Selendy Gay PLLC > New York, United States > Firm Profile

Selendy Gay PLLC Offices

Selendy Gay PLLC
1290 AVENUE OF THE AMERICAS
NEW YORK, NY 10104
NEW YORK
United States
Visit website 1 212 390 9000

Selendy Gay PLLC > The Legal 500 Rankings

New York City Elite > Commercial disputes

An exceptional trial lawyer and founding partner of Selendy Gay PLLC, Philippe Selendy is a go-to litigator for complex commercial disputes, having a reported recovering of $37bn for his clients over the past two decades. Recent standout cases include representing Fortis Advisors in a billion-dollar earnout dispute against Johnson & Johnson (the largest post-merger earnout case awarded in Delaware’s history) and securing a $855m trial victory for private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management.

A founding partner of Selendy Gay PLLC, Faith Gay remains a leading figure in complex commercial litigation for Fortune 500 companies, with extensive experience representing clients in bet-the-company cases, often involving complex contractual and financial instrument disputes, as well as consumer class actions. Additionally, she is a former chief of the Civil Rights Unit (Criminal Division) and deputy chief of the Special Prosecutions for the US Attorney's office in the Eastern District of New York.

Maria Ginzburg, managing partner at Selendy Gay PLLC is a skilled advocate with a keen understanding of complex, high-stakes commercial disputes. A well-rounded litigator with experience in plaintiff and defense-side matters, Maria Ginzburg takes on a broad range of high-value cases in diverse industries.

Key clients

Fortis Advisors LLC

Work highlights

  • Representing Fortis Advisors LLC in its capacity as the representative for former shareholders of Auris Health, Inc in a $2bn dispute against Johnson & Johnson.

Key clients

Archer Aviation

Warburg Pincus

Work highlights

  • Represented aircraft manufacturing company Archer Aviation Inc. against The Boeing Company in a California state court lawsuit seeking up to $1 billion in damages caused by defamatory statements made by Wisk Aero LLC in furtherance of The Boeing Company’s joint venture with Kitty Hawk Corporation.
  • In collaboration with Ross Aronstam & Moritz, obtained a total dismissal of all claims in a federal securities fraud complaint brought against  Warburg Pincus.

Key clients

A group of Robertshaw lenders

Drivetrain

Work highlights

  • Represented a group of Robertshaw lenders that were excluded from an uptiering transaction in litigation against Robertshaw, its sponsor, and participating lenders.
  • Alongside co-counsel, and on behalf of the Trustee for the Commonwealth Avoidance Actions Trust, filed a Second Amended Complaint in the United States District Court of Puerto Rico in its suit against 13 major banks for their role in deepening Puerto Rico’s debt crisis.

Dispute resolution > General commercial disputes Tier 3

Litigation firm Selendy Gay PLLC represents both plaintiffs and defendants from various jurisdictions, spanning an impressive array of industries. The team boasts niche specialisms, including liability management transaction disputes, post-M&A litigation and bankruptcy litigation. Philippe Selendy remains a go to for representation in long-running litigation and arbitration and leads the New York-based team alongside Jennifer Selendy, an expert in lender-on-lender disputes. Practice co-head Faith Gay‘s broad expertise ranges from financial, securities and bankruptcy litigation to IP and contractual disputes, and Maria Ginzburg focuses on complex commercial and financial disputes. Oscar Shine is regularly called upon by plaintiffs and defendants, while David Coon‘s national practice sees him represent clients at state and federal courts. Julie Singer and Meredith Nelson are other names to note.

Practice head(s):

Philippe Selendy; Jennifer Selendy; Faith Gay

Other key lawyers:

Maria Ginzburg; Oscar Shine; David Coon; Julie Singer; Meredith Nelson; David Flugman

Testimonials

‘Philippe and Jennifer Selendy are the best of the best, and outstanding trial lawyers who drive fantastic results for their clients.’

