Gabriel Levinson
Gabriel Levinson is Chair of the firm’s Real Estate Litigation Practice, and a partner in the Litigation Practice Group in the firm’s New York office. Gabriel is a strategically aggressive litigator who successfully has challenged and defeated adversaries in a broad spectrum of high-profile legal matters in state and federal jurisdictions across the United States.
His practice focuses on litigating complex and general commercial business disputes, including corporate, business tort and breach of contract claims, as well as a broad array of commercial real estate disputes, including: commercial lease and development disputes, business divorces, partnership disputes, cooperative and condominium matters, and construction disputes.
Gabriel often represents major players in high-stakes corporate litigations, both prosecuting and defending claims arising from a variety of areas, including: acquisitions, mergers, corporate governance disputes, proxy contests, joint venture disputes, emergency injunctive actions, shareholder disputes, derivative actions, and breach of contract disputes. Gabriel has achieved a strong record of success for clients in state and federal trial courts across the country. In addition to the representation of clients in all aspects of corporate transactional litigation, Gabriel regularly counsels clients on pre-dispute situation management, managing risk, and high-exposure transactions.
Gabriel also successfully navigates clients through arbitration and mediation cases across the United States before multiple alternative dispute resolution tribunals, including the American Arbitration Association and the Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services.
- Asset management firms ranging from $500 million to $16 billion under management, and other financial companies, in matters with institutional lenders and investors, as well as in actions concerning the enforceability of financial and commercial real estate documents. Noteworthy cases include: reducing a fund’s liability by several million dollars for breaches of an advisory agreement; defending claims and defeating a motion for summary judgment for a breach of a commercial lease/guaranty on behalf of a high-profile investment firm; and preventing the foreclosure of a casino operated by a client's fund.
- Private companies in disputes with their affiliates and/or subsidiaries. Noteworthy cases include: prosecuting claims for fraud, fraudulent inducement, breach of fiduciary duty, and conversion on behalf of the majority members of five affiliated limited liability companies resulting in a multimillion dollar settlement and the successful partition of the companies.
- Shareholder and partnership issues and disputes. Noteworthy cases include: counseling minority shareholders and other institutional entities against an Israeli defense corporation; successfully negotiating a multimillion dollar settlement for limited partners of one of the nation’s leading real estate development and investment firms; preventing the elimination of minority investors’ and shareholders’ rights and ownership interests of a conglomerate by obtaining an injunction against the majority shareholder of the conglomerate.
- Public and private companies and high-net-worth individuals in disputes concerning commercial real estate and financial matters. Noteworthy cases include: preventing the sale and demolition of a New York Church’s 100 year old building.
- Real estate owners and developers in complex commercial real estate issues. Noteworthy cases include: prosecuting claims for a high-profile developer against a condominium board to prevent the board from taking portions of the developer’s multimillion dollar health club unit.
- Corporations in multijurisdictional disputes. Noteworthy cases include: negotiating the settlement and reduction of multimillion dollar water contamination claims on behalf of a petroleum corporation.
- Restaurant businesses in capitalization and conversion disputes. Noteworthy cases include: limiting the exposure and liability of a restaurant partnership through the successful resolution of claims accusing the partnership of conversion and fraud.
- Advised and counseled companies to mitigate or eliminate legal exposure under Title III of the Americans with Disability Act and state-level human right laws. Successfully defended and resolved brick-and-mortar and accessibility lawsuits.
Some of these representations were handled by Gabriel prior to joining Haynes Boone.
- American Bar Association
- New York State Bar Association
- Association of the Bar of the City of New York
- Association of Certified Fraud Examiners
- Recognized in New York Super Lawyers, Thomson Reuters, 2013-2020 *No aspect of this advertisement has been approved by the Supreme Court of New Jersey. See Award Methodology.
- “Hemp Buyer Can't Dodge Suit Seeking $4.6M For Pot Plants,” quoted, Law360, March 31, 2021.
- “The 2015 book about U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and retired justice Sandra Day O'Conner has sparked a fight over adaptation rights,” author, The Hollywood Reporter, August 14, 2020.
- “RBG-O'Connor Author Says Atty Sank Alyssa Milano Film Deal,” mention, Law360, August 12, 2020.
- “KidZania Franchisee Wants Co. Barred From Axing $3M Deal,” mention, Law360, April 28, 2020.
Education
J.D., Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law
B.A., Vassar College
Admissions
New York
New Jersey
Colorado
Court Admissions
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York
U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey
U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado
Haynes and Boone, LLP is pleased to welcome Partner Justin Bonanno to its Litigation Department and burgeoning Real Estate Litigation Practice Group in New York City. He has been in practice since 2001 and joins Haynes Boone after nearly three years as a partner at Meister Seelig & Fein PLLC. Justin handles a broad spectrum of complex commercial litigation work for a variety of clients, many of wh [...]
