Commercial Litigation

Clients benefit from Lawson's experience as a former law clerk in the Commercial Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, New York County. After discovering an $800K shipping scheme linked to a an ecommerce store hosted on Shopify, long-time client Easyship Inc., a global eCommerce shipping platform, engaged Lawson to investigate the ringleaders. When Shopify refused to share account information, Lawson initiated an Article 78 proceeding seeking pre-action discovery under CPLR 3102(c)—a remedy normally reserved for post-commencement discovery—compelling non-party Shopify to provide account information for the online storefront. That production led to the discovery of a previously unknown Brooklyn property which defendants attempted to sell but for counsel's discovery and subsequent efforts to block the sale and encumber the property for judgment enforcement purposes.

Financial Services Litigation

Lawson brings deep insights to any financial litigation, having spent a large part of his career representing institutional banks, commercial landlords, and bankruptcy trustees.

  • representing Perry Ellis International in a lender-liability dispute against Fortress Credit alleging bad fabriches of the parties' $235 million credit facility.

  • representing a Chapter 7 Trustee in the recovery of funds for investors victimized by a $12 million auto-financing Ponzi scheme.

  • defending Easyship Inc. in an assignee-for-the-benefit-of-creditors proceeding, successfully negotiating a $49,000 demand down to a $5,000 payment, which resulted in voluntary dismissal of the claim.

Employment/Equity Disputes

Lawson brings unique perspectives to any employment matter having predominantly represented management-side clientele for most of his career:

  • representing Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen in a wage-and-hour litigation, which favorably resolved through JAMS arbitration.

  • representing Brandy Melville and Planet Fitness in employment discrimination/retaliation claims before the New York State Division of Human Rights and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

It is no surprise then that Lawson's most significant wins have come on the employee side of the coin:

  • converting a no-severance termination of a hospitality executive into a $50,000 severance payment from Brooklyn Mirage inside of two weeks.

  • negotiated a 190% increase in severance compensation for a private equity executive, raising the employer's initial $43,000 offer to $125,000 while preserving non-waivable statutory benefits under Italian law. (December 2025)

  • securing a 411% increase to a client's equity position in advance of a high-profile merger, resulting in $1.14 million in cash consideration at closing. In 2025, Lawson resolved an equity dispute between a client, the lead engineer of an AI start-up, and the CEO’s bad faith attempt to clawback/cancel vested equity in advance of the company’s $10M merger. Intervening the week of the merger, Lawson successfully enforced the client’s entitlement to the shares and negotiated a 411% increase to the client’s overall stake (then valued at $233,000) resulting in a $1.14 million cash payment at closing.