‘David Flugman is a is fantastic tactical litigator and advocate who thinks strategically and delivers.’

‘Smart and hard-working lawyers who are not afraid to try cases.’

Key clients

Fortis Advisors LLC

Matterport, Inc.

Warburg Pincus

A group of Robertshaw lenders

Alvaro Saieh Bendeck

Trifecta Multimedia Holdings

A group of Mitel lenders

Bloq

SaveOn SP, LLC

Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors of Celsius Network LLC, et al.

Drivetrain

Ligado Networks LLC

Mudrick Capital Management L.P., Ellington Management Group, and several investment funds managed by each of them

The Litigation Oversight Committee of Genesis Global Holdco, LLC and its affiliated debtor subsidiaries

UMB Bank NA

Work highlights

  • Represented Fortis Advisors, the former shareholders of revolutionary robotic surgery startup Auris Health, in an earnout dispute with its acquiror, Johnson & Johnson.
  • Represented Matterport Inc. against its former CEO following its loss in a phase one trial regarding the effectiveness of the company’s post-SPAC by-laws to lock up legacy shareholders.
  • Represented Warburg Pincus and obtained a total dismissal of all claims in securities and breach of contract litigation arising from the acquisition of FSNS, LLC, a food safety and testing company, in the federal district court in Delaware.

Dispute resolution > M&A litigation: plaintiff Tier 3

Selendy Gay PLLC is often selected by plaintiffs looking to challenge inadequate corporate governance or bringing post-M&A suits, with considerable experience in litigating cases before the Delaware Court of Chancery. The team is spearheaded by founding partners Philippe Selendy and Jennifer Selendy, both of whom bring decades of expertise in handling breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract and earnout disputes. They achieved a notable success for Fortis Advisors LLC in 2024, securing a $1.1bn award for it as a former shareholder in Auris Health, Inc. following its acquisition by Johnson & Johnson, which they alleged had committed breaches of contract and fraud in order to prevent earnout payments tied to the development of medical robots.

Practice head(s):

Philippe Selendy; Jennifer Selendy

Key clients

Fortis Advisors LLC

Trifecta Multimedia Holdings

Mudrick Capital Management L.P./Ellington Management Group

UMB Bank NA

Work highlights

  • Represented Fortis Advisors, the former shareholders of Auris Health, in an earnout dispute with its acquiror, Johnson & Johnson, securing a judgement for over $1bn.
  • Represented Trifecta Multimedia Holdings Inc. and its founder, Dave Young, as lead counsel to plaintiffs in an earnout dispute in Delaware Chancery Court.
  • Represented former holders of warrants in QuarterNorth Energy, Inc., who allege that the board of directors and controlling stockholders undervalued their warrants when conducting a contractually required anti-dilution adjustment in connection with a dividend to stockholders and a merger with Talos, Inc.

Dispute resolution > Securities litigation: plaintiff Tier 3

Noted for its willingness ‘to go the extra mile and try cases’, New York-based litigation boutique Selendy Gay PLLC excels in handling complex commercial disputes for both plaintiffs and defendants. On the plaintiff front, under the guidance of seasoned litigator Philippe Selendy, the team gained a reputation for its dogged pursuit of Wall Street in the aftermath of the financial crisis. Some legacy cases remain active, including for US Bank in an action seeking recovery of hundreds of millions of dollars from DLJ Mortgage Capital, Inc. (DLJ) and Ameriquest Mortgage Company for their alleged misconduct in originating and securitizing mortgage-backed securities. Most recently, the firm has been at the vanguard of crypto-related securities litigation, with Jordan Goldstein, who co-heads the overarching securities and structured finance team alongside Selendy, representing plaintiffs in a number of closely watched cases to determine whether digital assets are classified as securities and therefore subject to SEC oversight.

Practice head(s):

Philippe Selendy; Jordan Goldstein

Other key lawyers:

Oscar Shine

Testimonials

‘They are well-placed to go the extra mile and try cases.’

