Koblenz, Michael R.

PRACTICE AREAS
Litigation and general corporate law; commodities, securities, administrative proceedings, arbitrations, director’s and officer’s liability cases, real estate, entertainment law, and regulatory matters.  The practice includes hedge funds, mergers, acquisitions, and private and public offerings.  Mr. Koblenz has represented commodities futures exchanges, clearing organizations, and broker/dealers as well as individual traders and brokers. Having served as a federal prosecutor with the United States Department of Justice, Mr. Koblenz also engages in the defense of white-collar criminal cases involving securities, commodities, telemarketing, and postal fraud. He defends corporate and individual clients before the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the National Association of Securities Dealers, Inc., the National Futures Association, the U.S. Postal Service, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the New York State Human Rights Commission.

SELECTED ACTIVITIES

• Mediator, United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.
• Mr. Koblenz authored an article titled Beyond Energy: Financial Service Opportunities in Arabian Gulf which was featured in the Spring 2008 edition of The John Liner Review.
• His articles have also appeared in The American Bar Association Journal, The Magazine of Bank Administration, Trusts and Estates Magazine, and The Commodities Law Letter, and he served on the editorial board of the latter for ten years. Of particular note, Mr. Koblenz authored an article titled The SEC's New Regulatory Agenda: What Every Hedge Fund Manager Needs to Know which was published in BNA, Inc., Securities and Regulation Law Report on November 21, 2005.
• In October 2006, Mr. Koblenz presented a full day program on the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and is frequently called upon to speak on corporate matters.
• Mr. Koblenz was called upon to provide expert commentary for an article that appeared in the October 31, 2005 issue of USA Today on the collapse of Refco, a financial services company primarily known as a broker of commodities and futures contracts.
• In a book titled Inside the Minds: Winning Legal Strategies for Mergers and Acquisitions published by Aspatore Books, Mr. Koblenz authored a chapter called "Mergers and Acquisitions: A Closer Look At Due Diligence and Negotiation Strategies."
• Mr. Koblenz is Mayor of the Village of East Hills, Long Island, NY.  He is credited with successfully acquiring the Roslyn Air National Guard property for the village, which was the subject of a New York Times story on December 24, 2000.

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

• Former Federal Prosecutor, US Department of Justice.
• Former Special Assistant US Attorney Northern District of Illinois.
• Former Assistant Director of Enforcement for the Commodities Futures Trading Commission.
• Former Regional Counsel for the Eastern Region Office of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
• Mr. Koblenz has been a director of Globe International Life Insurance Company among others.
• On January 21, 2001, Newsday featured him in the "The 'Deal of the Century.'"

 MEMBERSHIPS

• Listed in Who's Who in American Law, Who's Who in Finance and Industry, Who's Who of Emerging Leaders in America, and is AV Peer Review Rated-Martindale Hubbell.
• He was elected to the National Council for Arts & Sciences for the Columbian School of George Washington University
• He is a fellow in the Litigation Counsel of America (LCA)
• He was appointed to the Board of Directors of the Long Island Insurance Community (LIIC)
• New York County Lawyers' Association
• International Bar Association

ADMITTED TO PRACTICE
New Jersey, 1972
D.C., 1973
New York, 1980
Registered Legal Practitioner in the DIFC Courts (Dubai), 2009

EDUCATION
B.A., George Washington University, 1969
J.D., American University, Washington College of Law, 1972
LL.M., George Washington University National Law Center, 1974