In her 30+ years as a lawyer, Bernice has represented clients in the construction, real estate, real estate development, law firm, accounting, securities and financial services industries. Notably, she litigated successfully the cancellation of a 99 year sale-leaseback and related financing and construction contracts for a developer, performed workouts of real estate financings for many real estate developers with banks – both with and without litigation and in and out of bankruptcy, represented developers, banks and financing companies in disputes over construction, zoning, environmental and financing issues, litigated successfully in the Second Circuit and Appellate Divisions bidding disputes on behalf of the Empire State Development Corporation and NYS Dormitory Authority, provided tax planning advice involving a closely held portfolio of $1B, and handled federal tax treaty cases before IRS and the federal courts. She also has litigated intellectual property actions in the advertising, sports, publishing, computer, fragrance, food, liquor and fashion industries. In the Second Circuit, Ms. Leber has represented domestic foreign public and closely-held companies (e.g., The Hillman Corporation, Amarex, AMI, Princeton Economics), banks, investment advisors and pension fund advisers under the securities, commodities exchange, ERISA and various state and tax laws as well as the New York State Bar Association in a lawsuit concerning ethical standards of lawyer advertising, lawyers and law firms on conflicts of interest, ethics rules.

In the past several years, Bernice succeeded in representing a wide variety of companies involved in intellectual property disputes, including: affirmance of a jury verdict finding willful infringement by a trademark distributor/licensee and affirmance of an order compelling the infringer to assign an uncontestable trademark to the rightful owner of a leading advertising journal, the first case of its kind in the Second Circuit (Lurzer’s Archive v. American Showcase and One Magazine, 77 F.Supp.2d 370 (S.D.N.Y.1997)); successfully obtaining a permanent injunction requiring an infringer to cease business and disgorge profits to a national ice cream manufacturer (case filed under seal); successfully obtaining a permanent injunction requiring a prominent water industry business to cease unfairly competing with a leading water company (Puro Corp. of America v. Aqua Pure Company); and successfully obtaining an injunction preventing an infringer from using the name of a leading hotel chain and offering services related to the use of the hotel mark (case filed under seal). She has also represented trademark owners and licensees during bankruptcy proceedings, notably in In re Schrafft’s, In re J-L Bankruptcies (on behalf of trademark owner Haagen-Dazs), In re K-Mart bankruptcy (ELK Investors), In re Gitano.

Bernice has also successfully represented several corporations (and certain of their officers) in securities fraud actions and financial litigation involving securities, Commodities Futures, secured transactions, accounting laws and state laws, including the following: SEC v. Armstrong, 2004 W.L. 362318 (2d Cir. 2004) and Commodities Futures Trading v. Armstrong, 284 F.2d 404 (2d Cir. 2002, representing Armstrong’s Japanese foreign investment advisor); In Re Amarex Securities Litigation (representing the Hillman Company and outside directors); and In re AMI Securities Litigation (representing the outside directors). She has also represented lawyers and accountants and their clients in matters involving professional liability.

Awards

Recognitions

In 2008-2009, Bernice implemented legislative policy before the New York State Legislature, and Governor Paterson’s Office and Office of Court Administration on legislation to address: climate change, wrongful convictions, funding for indigent/middle-class, e-filing, compact for long-term care for the sick and elderly, same-sex marriage proposals, title agents, ethics standards, Commission to Review Qualification of New York State Court of Appeals’ candidates, lawyer advertising, campaign finance reform, cy pres awards.

In 2008- 2009, U.S. Congress on: Guantanamo Bay status, destruction of documents by Executive Office, review of qualifications of candidates to the Second Circuit Federal Judiciary, federal shield law, attorney-client privilege presentation, media.

In 2007-2008, Bernice lectured to the Southern and Eastern District of New York and the Commercial Division Justices of the State Of New York on the use of cy pres awards in class action settlements to fund civil legal services.

In 2007 and 2008, Bernice served as a panelist on the New York State Bar Association’s program “Committee on Professional Discipline presents Current Issues in Ethics and Discipline.”

In 2006, Bernice lectured on Lawyer Advertising to the NYS Association of Disciplinary Attorneys, the Brooklyn, Queens and City Bar Associations, and the Masters Institute Program at Stonybrook and 2009, argued in the Second Circuit on behalf of the State Bar concerning the constitutionality of lawyer advertising with respect to 30 day ban on solicitation of accident victims and their families.

In 2005, Bernice chaired the Task Force for The State Bar on Lawyer Advertising that proposed changes to the disciplinary rules and procedures concerning lawyer ads, adopted by the Administrative Board of the State Courts in April 2009.

In 2001 and 2002, Bernice lectured to 300 New York State Supreme Court judges at the New York State Judicial Conference. She was also a speaker at the New York State Bar Association Conference on Federal Civil Practice.

She has also lectured on a variety of subjects to bar groups and PLI, including: ethics, federal civil practice, arbitration, loan workout litigation, the commercial courts of the Supreme Court and case management techniques.

Articles and Publications

Appearances

In 2008, Bernice was interviewed on CUNY TV’s “One to One with Sheryl McCarthy” which highlighted her priorities as President of the New York State Bar Association.