In a dispute involving intellectual property of The Palm Restaurant, an iconic steakhouse, New York Supreme Court Justice Andrea Masley decided in favor of CTSW’s clients, the restaurant's minority shareholders, who said the majority shareholders breached their fiduciary duty of loyalty by exploiting the Palm’s famous IP for their own benefit. Justice Masley ruled that the defendants owe the corporation that owns the Palm IP more than $71 million in damages for defendants’ failure to pay fair royalties.
Adding interest and attorneys' fees, which Justice Masley also awarded, the total award is estimated to be at least $120 million. Josh Rievman was the lead CTSW partner on the case, and was co-counsel for the plaintiffs with Fred Newman of Hoguet Newman.