The New York Law Journal Names Mark Lebovitch Its 2019 “Attorney of the Year"

October 23, 2019

Earlier this year, BLB&G Partner Mark Lebovitch was selected one of three finalists by the New York Law Journal for its prestigious “Attorney of the Year" award, which goes to the lawyer who had the most profound effect on the law or legal community in the past year or did the most to advance the cause of justice.

On Wednesday, October 23, 2019, at the NYLJ’s New York Legal Awards in New York City, Mark was named the 2019 "Attorney of the Year" for his work prosecuting several high-profile cases involving the rights of shareholders with significant positive impacts for society and the markets.

Mark heads the firm’s corporate governance litigation practice, where he focuses on derivative suits and transactional litigation, defending shareholder rights, protecting the shareholder franchise, and combating abuses by management.

Among other professional highlights over the last year, Mark led the prosecution of an unprecedented shareholder derivative litigation against Fox News parent 21st Century Fox Inc. arising from sexual and workplace harassment at the embattled network. Confronting the Board's alleged governance failures, the case resulted in one of the largest recoveries ever in a pure corporate governance dispute ($90 million), and the creation of the first-ever, Board-level, independent council of experts - the Fox News Workplace Professionalism and Inclusion Council - designed to monitor and address workplace misconduct. The landmark settlement of this litigation created the transparency and mechanism to prevent this conduct in the future and is serving as a model for other public companies. 

For this and several other remarkable results, including litigations against Yahoo! for its failure to disclose a massive data breach and against billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, his fund Pershing Square Capital Management fund, and Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. challenging a sophisticated insider trading scheme, the NYLJ bestowed this wonderful honor.