On January 11, 2019 a Motion-Secondary was filed involving a dispute between Michael Knopf, Norma Knopf, and Dorsey & Whitney, Llp, Edward S. Feldman, Frank M. Esposito, Michael Hayden Sanford, Nathaniel H. Akerman, Sp Voyager Fund, Llc, for Torts - Other (Fraud;Judiciary L. 487) in the District Court of New York County.
May 03, 2022
January 11, 2019
Torts - Other (Fraud;Judiciary L. 487)
Active
AKERMAN, NATHANIEL H. Attorney for the Defendant
AKERMAN, NATHANIEL H. Attorney for the Defendants
BADARACCO, ANTHONY PETER Attorney for the Defendant
BADARACCO, ANTHONY PETER Attorney for the Defendants
Berry, Eric Attorney for the Plaintiff
Dorsey & Whitney, LLP Defendant
DROOYAN, KATHERINE JANNA Attorney for the Defendant
Edward S. Feldman Defendant
ESPOSITO, FRANK MICHAEL Attorney for the Defendant
ESPOSITO, FRANK MICHAEL Attorney for the Defendants
FELDMAN, EDWARD S Attorney for the Defendant
FELDMAN, EDWARD S Attorney for the Defendants
Frank M. Esposito Defendant
GREENBERG, GARY H Attorney for the Plaintiff
HATCH, JONATHAN H Attorney for the Defendants
Michael Hayden Sanford Defendant
Michael H Sanford MR. Non Party
Michael Knopf Plaintiff
Nathaniel H. Akerman Defendant
Norma Knopf Plaintiff
Sanford, Michael Hayden Attorney for the Defendants
SPIRO, EDWARD MARK Attorney for the Defendant
SP Voyager Fund, LLC Defendant
VITALE, MARY GRACE Attorney for the Defendant
WARDER, FREDERICK B Attorney for the Defendants
KATHLEEN MARREN Attorney
MICHAEL SCHOENBERG Attorney
PETER LANE Attorneys for Plaintiffs
ADAM HANAN Attorney
LORRAINE NADEL Attorney
DIANA MALAVE Attorney
DAVID SCHRADER Attorney
ROMAN BEJGER Attorney
Lauren Goldman Attorney
DEBORAH PIAZZA Attorney
SCOTT MARKOWITZ Attorney
EDWARD STEWART Attorney
JAMES MCMAHON Attorney
MARK CHERTOK Attorney
TRACY BURNETT Attorney
LORI BRAVERMAN Attorney
PETER KATZ Attorney
MIRIAM SPIRO Attorney
DAVID MOSS Attorney
JAMES PRESTIANO Attorney
HARRIS FREIDUS Attorney
DANIEL OSBORN Attorney
MICHAEL BROWNSTEIN Attorney
JOSEPH PAYKIN Attorney
CHARLES KRIEG Attorney
ANDREW BLUESTONE Attorney
CYRUS VANCE Attorney
STEVE PILNYAK Attorney
DANIEL PASSESER Attorney
PATRICIA BAILEY Attorney
AARON GINANDES Attorney
PAUL MALON Attorney
VALERIE PHILLIPS Attorney
WILLIAM BERRY Attorneys for Plaintiffs
DANIEL GOLDBERG Attorneys for Defendants
KAREN SEBASKI Attorneys for Defendants
PAUL SCHWARTZBERG Attorney
TODD DUFFY Attorney
SANDRA FELDMAN Attorney
MELISSA RINGEL Attorney
CAROL HAMM Attorney
David Tennant Attorney
STEPHEN MEISTER Attorneys for Defendants
JAMES MCGUIRE Attorney
LAURIE LEVIN Attorney
Daniel Horwitz Attorney
GERALD LEBOVITS Attorney
GARY MENNITT Attorneys for Defendants
JERRY MONTAG Attorneys for Plaintiffs
GERSHON AKERMAN Attorney
HOWARD BENJAMIN Attorney
FRANK MAFFEI Attorney
JEREMY HAVENS Attorney
VINCENT ESPOSITO Attorney
SETH FELDMAN Attorney
ERIC WRIGHT Attorney
PAUL SHECHTMAN Attorney
MICHAEL GILBERT Attorney
MACAILAGH HERMAN Attorney
LEO ESSES Attorney
DEREK JOHNSON Attorneys for Plaintiffs
MICHAEL CIARLO Attorney
MARTIN FISHMAN Attorney
MARK SHAWHAN Attorney
SALLY FELDMAN Attorney
GARY CHEN Attorney
MICHAEL SIRKIN Attorney
ERROL MARGOLIN Attorney
JAMES JOHNSTON Attorney
ILENE BERKOWITZ Attorney
MICHELLE CURTIS Attorney
JACK LAZARUS Attorney
ALAN GOLDBERG Attorney
JIMMY WAGNER Attorney
VIVIENNE GILBERT Attorney
SAMUEL FELDMAN Attorney
BEN KINZLER Attorney
GUY PETRILLO Attorney
DANIEL GOLDMAN Attorney
RICHARD SILBERBERG Attorneys for Plaintiffs
DAVIN GOLDMAN Attorney
Jeffrey Recher Attorney
JONATHAN HERMAN Attorneys for Defendants
RICHARD ALBERT Attorney
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FILED: NEW YORK COUNTY CLERK 05/03/2022 11:19 PM INDEX NO. 150315/2019 NYSCEF DOC. NO. 741 RECEIVED NYSCEF: 05/03/2022 SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK COUNTY OF NEW YORK NORMA KNOPF and MICHAEL KNOPF, Plaintiffs, Index No. 150315/2019 -against- IAS Part 7 FRANK M. ESPOSITO, DORSEY & WHITNEY (Hon. Gerald Lebovits) LLP, NATHANIEL H. AKERMAN, and EDWARD S. FELDMAN, Motion Sequence No. 11 Defendants. EDWARD S. FELDMAN, Third-Party Plaintiff, -against- ERIC W. BERRY, Third-Party Defendant. AFFIDAVIT OF NATHANIEL H. AKERMAN IN OPPOSITION TO PLAINTIFF NORMA KNOPF’S MOTION FOR CPLR 3126 SPOLIATION SANCTIONS AGAINST THE DORSEY DEFENDANTS STATE OF NEW YORK ) ) ss.: COUNTY OF NEW YORK ) NATHANIEL H. AKERMAN, being duly sworn, deposes and says: 1. I am a defendant in the above-captioned action. I submit this affidavit in