Ed also frequently counsels clients, in transactional matters and business planning, on assessing potential liabilities, and in developing action plans to prevent or minimize litigation risks.
Ed has been recognized in New York Super Lawyers (2006 and 2007) as one of the metropolitan area’s top attorneys for business litigation, class action/mass torts defense, and employment litigation. Ed has also been recognized nationally in Super Lawyers Corporate Counsel Edition (2008) as one of the country’s premier lawyers for business litigation.
Ed's advocacy has produced extensively cited decisions (and victories for his clients at trial and on appeal) in a wide range of matters, such as:
Constitutionality of federal statutes regulating commerce and finance, Graham v. Dunkley, _A.D.3d_, 2008 WL 269527 (2d Dep’t 2008);
Employment discrimination, Keller v. ORIX Credit Alliance, Inc., 130 F.3d 1101 (3d Cir. 1997) (en banc);
Insurance coverage, Collins & Aikman Group, Inc. v. Allianz Insurance Co., Dkt. No. B112298 (Cal. Ct. App., 2d Dist. 1998) (reprinted by Mealey's Insurance Reports as Document #03-000919-012);
Lender and financial services liability, and business torts, Asset Securitization Corporation v. ORIX Capital Markets, LLC, 12 A.D.2d 215, 784 N.Y.S.2d 513 (1st Dep’t 2004), leave to appeal denied, 4 N.Y.3d 704, 825 N.E.2d 1092, 792 N.Y.S.2d 897 (2005); The R.E. Hable Co. v. ORIX Credit Alliance, Inc., 256 A.D.2d 114, 682 N.Y.S.2d 160 (1st Dep't 1998);
Product liability, and consumer class and attorney general actions, Peter C. Harvey, Attorney General v. Nissan North America, Inc., 2005 WL 1252341 (partial summary judgment), and transcript decision dated 5/25/05 (directing judgment for def’t after trial) (N.J. Super. Ct.); Bikowicz v. Sterling Drug, Inc., 161 A.D.2d 982, 557 N.Y.S.2d 551 (3d Dep't 1990);
Shareholder rights and preliminary injunctions, Davis v. Rondina, 741 F. Supp. 1115 (S.D.N.Y. 1990).
Other lawyers and law firms frequently retain Ed to counsel and represent them in issues involving professional responsibility and ethics, as well as to represent the law firms – or the chief executives and other senior officers of those other law firms’ clients – in employment and disciplinary matters. In addition, drawing on his extensive formal training and experience in dispute resolution, Ed often serves, both as advocate and as a neutral, in mediations, arbitrations and other alternative dispute resolution proceedings.
Publications
• “Helping Clients Address Problems Proactively,” Strategies For Limiting Product Liability, 113-131 (Aspatore Books 2007)
• Ethical Issues During Discovery, Keeping to the Straight and Narrow: Ethical Issues for Civil Litigators, New York State Bar Association CLE publication (with Bertrand C. Sellier and Stacy L. Klein) (2002)
• "The Pre-Litigation Phase for the Potential Defendant," Litigating Employment Cases: Views From the Bench, Georgetown University Law Center CLE publication (2000)
• "Evidentiary Issues in Employment Law: Direct Evidence, Stray Remarks and Rule 412," Litigating Employment Cases: Views From the Bench, Georgetown University Law Center CLE publication (1998)
• "Appeals to the Second Circuit," Committee on Federal Courts of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York (1993) (contributing author)
• "Handicapped Prisoners," 18 Columbia Journal of Law and Social Problems 349, 984 (1984)
Lectures & Speeches
• Program faculty, “Trade Secrets Litigation,” New York State Judicial Institute program (2005)
• Program co-chair and faculty, "Keeping to the Straight and Narrow: Ethical Issues for Civil Litigators," New York State Bar Association program (2002)
• Program faculty, "Litigating Employment Cases – Views from the Bench," Georgetown University Law Center CLE program (1998 and 2000)
• Program faculty, "Advice from the Experts on Successful Appellate Advocacy and Federal Appellate Practice," New York State Bar Association program (2000)
• Lecturer, "Impact of Recent Supreme Court Employment Cases," American Corporate Counsel Association program (1998)
• Lecturer, "Legal, Ethical and Strategic Issues Concerning Former Employees' Testimony," American Corporate Counsel Association program (1998)
• Program faculty, "Appellate Practice in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit," New York State Bar Association program (1996)
• Lecturer, "Insurance Claim Handling," American Corporate Counsel Association Program (1992)
• Lecturer, "Directors and Officers Indemnification and Insurance," American Corporate Counsel Association program (1990)
Ed devotes a substantial portion of his professional time to service to the profession and the community, including work for and leadership on committees of several major bar associations, and in moot court and other law school and college alumni programs.
For example, Ed's bar association activities include extensive committee work for the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. He has served as a member of the Association’s Judiciary Committee and, in that capacity, has chaired and participated in numerous subcommittees evaluating candidates for federal and state judicial office. While serving on the Committee on Federal Courts, he was Chairman of the Subcommittee on Magistrate Judges, Chairman of the Subcommittee on the National Commission on Judicial Discipline and Removal, Member of the Subcommittee on drafting the handbook entitled Appeals to the Second Circuit, and Member of the Subcommittee on Alternative Dispute Resolution. He also has served on the Committee on Gender Bias in Federal Courts, Committee on Professional and Judicial Ethics, and Committee on Product Liability.
Ed is currently a member of the Executive Committee of the New York State Bar Association's (“NYSBA”) Commercial and Federal Litigation Section, and has served on that section’s Commercial Division Committee, Committee on the Federal Judiciary, and Committee on Appeals, and is chair of the section’s Membership Committee. Ed is also a member of the NYSBA’s Employment Law Section.
Ed was graduated from Columbia Law School in 1984, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, and earned his B.S., with honors, from the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University.
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