Please join us as we honor
2015
Monday, May 18, 2015
Reception: 5:30 pm
Program: 6:15 pm
Gary P. Naftalis
Bryant Park Grill
25 West 40th Street
New York, NY
John J. McCloy
Memorial Award Honoree
Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP
and
2015
Career Public Service
Award Honoree
HON.Victoria A. Graffeo
Harris Beach PLLC
Tickets can be purchased by
completing the attached form
and sending it to
Fund for Modern Courts
28 West 39th Street, 4th FL
New York, New York 10018
Sponsored by
Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP
or phone: 212.541.6741, ext. 102
or click: [email protected]
RESPONSEFORM
2015 John J. McCloy Memorial Award
NAME
Sponsorship Opportunities
ORGANIZATION
Yes, I / We want to support the Fund for Modern Courts: (Please check one)
ADDRESS
CITY
John J. McCloy
Memorial Award
STATE
ZIP
TELEPHONE
BENEFACTOR: $10,000
Includes 10 tickets, a full-page color
tribute page in the Program Journal,
appropriate signage and recognition
in all press releases ($1,000*).
PATRON: $7,500
Includes 8 tickets and a black and
white full-page tribute ($800*).
E-MAIL
GUEST LIST
1.
SPONSOR: $5,000
Includes 6 tickets and a black and
white half-page tribute ($600*).
SUPPORTER: $2,500
Includes 4 tickets and recognition in
the Program Journal ($400*).
DONOR: $1,000
Includes 2 tickets and recognition in
the Program Journal ($200*).
Friends: $250
Includes 1 ticket ($100*).
*Estimated fair market value of goods
and/or services.
I/We cannot attend but would like to reserve tribute space in the
Program Journal.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Full-page (color) - $7,500. . . . . . . . . . 7 1⁄ 2" wide x 10" high (non-bleed)
Full-page (black & white) - $5,000 . . 7 1⁄ 2" wide x 10" high
Half-page (black & white) - $2,500. . 7 1⁄ 2" wide x 5" high
I/We cannot attend but enclose a contribution of $________________.
6.
ALL TRIBUTES MUST BE HI RES PDFS OR HI RES (300 DPI) JPGS, NO SPOT COLORS AND MUST
BE RECEIVED BY MAY 8, 2015.
John J. McCloy served
as Chair of the Fund and
Committee for Modern Courts
from 1961 to 1978. This
award recognizes lawyers
who have made outstanding
contributions to improving the
administration of justice
in New York State.
Past recipients are:
Daniel R. Alonso
Hon. Joseph W. Bellacosa
Sheila L. Birnbaum
Hon. Hugh L. Carey
Carey R. Dunne
John D. Feerick
Mel M. Immergut
Robert D. Joffe
Hon. Hugh R. Jones
Robert M. Kaufman
Hon. Edward I. Koch
Victor A. Kovner
Robert MacCrate
Hon. E. Leo Milonas
Bernard W. Nussbaum
Bettina B. Plevan
Roy L. Reardon
Fern Schair
Samuel W. Seymour
Hon. Cyrus R. Vance
Mary Jo White
Stephen P. Younger
7.
8.
Purchase tickets completing the attached form and send to the address below.
9.
Please make all checks payable to: Fund for Modern Courts
28 West 39th Street, 4th FL
New York, NY 10018
10.
For inquiries, contact: 212.541.6741 ext. 102 / [email protected]
Fund for Modern Courts
28 West 39th Street, 4th FL
New York, New York 10018
Phone: 212.541.6741
Fax: 212.541.7301
E-Mail: [email protected]
Web: www.moderncourts.org
About the Fund for Modern Courts
Founded in 1955, The Fund for Modern Courts is a private, nonpartisan 501(c)3
organization dedicated to improving the administration of justice in New York
State. Through its Citizen Court Monitoring Project, reports and forums, Modern
Courts engages the public to make the court system more user friendly and
accessible for all New Yorkers. Utilizing outreach and education, the Fund
for Modern Courts is an effective advocate for progressive court reform and
increased citizen participation in the justice system.
Career Public
Service Award
This award was established
in 2007 to honor an individual
who throughout his or her
career has demonstrated an
outstanding commitment,
through service in government, to the pursuit of justice,
fairness, inclusiveness and
equal opportunity in the judicial system of New York State.
Past recipients include:
Helaine M. Barnett
Hon. Richard A. Brown
Hon. Michael. A. Cardozo
Hon. Zachary W. Carter
Hon. John R. Dunne
Hon. Judith S. Kaye
Hon. Ann T. Pfau
Hon. George Bundy Smith
GARY P. NAFTALIS
HON.Victoria A. Graffeo
Gary P. Naftalis is one of the nation’s leading trial lawyers and pre-eminent litigators,
representing corporations, as well as officers, directors and others, in all phases of complex
civil, criminal and regulatory matters. His work spans more than four decades and includes
many sensitive and high-profile matters, governmental and regulatory inquiries and related civil
litigation involving allegations of insider trading, market manipulation, accounting irregularities,
stock options backdating and other financial fraud. He also has served as counsel to audit
and special committees of a number of major public companies in connection with regulatory
issues.