opposition to Plaintiff Norma Knopf’s (“Knopf”) motion for sanctions pursuant to CPLR 3126 against me and Defendant Dorsey & Whitney LLP (“Dorsey”) (together, the “Dorsey Defendants”). For the reasons set forth in the accompanying memorandum of law, Knopf’s 1 of 4 FILED: NEW YORK COUNTY CLERK 05/03/2022 11:19 PM INDEX NO. 150315/2019 NYSCEF DOC. NO. 741 RECEIVED NYSCEF: 05/03/2022 motion should be denied. I submit this affidavit to address (i) my process for filing Sanford- related emails while I was partner at Dorsey, and (ii) Norma and Michael Knopf’s (the “Knopfs”) March 2016 threat to sue Dorsey, their March 2016 document preservation request, and their April 2016 subpoena. A. Filing of Sanford-Related Emails 2. In accordance with Dorsey’s internal document retention policies, as part of my routine practice, I filed communications from clients or adversaries in labeled folders in Outlook. 3. For email communications related to my representation of Michael Hayden Sanford (“Sanford”), I filed those communications in an Outlook folder labeled “Sanford.” By moving my emails into this folder, I saved them from automatic deletion pursuant to Dorsey’s policies. 4. Although I generally filed communications related to Sanford in that Outlook folder, I failed to file a small number of emails. Because the communications were not filed, they were not preserved pursuant to Dorsey’s policies. My failure to preserve those emails was inadvertent and not part of any effort to destroy or hide evidence. B. The March 10, 2016 Email, the March 13, 2016 Email, and the April 5, 2016 Subpoena 5. On March 10, 2016, I unexpectedly received an email from the Knopfs’ counsel regarding an affidavit that Sanford had filed in Knopf v. Sanford, Index No. 113227/2009. See NYSCEF Doc. No. 662.1 Knopfs’ counsel told me that if I provided a certain opinion letter to Sanford, the Knopfs would add Dorsey as a defendant in the case that they were filing against Dechert. Id. 1 Citations to “NYSCEF Doc. No.” are to docket entries in this case, Knopf v. Esposito, Index No. 150315/2019. 2 2 of 4 FILED: NEW YORK COUNTY CLERK 05/03/2022 11:19 PM INDEX NO. 150315/2019 NYSCEF DOC. NO. 741 RECEIVED NYSCEF: 05/03/2022 6. At the time I received this email, I had no basis to believe that the Dorsey Defendants could be sued for relaying to Sanford the statement of a court attorney that the October 22, 2015 order was no longer in effect. I did not know that the court attorney with whom I had spoken on January 12, 2016 was married to another of Sanford’s lawyers. 7. In response, I advised Knopfs’ counsel that any lawsuit against the Dorsey Defendants would be “baseless” and “sanctionable.” Spiro Aff. Ex. E.2 8. On March 13, 2016, Knopfs’ counsel sent an email to me and others that appeared to reference the complaint that Knopfs’ counsel had alluded to in his March 10, 2016 email. See NYSCEF Doc No. 663. Knopfs’ counsel advised the recipients of the email to “issue all necessary litigation hold notices” to preserve their communications with Sanford related to Justice Sweeny’s October 22, 2015 interim order. Id. A week later, on March 20, 2016, the Knopfs sued not Dorsey or me but Dechert, Sanford, and one of Sanford’s companies, Pursuit Holdings, LLC. See Knopf v. Dechert, 16-cv-2044 (S.D.N.Y.). Knopfs’ failure to sue Dorsey or me in 2016 confirmed my strongly held belief that I had done nothing wrong and that the Knopfs’ request for a litigation hold directed to Dorsey was inappropriate. 9. After the lawsuit was filed, on April 5, 2016, the Knopfs allegedly served a subpoena on me to testify at a hearing that was scheduled to take place two days later on April 7, 2016 in connection with Knopf v. Sanford, Index No. 113227/2009. See NYSCEF Doc. No. 664. The subpoena instructed me to bring to the hearing specific email communications with Sanford, Edward Feldman, and James McGuire, a Dechert attorney. See id. The affidavit of service accompanying the subpoena states that the subpoena was served on “Nathan Akerman” (not my correct name) by (1) leaving it with an individual named “Manny” at Dorsey’s offices; and (2) 2 Citations to “Spiro Aff” are to the Affirmation of Edward M. Spiro in Support of the Dorsey Defendants’ Opposition to Knopf’s Motion for CPLR 3126 Spoliation Sanctions. 3 3 of 4 FILED: NEW YORK COUNTY CLERK 05/03/2022 11:19 PM INDEX NO. 150315/2019 NYSCEF DOC. 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