Gary S. Betensky

Successfully prosecuted clients' claims against former employer for non-payment of earned commissions and successfully defended clients against former employer's claims that clients violated non-competition agreements and misappropriated trade secrets; obtained ruling from court that bifurcated the case to proceed to trial on clients' claims of non-payment of contractual commissions before continued litigation of former employer's claims, prevailing at trial on clients' contractual claims, nullifying the claims of the former employer and awarding client damages and attorney fees of $1.2 million

Successfully settled matter for prominent marketing firm against two former employees, both officers, in state court suit for injunctive relief for breach of a non-compete agreement and for misappropriation and theft of trade secrets, and against the successor employer, for conspiracy to misappropriate confidential information, as well as in arbitration against former employees commenced claiming close to $5M in damages for an alleged unpaid equity position in the company

Defended several clients in both state and federal court actions (8 cases in total) against product liability claims, including strict liability, negligence, fraud and negligent misrepresentation, where client was alleged to have manufactured, marketed and sold its popular, century old product used as a bowel prep for certain medical procedures such as colonoscopy, while purportedly knowing that the product was unreasonably dangerous and that its ingestion caused acute renal failure, and also violated FDA labeling and other regulations; cases were transferred or submitted to a multi-district litigation in Ohio, where they were resolved as part of a global nationwide settlement process

Prosecuted claim on behalf of client to settlement, where competitor inserted client's registered service mark into the hidden keyword "metatags" on its website in an effort to divert web traffic from client to competitor

Successfully represented investors against two land development entities following their loss of a $1.25 million investment to develop property where the defendants failed to repay the investment plus a contractually promised preferred return; despite defendants assertion of a number of defenses, including an allegation that the two individual investors had not signed the final version of the investment agreement which forced a reformation action, and following extensive investigation and discovery, the trial court entered a final summary judgment in favor of the investors on all claims for the full sum sought $5.53 million against the defendants

Negotiated an extensive and favorable settlement agreement ultimately approved by the federal court judge overseeing the receivership for two brothers being sued in state and federal court in Florida and California by the receiver in a widely-publicized Ponzi scheme case originally initiated by the Securities and Exchange Commission against a record label and its principals

Successfully represented several successful prominent Haitian businessmen in defamation lawsuits in federal court against a widely-distributed Haitian newspaper and popular Florida-based Haitian news website, where the defendants made highly defamatory and false statements about the clients; secured judgments against the defendants for over $10 million

Successfully challenged the constitutionality of the Broward Sheriff's Office strip search policy, which mandated the strip search of all misdemeanor arrestees regardless of whether the arrests involved weapons, drugs or stolen property, under then-Sheriff Kenneth C. Jenne in a certified class action lawsuit that was upheld on appeal by Florida's Fourth District Court of Appeal; Arduous and complicated settlement negotiations that spanned over a year culminated in an $11.5 million settlement