Gene’s practice focuses on design and construction industry law, franchising, and publishing. Serving as outside general counsel to a multinational training franchisor, he brings 30 years of litigation experience to many areas of general commercial and white collar criminal law in addition to his principal areas of practice.

He has argued numerous cases at trial and on appeal in more than a dozen different state and federal courts (including most of the federal circuit courts), before justices of the US Supreme Court on constitutional claims, and before a variety of arbitral bodies.

Prior to joining Arent Fox, Gene was a partner at a leading New Jersey law firm, where he served as co-chair of the construction practice group focusing on litigation within that group.

Gene's representative matters include defending the city of New York against claims within construction exceeding $1 billion, which arose from the collapse of Seven World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. He advised one of the largest mall developers and operators in the Northeast in construction and design defects litigation against the design-build contractor and its structural engineer for the project, and he defended a leading architectural firm in a suit related to stadium design delay claims. Gene also represented a leading training company in the prosecution of claims for copyright, trademark infringement, and unfair competition in Japan (through Supreme Court appeals). He has represented numerous publishers and authors with respect to their first amendment rights.

In a case pending before it, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit appointed Gene to defend a decision by the District Court that granted public access to sealed court documents, despite a settlement agreement between the parties providing that the documents were to remain confidential and under seal.

Gene is a member of the New York State Bar Association and the New York City Bar Association. He is a member of the American Bar Association’s Sections of Intellectual Property, Environmental Litigation, Individual Rights and Responsibilities, and Litigation as well as the Franchising Forum. He is also a member of the First Amendment and Media Litigation Committees. Gene is a member of the International Franchise Association and the Federal Bar Council. He is the former chair of the Executive Committee of the American Friends of the Jerusalem College of Technology.

In 2011 Legal 500 USA recognized the construction practice group of Arent Fox by stating “clients assess the overall level of service as ‘outstanding’, and the lawyers’ industry knowledge as ‘superior to many legal practices.’” Legal 500 USA also lauded Gene for his “‘practical and responsive’ service in litigation, ADR and business advisory services.” Gene has also been recognized by Super Lawyers magazine for the last seven years for his construction litigation work and has been noted in Who’s Who in American Law, Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in the World, and Martindale. Gene is a Fellow of the American Bar Association.

Gene's recent publication includes:

• “First Charges Filed Under U.K. Bribery Act,” DesignIntelligence; October 2011, co-authored with Nicholas Pavlidis
• “The Dangers of Designing in Foreign Lands,” DesignIntelligence; May/June 2011, co-authored with James Frankel, Mark Bloom, and Nick Pavlidis from Arent Fox, and James Cramer from The Greenway Group