Lecturer Bios
Ronald C. Minkoff, Esq.
Ronald C. Minkoff is a partner in the Litigation Group and Head of the Professional Responsibility Group. Mr. Minkoff is also one of New York State’s leading practitioners in the field of attorney ethics and professional responsibility, representing attorneys in a wide variety of matters including law firm partnership disputes, disciplinary cases, legal fee disputes and legal malpractice and professional liability cases on behalf of both plaintiffs and defendants. He also provides ethics opinions and advice to a wide variety of law firm clients.
Mr. Minkoff is a member of several Bar Ethics Committees, including the Committee on Standards of Attorney Conduct (COSAC) and the Committee on Professional Discipline of the New York State Bar Association. He is also the Chair of the Task Force on Professionalism of the New York County Lawyers Association, a former member of the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Professionalism, and a past President of the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers. He is a member of the Media Law Resource Center (MLRC) ethics committee and has written extensively for the New York Professional Responsibility Report, The Professional Lawyer, The New York Law Journal, and other publications. Mr. Minkoff is an Adjunct Professor of Professional Responsibility at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. He has also served as an Adjunct Professor at New York University School of Law, Fordham Law School, and Brooklyn Law School. He is a frequent lecturer on the law of lawyering.
In addition, Mr. Minkoff represents businesses and individual professionals and executives in a wide variety of commercial litigation, including business break-ups, securities lawsuits, and domestic and international trade disputes. He represents several law firm partners in partnership disputes. And he represents an internationally known petrochemist in an oil and gas venture dispute. Mr. Minkoff was recently appointed to the Advisory Committee of the Commercial Division of the Supreme Court, New York County and was a member of Chief Judge Lippman’s Task Force on Commercial Litigation in the 21st Century. He is also a member of the Council on Judicial Administration of the New York City Bar Association.
Mr. Minkoff is a graduate of Columbia Law School (JD, 1980). He was an attorney at the Nassau County Legal Aid Society (1980-83), and was associated with Obermaier Morvillo & Abramowitz, P.C. (1983-85) and Owen & Fennell (1985-87). Mr. Minkoff was a member of Fennell & Minkoff (1987-94) and Beldock Levine & Hoffman (1994-2001) before joining Frankfurt Kurnit.
Representative cases: Grynberg v. BP Explorations Operating Co. Ltd. 92 A.D.3d 547 938 N.Y.S.2d 439 (2012); Frauzblau v. Cassin and Cassin LLP Index: 105949/10 Supreme Court New York County (2010); Carl v. Cohen and Greenberg Traurig, LLP 23 Misc.3d 1110(A) 886 N.Y.S.2d 66 (2009); Conopco, Inc. v. Wein, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 46945 (S.D.N.Y. 2007); Trepel v. Dippold, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 78050 (S.D.N.Y. 2006); Goetz v. Volpe and R & L Leasing, LLC, 11 Misc.3d 632, 812 N.Y.S.2d 294 (2006).
Susan L. Harper, Esq.
Susan L. Harper, Esq. is the New York/New Jersey Director of the Bates Group LLC. Ms. Harper is an experienced litigation attorney who has represented major broker dealers, insurance companies, clearing firms and their employees throughout the United States on a variety of matters before FINRA, SEC and state and federal courts in connection with customer, industry, and employment disputes, as well as compliance and regulatory matters. She has successfully defended, mediated and settled claims involving wrongful termination/discrimination, suitability, speculative products, hedge funds, over concentration, fraud, churning, misappropriation, negligence, fiduciary duty, failure to supervise and Form U4/U5 related matters.
She is experienced in advising clients and devising strategic approaches and strategies to securities arbitration and litigation matters; interviewing and prepping witnesses; analyzing potential arbitration panels; coaching and making recommendations to clients; drafting arbitration and litigation pleadings; conducting legal, investigative research and background checks; managing and coordinating pre-hearing conferences and discovery, including e-discovery, FINRA/court mandated discovery, issuances of subpoenas; pre-hearing preparation and hearing processes.
