JOHN J. KUSTER is a partner in the Litigation Group of Sidley’s New York office. He also serves as a National Co-Chair of Sidley’s Hiring Committee. He has a diverse practice which includes all aspects of complex commercial litigation, including in breach of contract, fiduciary duty, fraud and other business torts, in federal and state forums, as well as arbitrations, mediations and internal investigations. He also has frequently litigated distressed debt cases in bankruptcy courts as well as state and federal courts, and focuses on the firm’s advertising law practice.
Mr. Kuster recently was co-lead counsel in a three week jury trial in the Southern District of New York which resulted in a $125 million verdict in favor of the firm’s client based on the jury’s finding that the counterclaim defendant was liable for breach of fiduciary duty and fraud. He also has served as lead trial counsel in a bench trial where the firm’s client successfully enforced the provisions of a complex purchase price agreement concerning responsibility for $27 million in environmental liabilities relating to a gas pipeline system. Mr. Kuster also was lead counsel on behalf of several household cleaning product manufacturer defendants, successfully obtaining the dismissal of claims brought under New York environmental laws and regulations concerning product ingredient disclosures. He is representing several major high-tech companies in a number of litigation and advisory matters, including representing one such firm client in a $250 million case currently pending in New York State Court. Mr. Kuster successfully represented firm clients in a $40 million breach of contract and fraud case involving alleged misrepresentations in a stock purchase agreement. Mr. Kuster’s distressed asset cases include defending a creditor from claims brought by an Unsecured Creditors Committee seeking to subordinate or recharacterize $400 million in secured debt owed by the Debtor, and representing a lender in one of the first major UCC foreclosure sales to occur in New York City. Mr. Kuster has represented a number of entertainment and media companies in a variety of lawsuits, including the producers of How The Grinch Stole Christmas - the Musical in obtaining an injunction to allow that show to be staged during the 2007 Broadway Stagehand Strike in New York City.
In addition, Mr. Kuster has conducted several corporate internal investigations for large corporate clients concerning allegations of improper practices, including most recently a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act investigation for a major Japanese trading company.