Family Law

• Child Support
  Our firm was retained to represent a celebrity who, before coming to us, had suffered through decades of negative child support and enforcement decisions, which resulted in negative exposure in the press.
• Child Custody and Visitation
• Premarital Agreement
• Guardianship
  Sonnenfeld & Richman LLP represents private individuals and their families in the areas of estate and tax planning, preparation of wills, estate and tax administration, trust formation and administration, guardianships, and probate litigation. We regularly assist clients with the probate process, safeguarding assets, living trusts, powers of attorney, and health care proxies.
• Spousal Support

Criminal Law

• Criminal Defense
  Joel Berger has been a civil rights and criminal defense lawyer for nearly 45 years, representing the underprivileged in unpopular cases. He has argued and won cases in the Supreme Court of the United States, nearly half the U. S. Courts of Appeals, and the New York State Court of Appeals, as well as trying numerous complex matters in the lower courts. In 1996 he entered private practice, concentrating on civil rights cases.
• Wrongful Death
• Murder
  Mr. Berger graduated from Columbia College in 1965 and the University of Chicago Law School in 1968. In 1972, at age 28, he won his first United States Supreme Court case, reversing a Brooklyn murder conviction. DeMino v. New York, 404 U.S. 1035 (1972). That year he also founded the Legal Aid Society’s Prisoners’ Rights Project and tried the class action that led to the closing of the notorious “Tombs” jail in lower Manhattan by a U.S. District Judge and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He later obtained injunctions against the City’s other jails, outlawing over- crowding and other unsafe and unsanitary conditions.

Business and Corporate Law

• Intellectual Property

Employment Law

• Employment Discrimination
• Employment Contract
  In addition to coordinating and supervising client’s participation in litigation across numerous jurisdictions in the United States, Canada, and overseas, we were responsible for drafting and negotiating innumerable distribution agreements, financing agreements, employment agreements, leases, loan and security agreements, confidentiality, non-disclosure, settlement, and other contractual arrangements.
• Sexual Harassment
  Since entering private practice Mr. Berger has won more than $9 million from the City of New York to date in cases alleging false arrest, malicious prosecution, excessive force, and sexual harassment by police officers. He also obtained one of the largest sanctions awards ever assessed against the City and defeated a subsequent effort by the City to disqualify him from representing clients in police cases. Robbins v. City of New York, 98 Civ. 5331 (Rakoff, J.) (SDNY 1999). Another retaliatory effort by the Giuliani Administration, seeking to remove him from an adjunct teaching position at the New York University School of Law, was also unsuccessful. See New York Times, January 22, 2008, p. A16 (with photo). Other prominent cases in recent years have included a federal civil rights action on behalf of a former New York State inmate convicted on the basis of police perjury, settled for $650,000; a sexual harassment case on behalf of three female New York City police officers, also settled for $650,000; a wrongful death action alleging that a woman inmate on Rikers Island had died due to inadequate medical care and inattention by correction officers, settled for $400,000; two actions by families whose homes were invaded by police SWAT teams in illegal searches, each settled for $200,000; an action by an elderly woman confined to a wheelchair, falsely arrested for assaulting her landlord, settled for $180,000; and an action by a diabetic woman arrested for smoking a marijuana cigarette who was denied medical attention by the police when her sugar count reached life-threatening levels, settled for $125,000.

Property Law

• Real Estate Litigation
  The expertise and accomplishments Mr. Serlen brings to the Firm extend well beyond family law. Mr. Serlen is equally sought after as counsel in complex commercial disputes, contractual disagreements, creditor-side bankruptcy matters, real estate disputes, and inter-company conflicts. Again, by swiftly analyzing the issues, recognizing, and weighing costs versus benefits in each unique dispute, Mr. Serlen is able to efficiently navigate through complicated and multi-layered issues and successfully provide counsel to a diverse group of clients. He regularly represents owners and developers of commercial and residential properties, professionals, closely held companies, and high-net-worth individuals and their business interests. When litigation is necessary or advantageous to his clients’ interests, Mr. Serlen is a steadfast advocate and tireless protector of his clients’ rights.

Health Law

• Personal Injury
  Mr. Berger’s general litigation matters in private practice have included a lawsuit on behalf of a prominent private hospital against the NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation (settled for a half- million dollars), a civil RICO action on behalf of a major publishing corporation, an appeal to compel arbitration of a dispute over computer software royalties, litigation over the profits of a defunct partnership, defense of a state’s suspension of a prominent trainer of thoroughbred racehorses, defense of a real estate firm in a proceeding before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, defense of community colleges in employment discrimination and personal injury actions, and representation of a physician in investigations by the State Office of Professional Medical Conduct and the Manhattan DA’s Office. He continues to represent corporate clients and institutions in addition to individuals alleging government misconduct.
• Medicaid Planning

Trusts and Estates

• Estate Planning
  Mr. Rokacz’s practice focuses on Trusts and Estates law, including preparing wills (from simple to quite complex), facilitating estate administration, and assisting with other estate planning needs.
• Wills
  The diversity of the skills and experience provided by Sonnenfeld & Richman LLP permits the firm to handle various kinds of probate litigation, including will contests, removal of fiduciaries, and will and trust construction proceedings. We understand the significance and the delicacy of these topics and are committed to helping you reach your ultimate goal.
• Trusts
• Power of Attorney
• Probate

Finance Law

• Tax Law