Sample Representative Cases include:
- Successfully represented global financial services company in motion to compel arbitration in Surrogate’s Court (Published decision; Matter of Depinto v UBS, 17 MS 2008, NY Surrogate’s Court (Suffolk County, 2010)
- Mediated suitability claim on behalf of national discount broker concerning naked puts, straddles and options contracts in third party managed accounts
- Served as lead associate for law firm regulatory team on behalf of 60-year-old Wall Street brokerage house concerning FINRA penny stock, AML regulatory inquiry, hedge fund dispute
- Successfully defended Fortune 500 client in overconcentration claim concerning multiple hedge funds
- Served as lead associate for law firm arbitration team that successfully defended a multimillion dollar fraud claim brought against nationally known clearing firm client. After a nine-day trial on the merits, the claim against the client was denied in its entirety
- Successfully negotiated settlements for broker-dealers concerning FINRA claims of suitability, misallocation, overconcentration, fraud and speculative retail product
- Represented insurance company in FINRA claim concerning variable annuities and insurance related products
- Represented registered representative and Fortune 500 Company concerning suitability of investments in third party managed accounts
- Represented Fortune 500 Company in FINRA suitability claim concerning hedge fund investment
- Represented Fortune 500 Company in multiple South American retail customer claims
Robert L. Herskovits, Esq.
Since he began practicing law in 1996, Robert Herskovits has represented securities industry participants in a variety of litigation, arbitration, and enforcement actions, first as associate general counsel to an NYSE broker-dealer firm, and later as an attorney and partner at various law firms.
Rob is a certified arbitrator for FINRA, AAA, and the NFA, and has participated in an estimated 200 arbitration proceedings before FINRA.
At the end of 2011, Robert formed Herskovits PLLC to provide legal representation to broker-dealers, investment advisors, securities industry professionals, and investors in securities litigation, securities arbitration and securities industry regulatory defense for matters appearing before FINRA and other self-regulatory bodies, as well as before the SEC, state securities authorities, and state and federal courts. In addition to dealing with regulatory matters, Robert provides representation in employment, contract, and general commercial litigation for these same financial services clients.
The impetus for founding his own firm was Robert’s recognition that securities and financial services industry clients were not always being well-served by some of the larger law firms, particularly with regard to billing inefficiencies. He recognized that, sometimes, their large size and broad practice structure actually hindered them from constructing the hands-on, personal relationships necessary to truly understand their client’s priorities and goals in representative matters.
He formed Herskovits PLLC to fill a void in the marketplace by offering clients involved in the securities profession experienced legal services while still recognizing and appreciating the budgetary limitations imposed on these businesses by a weak economy and a constrained market.
Robert’s insight is to provide a broad range of business-related services in a small-firm atmosphere, so that his clients do not have to deal with multiple firms or, alternatively, work with multiple attorneys at a single large firm who are unfamiliar with the particular concerns that securities industry participants face. Herskovits PLLC knows its clients, understands its clients’ business and provides its clients with offer cost-effective representation.
Robert is dedicated to providing legal expertise and advocacy that will empower his securities and financial services clients to operate their businesses and pursue their professions with as little disruption and cost as possible when faced with problems, whether they are customer or employee disputes, enforcement actions, or regulatory investigations.
Prior to forming Herskovits PLLC, Robert was a partner with Gusrae Kaplan Nusbaum PLLC, for more than five years.
Robert is the Co-Chair of the Committee for Securities and Exchanges of the New York County Lawyers’ Association and is admitted to practice in the States of New York and Mississippi and before various federal courts throughout the country, including the U.S. Supreme Court.
Robert is rated AV (preeminent) by Martindale-Hubbell for securities law, litigation and alternative dispute resolution. Martindale-Hubbell is a nationally recognized and respected directory of attorneys and law firms whose ratings are based upon peer review and input related to an attorney’s ethical standards, legal knowledge, analytical capabilities, experience, judgment, and communication skills. AV is the highest rating achievable.
Robert’s accomplishments have been recognized by Thomson Reuters’ publication, “Super Lawyers,” as a 2011 Rising Star in business litigation and 2014 through 2022 Super Lawyer for securities litigation. Thomson Reuters, one of the world’s leading information resources providers created the “Super Lawyers” rating system to highlight attorneys in over 70 practice areas who have been recognized by their peers as exceptional in their field.
