Fredric S. Newman

Adjunct Professor of Law

212-689-8808
[email protected]

Fred Newman is a founding partner of Hoguet Newman Regal & Kenney, LLP, a commercial litigation firm in Manhattan. He is a legal generalist with decades of experience in commercial litigation, business advice, corporate transactions, employment counseling and alternative dispute resolution.

As a litigator, Mr. Newman handles an array of commercial litigation and employment matters. He has won numerous jury trials, bench trials, dispositive motions, and appeals in the federal and New York state courts and arbitrations before various tribunals. Mr. Newman has also been responsible for the management, settlement or private resolution of many hundreds of matters in his practice. Mr. Newman was named a “Leading Lawyer” for general commercial litigation in New York, one of only 76 individuals so honored, in Chambers USA, America’s Leading Lawyers for Business (2009).

As a counselor, Mr. Newman advises corporate owners, executives and entrepreneurs on business and personal issues. In addition, he has served on the board of directors of a private reinsurance company; he was appointed CEO of a public company in dissolution by its major creditor; and he was the general counsel and secretary of a public reporting subsidiary of a Fortune 50 company.

Mr. Newman was a Member and Panel Chair of the First Departmental Disciplinary Committee appointed by order of the Appellate Division (2007-2012). In 2009, Mr. Newman was a Visiting Professor of Arbitration at a law faculty in Latvia.

Significant litigation matters concluded in 2012-2013. Trials: lead trial counsel in two federal civil actions favorably settled at trial, a bankruptcy claim for breach of fiduciary duty against a CEO, and a bench trial in the New York County Commercial Division involving a partnership dispute between two expatriate Russians resident in London over the ownership of a Ukrainian television station. Appeals: argued a significant point of corporate law to the New York Court of Appeals on the language to be used in drafting a New York choice of law provision in commercial contracts, and argued a pending appeal in the Appellate Division First Department concerning the proper measure of damages in a partnership dispute.

Arbitrations: lead counsel for a major law firm in an arbitration brought by a former partner, favorably settled on the eve of hearing, and successfully represented an investment executive in a FINRA arbitration to secure a promised bonus. In addition, Mr. Newman advised a high profile, former investment executive in avoiding litigation arising from the publication of his book about the financial industry, negotiated several executive employment contracts and two favorable CEO severance agreements; and obtained an administrative dismissal of FINRA charges against a bank executive.

Before opening the private practice that evolved into Hoguet Newman Regal & Kenney, Mr. Newman was a litigation associate at White & Case, New York City (1970-1980), and he was Assistant General Counsel and then Vice President and General Counsel of Philip Morris USA, also in New York City (1981-1990).

Mr. Newman is a member of the National Advisory Board of the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics.

Mr. Newman’s numerous other civic and non-profit positions have included: Court-appointed Mediator in the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York; Director, Columbia Law School Association; Trustee, The Calhoun School, New York City; Founding Director and Vice President, American Corporate Counsel Association, New York Chapter; Director and Secretary, New York Fire Safety Foundation; and Sustaining Life Fellow, American Bar Foundation. Mr. Newman was Treasurer of the Clean Water/Clean Air Bond Act Committee, a successful statewide ballot initiative to fund major environmental projects in New York. Mr. Newman served as one of three members appointed by Governor George E. Pataki to the New York State Ad Hoc Committee on the Future of Racing, a bipartisan panel established to conduct the bidding process for the franchise to operate New York’s three major thoroughbred racetracks.

Mr. Newman is a member of the bar of the State of New York, the United States District Courts for the Southern, Eastern and Northern Districts of New York and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. He has appeared in the federal district courts in Illinois, Maine, Nevada and Virginia as well as the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.

Mr. Newman has lectured and been published on a variety of legal topics, most recently as the author of a section of Moskin/Rossman on Commercial Contracts. Mr. Newman is listed in several volumes of Who's Who.

Mr. Newman graduated from Harvard College (AB cum laude 1967) and Columbia Law School (JD 1970). He also received an Executive MBA from the University of Virginia Darden School of Business (TEP 1984).

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