Carl E. Person, Commercial Litigation

College and Law School

Harvard Law School, LLB; and Long Island University, BA

Decades of Business Experience

I, Carl Person, have been engaged in business and the running of my own businesses (including my practice of law) for more than 50 years. There is a difference between receiving a paycheck and being responsible for seeing that there are sufficient funds to provide regular paychecks to others. This difference enables me to understand many of the problems being experienced by prospective clients, mainly because I have already dealt with many of such problems myself, and have already thought through some of the ways to deal with such problems.

As to foreclosures, I estimate that I have listened to and helped more than 10,000 homeowners from 2008 to the present, mostly through telephone calls, from everywhere in the U.S. and sometimes from other countries as well, during the 3,000 days that I have been working on mortgage foreclosure defense arising out of the financial crisis revealed in 2008.

A lot of my experience as a commercial litigator has helped me defend mortgage foreclosures, which type of legal services falls within the broad category of "commercial litigation". Yet, I can tell you from my own experience, the typical commercial litigator without substantial foreclosure defense experience (which is where I was in early 2008) is not qualified, in my opinion, to represent homeowners and other real estate owners in defending their homes and/or real property against foreclosure. It is difficult and time-consuming, and requires a lot of ready knowledge (based on prior experience) to be able to do required legal work at a price that financially-strapped clients can afford. Clients can't afford to pay for their attorney to learn how to defend the foreclosure action, as one matter, and the window of opportunity for asserting various rights or opposition is often very brief (as little as one day in some cases, which I think I will explain in the next paragraph).

Last week on Friday, I left my office at 3on and learned at 9am on Monday, when I returned, that a cross-motion had been left with the building's mail room at 5:30pm on Friday, which had to be opposed (if at al) under Appellate Divison rules by Wednesday at 4:00 p.m. If I failed to oppose the motion, my client's appeal would be dismissed by the Court. Of course, I had other things to do and had to keep my other legal representations going, but I was able during a period of about 10 or 12 hours of legal work up to 1am on the last day to prepare a 13-page response to the cross motion and had it served in person on the opposing counsel at 3pm on that final day, with the original Memorandum in Opposition (bearing my signature) filed shortly before 4:00 p.m. in the Appellate Division. During those hectic, late hours of putting together my opposition, I drew upon years of experience (and eliminated many hours of work I had done in the past) to hone in on various foreclosure defense issues that should require the Appellate Division to deny the cross motion and possibly grant my request to see whether the court even has any subject-matter jurisdiction in light of what I said. I could not have done this response in the short period available without my substantial experience in foreclosure defense. Without such experience I probably would not even have thought of the subject-matter jurisdictional issue. What I'm trying to say is that a lengthy background in commercial litigation (which is something like being a generalist in business litigation is a great background for handling the wide variety of issues that could and often should arise in foreclosure defense litgation.

Brief Summary of My Commercial Litigation Experience

I have had more than 50 years of commercial litigation experience, with the opposition generally being one or more of the largest law firms in the nation.

My experience is across the board, including trademarks, copyrights, patents, antitrust, price discrimination, foreclosures, real estate, securities, securitization, UCC, breach of contract, franchises, shareholder disputes, buyouts, distribution systems, fraud, PACA, RICO, admiralty, bankruptcy, "theft of ideas", libel, slander, civil rights, arbitrations, mediations, appeals - well, you get the idea. I've had experience in a large number of commercial litigation areas.

I'm admitted to a variety of courts (not including my pro hac vice admissions), as follows:

All New York Courts
U.S. District Court - Southern District of New York - New York NY
U.S. District Court - Eastern District of New York - Brooklyn NY
U.S. Court of Appeals - 2nd Circuit - New York NY
U.S. Supreme Court - Washington DC
U.S. Court of Appeals - 9th Circuit - San Francisco CA
U.S. Court of Appeals - 4th Circuit - Richmond VA
U.S. Court of Appeals - Federal Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals - 3rd Circuit - Philadelphia
U.S. Court of Appeals - 5th Circuit - New Orleans

I have had various pro hac vice admissions in the U.S. District Courts in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose, Norfolk, Philadelphia, Trenton and Chicago. and various state court admissions pro hac vice.

I like to think that I am inventive and resourceful, and quite motivated to win. I know how to keep expenses down because I have spent years doing contingent fee litigation where I bore the expenses.

The best way you can size me up, is to give me a call and see how I analyze your situation. I would like to believe that you will hear some ideas that you have not heard previously.

So, please give me a call, and let's talk.

It's difficult to imagine that you have a matter I can't handle. But I would like to say in advance that I don't like bankruptcy for reasons I'd like to explain to you; I don't do class actions for other reasons; I don't do product liablility lawsuits or negligence or medical malpractice or matrimonials. I really do focus on commercial litigation and would not be interested in going in other directions. Yet, if you have something interesting or more difficult than typical cases, you might want to ask me about the problem.

You can reach me at 212-307-4444 or by email, to carlpers2@gmail.com.

My cell telephone number is 917-453-9376.

To discuss your commercial-litigation matter on the telephone, or to make an appointment to discuss it in my office, please call me at 212-307-4444.

Attorney Carl E. Person
Office 212-307-4444
Cell 917-453-9376
Fax 212-307-0247
Email carlpers2@gmail.com

My c.v. (or resume): My updated c.v.

Pub. 7/9/14, rev. 8/10/14, 10/29/16

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