Steven M. Kayman

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Partner

New York +1.212.969.3430

Steven Kayman is a partner in Proskauer's Litigation Department. He focuses on intellectual property litigation but, in his 30-plus years of practice — all with Proskauer — he also has had extensive experience litigating disputes involving securities, bankruptcies and workouts, real estate, employment, contracts and many other commercial matters.

Steve founded Proskauer’s Non-Compete and Trade Secrets group and has served as a co-head of the group for many years. He also chaired Proskauer’s firmwide Technology Committee for eight years, with oversight responsibility for all of Proskauer’s information services, technology, knowledge management and practice support operations.

Steve has particular experience and command in matters involving the movement of employees between competitors, the appropriation of trade secrets, employee raiding and liftouts, and agreements containing non-competes and other restrictive covenants.

Clients have called on him when their employees have jumped ship to a competitor, when hiring a competitor's employees, and to craft agreements, policies and procedures aimed at protecting the client's confidential information, other intellectual property, and relationships with its customer base and workforce. Steve has litigated for and counseled clients in thousands of disputed matters in these areas, including major banks and insurance companies, other financial institutions, leading consulting firms, and media and entertainment companies. He also has written and lectured extensively about trade secrets and non-competes and was recently appointed as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School, where he will be teaching a workshop on trade secrets.

Matters

Examples of disputes Steve has successfully resolved for clients include:

Led the defense of two executives and a leading consulting firm in a trade secret/non-compete case involving issues of Chinese and Hong Kong law. The case settled after expedited discovery and two days of trial in Delaware Chancery Court.
Assisted a global money management firm in recruiting and hiring from a competitor more than 20 professionals located in multiple domestic and foreign jurisdictions. The recruitment was accomplished without litigation and resulted in an important diversification of the client’s product offerings.
Represented the Jones Group and Nine West in a case involving three senior executives who joined Kenneth Cole, allegedly in violation of contractual and common-law duties.
Successfully enforced a non-compete against a top executive of a major title insurance company. The Second Circuit’s decision in the case, Ticor Title Ins. v. Cohen, 173 F. 2d 63 (1999), is one of the most cited non-compete cases in New York.
Represented McGraw-Hill Financial in enforcing a non-compete against a senior executive hired by Bloomberg L.P.\
Assisted a Fortune 500 client in hiring a new CEO who was subject to a non-compete with an even larger company, without litigation and after only a short "cooling-off" period.
Collected $100 million for an NYSE-listed movie company that filed for bankruptcy after a bank made, and then withdrew, a commitment to establish a credit facility for the client.
Served as lead litigation counsel in the bankruptcy of Lone Star Cement, an NYSE-listed construction materials company, and fought off an attempt by the equity holders to maintain ownership of the company by overvaluing its assets and business prospects.
Represented Oracle Corporation in defending a trade secret claim arising from a failed joint venture.
Won an appeal that reversed previous New York law limiting an insurance company’s exposure to the face amount of the policy it breached, even if the damage far exceeded that amount. The case, Sabbeth Industries v. Pennsylvania Lumberman’s, 238 A.D. 2d 767 (3d Dep’t 1997), later played an important role in Proskauer’s representation of Larry Silverstein in litigation arising from the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.
Served as lead counsel for L-3 Communications in a four-week jury trial resulting from the acquisition of a security detection business. A verdict in favor of the plaintiff, OSI Systems, was later reversed by the Second Circuit, which ruled in favor of L-3 on almost precisely the theory Steve had advanced on summary judgment before the trial court.
Secured summary judgment in favor of the former equity holders of Kaz, Inc., awarding them approximately $10 million from a withheld escrow distribution and in pre-judgment interest.
Represented Green Dot, a leading prepaid debit card company, in litigation with Sallie Mae, the education finance company, arising from a joint venture to offer Green Dot’s debit cards to college students.
Represented Analog Devices in a trial before the ITC involving claims by Knowles Electronics that Analog’s microphones for use in cellphones and other electronic devices infringed patents held by Knowles.
Represented Radiancy, maker of the highly successful no!no! hair removal device, in patent infringement litigation against Viatek Consumer Products Group and in unfair competition litigation against Tria Beauty.
Represented Avis in unfair competition and false advertising cases against Hertz. A decision by a New York appellate court in one of those cases helped establish the principle that a plaintiff in an unfair competition case can generally recover only its own lost profits rather than the defendant’s gain.
Represented a major entertainment company in preventing an on-air personality from launching a competitive program for another television company while subject to an exclusivity agreement with the client.
Represented a hedge fund in defending six years of investigation by the SEC, including responses to two Wells notices. No charges were ever brought against the client.

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