Victoria A. Graffeo is a member of Harris Beach PLLC, leader of the firm’s Alternative
Dispute Resolution Practice Group, co-leader of the Appellate Litigation and Advocacy Practice
Group, and practices in the Government Compliance and Investigations, and the Business and
Commercial Litigation Practice Groups. Drawing on her many years of serving on the bench of
the New York State Court of Appeals, the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme
Court and the New York State Supreme Court, Judge Graffeo is involved in general commercial
litigation in federal and state courts and mediation and arbitration, as well as appeals.
John J. McCloy Memorial Award
Mr. Naftalis’ work includes his successful defense of Michael Eisner, the CEO of The Walt Disney
Company, in the shareholder derivative lawsuit related to the hiring and termination of Michael
Ovitz. He also successfully secured dismissal for Kenneth Langone, former chair of the New
York Stock Exchange Compensation Committee, of the lawsuit relating to the compensation of
NYSE Chairman Richard Grasso. He represented the city of New York in the inquiry by the New
York County District Attorney relating to the fire at the Deutsche Bank building at the World
Trade Center, in which no charges were brought against the city; defended Sirius XM Radio in
a breach of contract action by Howard Stern, in which Mr. Naftalis secured summary judgment
in favor of Sirius; and defended Rajat K. Gupta, the former Managing Director Worldwide of
McKinsey, in both a criminal insider trading trial and parallel SEC enforcement action, where he
obtained a precedent-setting decision challenging the attempt by the Securities and Exchange
Commission to utilize an administrative process rather than go to court.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Naftalis served as Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of
New York and Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division. He also served as Special Counsel to the
U.S. Senate Subcommittee investigating abuses in the nursing home industry.
Mr. Naftalis is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and has been recognized as
one of America’s premier litigators and trial lawyers by The National Law Journal and Legal 500.
In addition, Mr. Naftalis was awarded the Benemerenti Medal by Pope Benedict XVI; the Robert
M. Morgenthau Award for the Legal Profession by the Police Athletic League; the George A.
Katz Torch of Learning Award by American Friends of the Hebrew University; the Law and
Society Award by New York Lawyers for the Public Interest; and the Robert F. Wagner Jr. Award
by the Citizens Union of the City of New York.
Mr. Naftalis has been a lecturer at Columbia Law School; a member of the faculty of Harvard
Law School; and he authored numerous books and articles, including The Grand Jury: An
Institution on Trial (with the Honorable Marvin E. Frankel), and Sentencing: Helping the Judges
Do Their Jobs (also with Judge Frankel).
2015
Career Public Service Award
Prior to joining Harris Beach, Judge Graffeo served a 14-year term on New York’s highest court,
the New York Court of Appeals, from December 2000 to November 2014, ending her tenure as
Senior Associate Judge. Her judicial appointments included serving as Chair of the New York
State-Federal Judicial Council, co-Chair of the Advisory Committee on the Pro Bono Scholars
Program, co-Chair of the Advisory Committee on New York State Pro Bono Bar Admission
Requirements, and Chair of the Advisory Committee on Pro Bono Service by In-House Counsel.
She was also the Court’s liaison to the State Board of Law Examiners and is a member of the
American Bar Association’s Committee on Legal Education and Bar Admission.
Before joining the Court of Appeals, Judge Graffeo was an Associate Justice of the Appellate
Division of the New York Supreme Court in the Third Judicial Department. Earlier, she had been
appointed to fill a vacancy on the State Supreme Court in the Third Judicial District and was
elected to a full term commencing January 1, 1997. As a trial judge she presided over jury and
nonjury trials in Albany, Rensselaer, Schoharie, Sullivan and Ulster Counties.
From January 1995 to September 1996, Judge Graffeo served as Solicitor General of the State
of New York and Counsel to the New York Attorney General. She held a number of posts in
state government from 1982 to 1994, including that of Chief Counsel to the Minority Leader of
the State Assembly, Counsel to the Minority Leader Pro Tempore of the State Assembly and
Assistant Counsel of the State Division of Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse. She began her legal
career as a litigation associate in an Albany law firm.
Judge Graffeo is a member of the New York State Bar Association and a Fellow of the New
York State Bar Foundation. She was recently presented with the Vincent E. Doyle, Jr. Award for
Outstanding Judicial Contribution to the Criminal Justice System from the State Bar Association,
and with awards from the Legal Aid Society of Northeastern New York and the Albany County
Bar Association for her work on Access to Justice initiatives. She is a member of the New
York City Bar Association, the Albany County Bar Association, the Capital District Women’s Bar
Association, the American Bar Association and is vice-president of the Capital District ItalianAmerican Bar Association. She is a member of the Character and Fitness Committee for the
Third Judicial Department.
2015