Richard Allen Altman Attorney

First Admitted: 1978, New York

Professional Webpage: https://www.altmanlaw.nyc/attorney/altman-richard-a/

Bar/Professional Activity:

Contributing writer for Plenty, an environmental magazine. Author of “Dick Nixon–Tree Hugger?” (March 2005) and “Should Rivers and Trees be Able to Sue?”
Member, Panel of Neutrals, World Intellectual Property Organization
Member, Mediation Panel of Commercial Division of Supreme Court, New York County
Member, Union Internationale des Avocats, Paris
Municipal Art Society
U.S. Copyright Office
Chair, Subcommittee on the Visual Artists Rights Act, New York City Bar Association
Member, Art Law Committee, New York City Bar Association
Member, New York City Bar Association
U.S. Supreme Court, 2000
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, 1981
U.S. District Court, Northern District of New York, 2008
U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York, 1981
U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, 1979
New York, 1978
Frequent speaker at bar associations and law schools regarding aspects of art law, and frequently interviewed in the press about pending art law cases.

Verdicts/Settlements (Case Results):

Lang v. Retirement Living Publishing Co., Inc., 759 F.Supp. 134 (SDNY1990), aff’d 949 F.2d 576 (2nd Cir.1991)
First Commercial Bank v. Gotham Originals, Inc., 64 NY2d 287, 486 NYS2d 715 (1985)
Cheng v. Dispeker, 94 Civ. 8716 (SDNY1995)
Bryan v. West 81 Street Owners Corp., 589 NYS2d 323, 186 AD2d 514 (1 Dept.1992)
Lower Manhattan Loft Tenants v. New York City Loft Board (SDNY1998)
Lower Manhattan Loft Tenants v. New York City Loft Board (SDNY1998)
Wesselmann v. International Images, Inc., 645 NYS2d 263, 169 Misc2d 476 (Sup.Ct.N.Y. Co.1996)
Carter v. Helmsley-Spear, Inc., 852 F.Supp. 228, 861 F.Supp. 303 (SDNY1994)
Liebgold v. Hofstra University, 664 NYS2d 831, 245 AD2d 272 (2 Dept.1997)
Liebgold v. TransUnion Corp., 97 Civ. 4870 (SDNY1997)
Admerasia, Inc. v. U.S. Postal Service, 00 Civ. 9784 (SDNY2000)
Mareno v. Nakano, 98 Civ. 9048 (SDNY1998)
Bloomberg v. West End Estates, LLC, N.Y.Co.Index No. 108512/99
Caprotti v. Town of Woodstock, 94 NY2d 73 (1999), cert. den. 529 US 1108 (2000)
Anthony v. City of New York, 339 F3d 129 (2 Cir.2003) (Sotomayor, J.)
Louis Vuitton Malletier v. Accessory Exchange, LLC
Elektra Entertainment Group, Inc. v. Does 1-9, 04 Civ. 2289 (SDNY2004)
Thome v. Alexander & Louisa Calder Foundation, 70 A.D.3d 88, 890 N.Y.S.2d 16 (1st Dept. 2010)
Business and Residents Alliance of East Harlem v. Martinez, 03 Civ. 5363 (SDNY2004)
Hanover Direct, Inc. v. Richemont Finance S.A., & Chelsey Direct, LLC, N.Y. Co. Index No. 602269/03
Granite Realty Associates, Inc. v 403 East 76 Street Corp. et al., N.Y.Co. Index No. 04/600356
Soho International Arts Condominium v. City of New York, 01 Civ. 1226 (SDNY2004)
Andrews 44 Coffee Shops Inc. v. TST/TMW Lexington, L.P., N.Y.Co. Index No. 603952/04
Valentine v. GE Management Group of NY, Inc., N.Y.Co. Index No. 602699/06
Pearson Education v. Yi Shi, 06 Civ. 11504 (SDNY2008)
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. v. Ideal World Direct, 06 Civ. 4174 (SDNY2006)
Atlantic Records v. Shutovsky, 06 Civ. 7904 (SDNY2006)
Orkin v. Taylor, No. 07-216 (2007)
Leser v. Penido, 62 A.D.3d 510, 879 N.Y.S.2d 107
Lava Records, LLC v. Amurao, 354 Fed. Appx. 461
Doss, Inc. v. Christie’s, Inc., 10-540 (2 Cir.2010)
Arista Records, LLC v. Doe 3, 604 F.3d 110 (2 Cir.2010)
Orkin v. The Swiss Confederation, 2011 U.S.App. LEXIS 20639 (2 Cir.2011)
Marchig v. Christie’s, Inc., 2011 U.S.App. LEXIS 14288 (2 Cir.2011)
Katt v. Markov, 651599/2012 (Sup.Ct.N.Y.Co.2012) (breach of fiduciary duty against auctioneer).
Biro v. Condé Nast, 807 F.3d 541 (2d Cir.2015), cert. pet. filed March 4, 2016 (defamation action against NewYorker magazine and other media defendants, pending in US Supreme Court)
Thome v. Alexander & Louisa Calder Foundation, 14 Civ. 3446 (S.D.N.Y.2014) (Sherman Act antitrust action against artist’s foundation for refusal to authenticate artwork).

Pro bono/Community Service:

Pro bono work with Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts and Southern District of New York

Honors/Awards:

New York Metro Super Lawyers, 2015-2016
Profiled in American Lawyer, August 1994

Educational Background:

University of Miami, B.S., Electrical Engineering, Graduate work in Physics and Mathematics, 1966

Scholarly Lectures/Writings:

Member, Sotheby’s, Columbia Law School
Speaker, Kernochan Center for Law, Media and the Arts, “For Real? Legal and Economic Perils of Art Authentication, October 2011
Speaker, Kernochan Center for Law, Media and the Arts, “For Real? Legal and Economic Perils of Art Authentication, October 2011
Speaker, Union Internationale des Avocats in Bilbao, Spain
Speaker, New York Law School
Speaker, Cardozo Law School
Artists’ moral rights: Controversy and the Visual Artists Rights Act, 48 SMU L.Rev. 639 (1995).
The Work for Hire Doctrine and the Second Circuit’s Decision in Carter v. Helmsley-Spear, 7 DePaul-LCA J. Arts & Ent. L. 103 (1996)
The Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990: American Artists Burned Again, 17 Cardozo L. Rev. 373 (1995).
Speaker, Fashion Institute of Technology
Carter v. Helmsley-Spear and the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990, 3 U. Balt.Intell.Prop.L.J. 167 (1995).
Carter v. Helmsley-Spear, Inc.: A Fair Test of the Visual Artists Rights Act? 28 Conn. L. Rev. 877 (1996).
Copyright, Visual Artists Rights Act, Second Circuit Holds Sculpture to be Unprotected “Work for Hire,” 109 Harv. L. Rev. 2110 (1996)
Libel by Fiction: Greene v Paramount Pictures Corporation, https://itsartlaw.com/tag/altman/ This article describes the law of defamation claims arising from portrayals in works of fiction which are based upon real persons.
Speaker, New York State and City Bar Association
Speaker, Appraisers Association of America

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