Sills Cummis & Gross P.C.

Managing Partner: R. Max Crane

Firm Overview:

Sills Cummis & Gross is a full-service commercial law firm, with offices in New Jersey, New York and Florida, focused on providing quality and effective legal services to a diverse range of clients. The firm’s work is diversified among industries such as banking and finance, fashion, apparel and textiles, health care, life sciences, manufacturing, pharmaceutical and medical device, retail and commercial real estate, and technology, among others.

Main Areas of Practice:

Banking & Finance

The firm represents international and national banks, commercial finance companies, debt and equity funds and private lenders, with financings across the spectrum of public and private debt transactions. The firm also represents the financial services industry in a wide array of legal disputes and litigation matters in state and federal courts.

Bankruptcy and Creditors' Rights

The group is experienced in all aspects of bankruptcy, reorganization and creditors’ rights matters, including complex litigation cases, representing debtors, official and unofficial committees, secured and unsecured creditors, trustees and other parties in interest in out-of-court restructurings and in Chapter 11 reorganization cases. The group has significant experience in the representation of official committees of unsecured creditors in hospital and other health care bankruptcies across the US.

Complex Litigation

The firm has a broad spectrum of litigation experience reflecting the diversity of its clients. The firm’s litigators regularly assist companies in cases involving commercial transactions, banking and finance, health care, intellectual property, technology, real estate, insurance, administrative law, antitrust, directors’ and officers’ liability, employment, unfair competition, construction, securities and tax, among others.

Class Action Defense

The firm has been particularly active in the defense of corporations sued in class actions in state and federal courts. The firm’s class action defense practice reaches a broad spectrum of industries, including pharmaceutical, manufacturing, banking and finance, retail and high-technology, among others.

Corporate Investigations and Integrity

The group designs and implements corporate compliance programs, conducts internal investigations, provides legal counseling to executives and corporate boards, and represents those who might be targets or subjects of criminal investigations or involved in parallel civil or administrative matters. The group includes several former prosecutors.

Corporate/M&A/Securities

The firm regularly advises public and private companies in all facets of their day-to-day and non-ordinary course legal activities, initiatives and strategic decisions. The firm’s M&A attorneys consistently lead transactions for a variety of companies, financial institutions and private equity firms across a wide range of industries. The firm’s securities attorneys have extensive experience counseling a wide range of market participants in all types of securities and capital markets matters and transactions.

Employment & Labor

The group provides the highest level of employment counseling, training and management side litigation. This includes routinely defending clients in federal, state and appellate courts and before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and all federal and state administrative agencies. The group also provides assistance with compliance and investigations, defense of trade secrets and traditional labor law representation.

Environmental

The group has broad experience providing counsel relating to transactional, regulatory compliance and litigation matters involving environmental issues. This experience extends to transactions involving real estate, redevelopment and business assets to address environmental liability and compliance issues.

Fashion, Apparel & Textiles

The group represents a wide range of clients in this industry including apparel, accessory and home furnishings importers, distributors, designers, jewelry manufacturers, personal care products distributors, and factoring and finance companies that specialize in this marketplace.

Government Relations & Public Policy

The group assists clients in the ways that government and business intersect on a broad range of legislative and regulatory issues.

Health Care

The firm provides a full range of legal services to the health care industry, including systems, hospitals, nursing homes, long-term care facilities, ambulatory surgery centers, home health companies, medical groups, specialty care networks, management companies and other health care businesses.

Intellectual Property

The group’s attorneys focus on many aspects of intellectual property law, including litigation,inter partes review, counseling, patents, trademarks, copyrights, licensing and transactions, Internet law, IP portfolio analysis and strategic planning, clearance and freedom to operate analysis, alternative dispute resolution, acquisition risk management, trade secrets and unfair competition.

Life Sciences

The group handles a wide range of matters including mergers and acquisitions, licensing arrangements, strategic alliances and collaborations, joint ventures, manufacturing, supply and distribution agreements, public and private financing, technology transfers, intellectual property, litigation, employment law, real estate, regulatory and tax.

Loan Workouts and Restructuring

The group’s attorneys have significant experience working with lenders on finding practical solutions. The firm’s client-focused representation includes experience ranging from drafting loan waivers and loan modifications to, if needed, asset recovery litigation. While the firm’s practice is centered on lenders, the group’s experience allows it to also provide much needed advice and representation to non-lender clients.

Pharmaceutical/Medical Device

The group’s transactional attorneys provide strategic legal advice on mergers, acquisitions and divestitures; capital raising; manufacturing and distribution; and licensing, collaboration and technology transfer issues. Its litigators act as national and local counsel in mass tort, major class action, and related product liability, warranty and infringement litigation; patent prosecution; business disputes; internal investigations; and regulatory compliance matters.

Product Liability

The firm has earned a reputation as a “go-to” firm for defending complex product liability cases and mass tort litigation, successfully representing pharmaceutical, medical device, consumer product, industrial equipment and chemical companies as national, regional and New Jersey counsel. The product liability and mass tort lawyers are known for their legal, scientific, technical, trial and settlement expertise.

Real Estate

The group provides a full range of services to participants in all areas of the real estate industry, focusing on investment, vertical and horizontal acquisition and disposition; condominiumizations; retail, office, industrial and warehouse leasing; and mixed- and single-use development/redevelopment and construction. Counsel is also provided in the areas of government relations; zoning and land use; environmental; and conventional and capital markets financing (including securitized and mezzanine financings).

Tax Fraud and Controversy

The group is a leader in the areas of criminal and civil tax controversy. The group advises individuals and public and private corporations facing tax compliance issues, as well as tax professionals and preparers who find themselves the subject of a criminal tax investigation.

White Collar Criminal Defense

The group counsels and, if necessary, aggressively defends clients who are the subjects or targets of criminal or regulatory-related investigations or proceedings. The team represents clients in a wide array of matters, including health care fraud, internal investigations, political corruption, regulatory compliance, securities fraud and tax fraud, among others.