Cihak, Raymond M.

Co-Chair, Business and Banking Litigation Department. Vince represents professionals such as accountants and lawyers, small businesses, large corporations, industrial and financial institutions in complicated and often high-risk litigation.

Vince also counsels clients in pre-litigation matters, and seeks to assist clients in resolving disputes and problems at the early stages, through a common sense and real world approach to business solutions, in order to avoid adverse publicity, to minimize the risk of adverse litigation, and to save the time and costs of expensive litigation.

Vince's past and current clients include numerous publicly-traded and privately-held corporations. Vince's clients include ExxonMobil, Sallie Mae, Lehman Brothers, MDU Resources, Commerce Bank, and Superior Steel Components.

Vince serves as national counsel to two large financial institutions, overseeing their litigation, both plaintiffs and defense, in states throughout the country including NJ, PA, DE, NY, AZ, FL, SC, NC, VA, NH, MA, CA.

Representative Matters

Commercial Litigation

• Defense of global fuel company and nationwide natural resources company in complex personal injury and asbestos matters including personal injuries and disputes related to Marcellus Shale mining and excavation.
• Representation of construction and drilling conglomerate in obtaining dismissal of asbestos claims.
• Defense of regional construction company and individuals in consumer fraud actions and related claims against contractors, sub-contractors, and material suppliers.
• Defense of corporations and officers in securities and class action litigation alleging hundreds of millions of dollars in damages, and in civil actions related to ongoing criminal/civil investigations and charges.

Accounting/Professional Liability

• Defenses of accountants in commercial litigation and professional liability claims.
• Representations include defense of auditor in claims related to audit of major hospital system, regarding Medicaid and Medicare fraud allegations.

Lender Liability Defense

• Prevailed on interlocutory appeal in case of first impression in multi-million dollar commercial loan litigation. Won appellate court ruling on emergency and interlocutory appeal, and obtained summary reversal of trial court decision under more than 100-year-old equity statute.
• Representation of lenders in sub-prime litigation, and defense of claims under state and federal lending laws.
• Obtained dismissal of Fair Debt Collection Act, Lender Liability, Predatory Lending Act and common law claims against lenders and financial institutions.
• Recovered millions of dollars in cash, assets, and properties for lenders and financial institutions in one-year period.
• Obtains millions of dollars in judgments in construction loan litigation on an annual basis.

Employment

Vince and his colleagues recently prevailed on summary judgment dismissal of a multi-million dollar whistleblower claim. Our firm represented an auditor who had been hired by outside legal counsel representing a hospital facing investigations related to charges of Medicare and Medicaid fraud in cost reporting. The firm won summary judgment dismissal of the whistleblower's claims that our client retaliated against the plaintiff and/or otherwise violated her rights during the investigation, and that our client had an improper role in the plaintiff's termination. The summary judgment dismissal came after years of discovery and followed an earlier decision the firm had won at the inception of the case, resulting in the dismissal of the tortuous interference claims against the client.

Vince obtained summary judgment dismissing discrimination, malicious prosecution, and intentional infliction of emotional distress claims against a New Jersey Shore town proprietor. Vince also won an affirmance on appeal of the summary judgment decision before the New Jersey Appellate Division.

Vince won a favorable settlement of a covenant not to compete case against an employee and his new company which was formed to steal customers in violation of the covenant.

Vince represented supervisors in wrongful suspension and termination claims by employees of bi-state bridge authority.