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Practice Areas
Complex Civil Litigation: Construction Law and Real Estate Transactions
Example: Mowbray v. Zumot - Federal Court (Maryland 2008)
Lavine represented S. Mowbray, who had purchased the company that owned an historic hotel in Baltimore.
A prior contract, never fully executed, had provided that the company would replace the
hotel's roof and windows. Two years after Mowbray took possession, he began development and learned
that the roof leaked and the windows had not been installed.
Lavine established that Mowbray was under no duty to inspect and that the
prior contract determined the parties' obligation. The trial resulted in a verdict of $500,000.00 for Lavine's client.
Employment Law: Wrongful Termination and Sexual Harassment
Example: Ashton v. Insignia Residential (Circuit Court for Prince George's County and Maryland Court of Appeals 2000)
In a case that set the Maryland precedent, Lavine represented a woman whose past as an exotic dancer
led her supervisor to demand sexual favors in exchange for keeping her job as an administrative assistant. She refused.
The boss grabbed her. She ran from his office and was then fired.
R. Ashton had come to Lavine after her previous attorney may or may not have filed an EEOC complaint.
Since the time for filing had expired and the prior attorney had left town, Lavine filed a lawsuit
in a Maryland court under the theory of wrongful termination.
Lavine not only won the jury trial for his client. He thereafter succeeded in the Maryland Court of Appeals, where the theory of
relief was formally recognized for the first time in the State of Maryland. The benefit thus went not only to Lavine's client
but to other victims of quid pro quo sexual harassment in the workplace.
Civil Rights: Malicious Prosecution and False Arrest
Example: McNulty v. Prince George's County - Federal Court (Maryland 1992)
Lavine represented P. McNulty, who had been arrested for theft from his employer, Apex Plumbing. After
winning an acquittal in the criminal court, Lavine filed suit for McNulty against his former
employer, who had intentionally misled the police, and the police, for failing to investigate
the allegations before seeking the arrest warrant.
While the court ruled that the officer was entitled to trust the detailed, albeit false, allegations
of McNulty's employer, the jury awarded McNulty $125,000.00 against his former employer.
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