Attorney Profile

Practice Areas: Distressed Assets Group; Financial Services; Litigation; Loan Workout; Professional Liability Defense
Areas of Emphasis: Banking Litigation; Loan Recovery/Workout; Class Action Defense; Consumer Finance; Professional Liability Defense; Entertainment Litigation; Shareholder Disputes; Identity Theft; Internal Corporate Investigations
Bar Admissions: New Jersey; U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey; New York; Southern District of New York; Eastern District of New York; Northern District of New York; United States Supreme Court; Second Circuit Court of Appeals; Third Circuit Court of Appeals
Education: New York University School of Law, J.D., 1983; Fordham University, B.A., summa cum laude, 1980
Professional Activities: Frequent lecturer; Member, Council on Litigation Management; Member, Conference on Consumer Finance Law; Board of Governors, Morristown Field Club

Anthony J. Sylvester

Partner

Anthony J. Sylvester has practiced law as a commercial litigator since 1983. An attorney at Riker Danzig for nearly 25 years, Tony has been a partner since 1992 and is also a member of the Firm's Executive Committee.

Tony has a diverse State Court Chancery and Law Division Practice and Federal Court commercial litigation practice. Among the clients he has represented are FedEx, Victoria’s Secret, Progressive Insurance Company, MERSEN, S.A., NICE Corporation, Gold Medal Bakery and Jones Lang LaSalle. He also regularly defends professionals against claims of negligence and breach of fiduciary duty.

Tony has substantial experience representing financial institutions in complicated, high-stakes litigation. In particular, he has handled numerous loan recovery and workouts and litigated commercial foreclosure proceedings in New Jersey and New York. Among Tony’s financial institutional clients are Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, The Provident Bank, New York Community Bank, NVE Bank, Investors Bank, HSBC, Crestmark Bank, Metro Bank and Lakeland Bank.

Tony also has long-standing and significant experience in defending banks, financial institutions and mortgage servicers against consumer finance based claims. These include claims brought under Articles 3 and 4 of the Uniform Commercial Code; Fair Credit Reporting Act; Truth in Lending Act; RESPA; HOEPA, state consumer fraud statutes and for unfair lending and/or business practices. He has defended consumer finance class actions in both state and federal court. Tony’s clients have included The Provident Bank, JPMorgan Chase, Chase Home Financing, Ocwen Federal Bank, The Lending Club, PHH, Collegiate Funding Source, Credit Acceptance Corporation, Automotive Finance Corporation and G.E. Capital.

Tony has been recognized among the top banking lawyers in New Jersey by Best Lawyers in America®, a peer review of US Lawyers. Law & Politics magazine has named him one of New Jersey’s “Super Lawyers.” In addition, Benchmark Litigation named Tony a “Local Litigation Star” in its Definitive Guide to America’s Leading Litigation Firms and Attorneys.

Tony has served as the New Jersey State Editor of CarLaw (http://www.carlaw.com) and HouseLaw (http://www.houselaw.com), monthly legal reports for the lending industry published by the Consumer Credit Compliance Company. He is also a member of the Conference on Consumer Finance Law. Tony has lectured on related legal issues, including:

Critical Legal Issues in Commercial Loan Workouts in the Current Economic Environment at the 2009 Annual Convention as well as the Compliance/CRA committee meeting of the New Jersey Bankers Association;
Federal and State Law Claims against Loan Servicers at The Credit Law Institute’s 2008 Consumer Debt Collection, Loan Servicing and Bankruptcy Program;
“Federal and State Law Causes of Action Against Mortgage Loan Servicers” at the Credit Law Institute's Conference in October 2008 in Dallas, Texas;
RESPA and TILA Regulation, Enforcement and Litigation at The Credit Law Institute’s Consumer Credit 2007 conference;
Loan servicing issues at The Credit Law Institute’s Consumer Credit 2006 conference;
Creditor and Collector Compliance Issues and Practices, Including the FDCPA, FCRA, TILA and HOEPA at the 2006 Conference on Consumer Finance Law;
Bank Regulatory Issues at the 2005 New Jersey Bankers Association annual convention; and
Federal Preemption at the Debtor-Creditor Law and Privacy 2005 Conference, hosted by the Conference on Consumer Finance Law.

Tony has also developed a strong practice in entertainment law. For many years, he has represented Gia Prima, the widow of musician and composer Louis Prima. On her behalf, he has prosecuted claims for unpaid royalties and control of her late husband’s “right of publicity.” (See Prima v. Darden Restaurants cited below.)

Of particular note is that Tony, on behalf of the Firm, and Gia Prima have established "The ASCAP Foundation Louis Prima Award," to be presented to a talented vocalist or musician attending the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts. The inaugural award was presented at The ASCAP Foundation Awards ceremony in New York on December 7, 2011. Tony was interviewed with regard to the award and its first recipient by Bert Baron of WCTC’s “Jersey Today” program. (See Firm News item below for more information on the Louis Prima Award). More recently, the first Award recipient, Glen Hall, III, "accompanied" jazz pianist Herbie Hancock on International Jazz Day in New Orleans. See International Jazz Day.

Tony also has represented artists in litigation pertaining to royalties and other claims, including the family of actor Sebastian Cabot; former Olympic boxer Gerald Cooney; former I.B.F. Heavyweight Champion Chris Byrd; Joel Dorn, the late Grammy-winning record producer; Guns n’ Roses; and the family of late Hollywood film star Alice Faye and her husband, the entertainer Phil Harris.

Finally, as demonstrated by the Case Decisions identified immediately below, Tony has notable experience arguing appeals and has appeared before the New Jersey Supreme Court, the Appellate Division, and the Second and Third Circuit Courts of Appeal.