Corporate & Litigation · Est. 1998 · New York

Counsel for the consequential matter.

A boutique firm of eleven lawyers, retained by boards, founders, and funds when the transaction is complex or the dispute cannot be lost. We take few matters, and we do not delegate them downward.

$2.4B
Transactions closed
94%
Disputes won or resolved pre-trial
11
Lawyers, no associates farmed out
27
Years before the bar
§ 01

We are deliberately small. A partner opens your file, argues it, and closes it — the same name on the engagement letter is the name in the courtroom and across the table.

Practice & representative work

Hover, tap, or key to open

Buy-side and sell-side M&A, venture and growth financings, joint ventures, and recapitalizations. We draft the deal, run diligence, and hold the closing — and we tell a board plainly when a deal should not be done.

  • $340M cross-border acquisition of a logistics platform
  • Series C financing for a medical-device issuer
  • Management buyout of a family manufacturer

Trial-tested advocacy in contract, shareholder, fiduciary, and partnership disputes. We prepare every matter as though it will be tried — which is precisely why most of them settle on our terms.

  • Defended a control contest for a public issuer
  • $61M breach-of-contract recovery at trial
  • Emergency injunction protecting a supply chain

Public-company reporting, disclosure controls, board and committee governance, and the defense of SEC and self-regulatory inquiries — counsel that keeps a company out of trouble, and steady when it arrives.

  • Resolved an SEC inquiry with no enforcement action
  • Special-committee counsel on a related-party merger
  • Redesign of a Fortune-listed board’s charter set

Fund formation, portfolio-company transactions, co-investments, and GP/LP negotiations for sponsors and family offices — from the first close through the exit.

  • Formed a $220M lower-middle-market buyout fund
  • Roll-up of nine portfolio add-on acquisitions
  • Negotiated a preferred co-investment for a family office

Executive transitions, restrictive covenants, and the litigation of trade-secret misappropriation — for the company protecting its people and its confidential work, and for the executive leaving cleanly.

  • Enjoined misappropriation of a proprietary process
  • Negotiated a CEO separation and transition
  • Rebuilt a national non-compete program post-rule

State and federal appeals, dispositive-motion strategy, and amicus work — brought in by trial counsel and by our own litigators to preserve a win or reverse a loss.

  • Reversal secured before the Second Circuit
  • Affirmance of a $61M judgment on appeal
  • Amicus counsel on a fiduciary-duty question
The record

Measured by outcomes, not by headcount.

$2.4B
In transactions closed over the past decade
180+
Matters tried, arbitrated, or resolved
94%
Of disputes won or settled before trial
1:2
Partner-to-lawyer ratio, by design

The partners

Every matter, partner-led

Eleanor Harwell

Managing Partner · Corporate
Admitted: New York, Delaware
U.S. Supreme Court; S.D.N.Y.

Marcus Crane

Partner · Litigation
Admitted: New York, Connecticut
2nd Cir.; S.D.N.Y.; E.D.N.Y.

Priya Anand

Partner · Securities
Admitted: New York, California
FINRA; former SEC Enforcement

David Okonkwo

Partner · Private Equity
Admitted: New York, Massachusetts
D. Mass.; CFA charterholder

Working with the firm

Common questions

Transactional work is quoted as a fixed fee or a capped estimate agreed before we begin. Litigation is hourly, with a monthly ledger you can read line by line, and in select matters a blended or partial-contingency arrangement. There are no phantom charges and no first-year associate you have never met on the invoice.

  • Fixed or capped fees on transactions
  • Contingency considered case by case

A named partner, from intake to resolution. We staff leanly on purpose — the lawyer who understands your matter is the one who argues it. When depth is needed we add our own counsel, never an outside contract roster.

  • One partner accountable end to end

For emergencies — a filed complaint, a threatened injunction, a signing on a deadline — we clear a conflicts check and open a file within twenty-four hours. For planned transactions, an initial consultation is usually available within the week.

  • 24-hour turnaround on emergencies

Our transactional practice is national and frequently cross-border. In litigation we appear where our partners are admitted and associate with trusted local counsel elsewhere, leading the strategy while a vetted firm handles the courtroom logistics.

  • National and cross-border transactions
  • Local counsel network for out-of-state trials

Request counsel.

Consultations are by appointment and held in confidence. Tell us the matter in a sentence; a partner — not an intake clerk — will respond and, where we can help, propose next steps.

Begin a consultation
Office
48 Beaver Street, 21st Floor
New York, NY 10004
Hours
Mon–Fri, 8:30–18:00 ET
Emergency intake, 24 hours