Key clients

U.S. Bank

UMB Bank

Proposed class of investors in Binance

A proposed class of investors who traded on BitMEX

Putative class of crypto-investors who purchased securities on Coinbase

Taewoo Kim, individually and on behalf of a putative class of individuals who purchased the Terraform Labs-issued UST stablecoin and its related token aUST from May 23, 2021 to May 31, 2022, and lost money as a result

Putative class of crypto-asset investors who purchased various crypto commodities at a time when the crypto commodity market had been artificially inflated by the defendants, Tether and Bitfinex

A proposed class of investors who traded TRX

Fortis Advisors

Henry Rodriguez and Plaintiff Daniel Valenti, individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated

Trifecta Multimedia Holdings

Work highlights

  • Representing U.S. Bank as plaintiff in an action seeking recovery of hundreds of millions of dollars from DLJ Mortgage Capital, Inc. (DLJ) and Ameriquest Mortgage Company for their misconduct in originating and securitizing mortgage-backed securities that played a substantial role in causing the global financial crisis of 2008.
  • Representing UMB Bank as Trustee under a Contingent Value Rights Agreement in a lawsuit against Bristol Myers Squibb seeking $6.4bn on account of BMS’s breach of a diligent efforts clause and failure to pay out holders of CVRs that were issued in connection with BMS’s acquisition of Celgene.
  • Representing crypto-asset investors in a suit alleging that Binance, one of the world’s largest crypto-asset exchanges, offered and sold billions of dollars of unregistered digital tokens to investors in violation of federal and state securities laws.

Finance > Restructuring (including bankruptcy): corporate

Selendy Gay PLLC  is a New York litigation boutique with a major focus on bankruptcies and restructurings. It has an extensive background in out-of-court restructurings and Chapter 11 cases. This includes representing the Litigation Oversight Committee of Genesis Global Holdco and two affiliated debtors that filed for Chapter 11 protection in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. Kelley Cornish is a hugely experienced bankruptcy and insolvency lawyer, and a former Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP partner. Jennifer Selendy and Maria Ginzburg are also key partners.

Selendy Gay PLLC > Firm Profile

Selendy Gay’s lawyers are trial and appellate generalists, able to take on litigation matters across an array of industries and subject areas, including bankruptcy, complex commercial litigation, securities and structured finance, corporate defense and investigations, corporate governance, and many others.

Since the firm was founded in 2018, it has maintained its focus on inclusivity and diversity. More than fifty percent of Selendy Gay’s equity is held by female partners, and more than twenty percent of the firm’s attorneys identify as LGBTQ+.

A hallmark of the firm is its even split between plaintiff and defense side work, which allows Selendy Gay to deploy winning strategies on both sides of the “v.” As plaintiffs’ counsel, the firm has pioneered claims, and even practice areas, that have recovered more than $46 billion for clients while holding institutional giants accountable. As defense counsel, the firm has won bet-the-company cases that threatened the existence of its clients’ businesses and business models, vindicated individuals in aggressive white-collar prosecutions, and counseled clients successfully in fast-moving investigations.

Central to the firm’s success is its willingness to take cases to trial, when necessary. Its attorneys have tried dozens of cases to verdict in state and federal courts across the nation and arbitrated many cases through to award, often stepping in to handle distressed cases at trial or on appeal. The firm’s experience brings its clients better courtroom results and better settlements because its adversaries have no doubt of the courtroom threat the firm poses.

Selendy Gay is known for its dedication to the public good. The firm’s public interest and pro bono litigation victories are as significant as those on the commercial side, and they stem from the firm’s foundational commitment to holding public interest work as equally important to commercial cases. The firm’s attorneys average 151 pro bono hours annually, compared to the industry average of 54.

Staff Figures

Number of Partners : 17
Number of Associates : 46

Languages

English