Michael Ciaffa

1-516-741-6565~Law Practice Michael A. Ciaffa joined the Litigation and Dispute Resolution department of Meyer, Suozzi, English and Klein in 1984, and was named a Member of the firm in 1989. Since joining the firm, Mr. Ciaffa has distinguished himself as a skilled appellate litigator. Union clients of the firm have benefited greatly from Mr. Ciaffa’s work. Because of his successful defense of project labor agreements in a series of cases brought in the state and federal courts of New York, more than a dozen important public projects throughout the state have been completed using trained, experienced union construction workers. Union electricians in New York State won higher wages and benefits for their work on public projects as a result of Mr. Ciaffa’s tireless efforts both in the Courts and before the Department of Labor in Albany.Professional Profile Before joining Meyer, Suozzi, English & Klein, P.C., Mr. Ciaffa worked for six years at the Legal Aid Society of New York, where he learned the skills of appellate litigation under the tutelage of prominent appellate litigator William E. Hellerstein. In 1983, Mr. Ciaffa became Law Secretary to Justice Jeffrey G. Stark at the Nassau County Supreme Court. During Justice Stark’s short tenure as an interim judge in 1983, Mr. Ciaffa helped author hundreds of decisions, including precedent-setting published rulings in cases involving areas of the law which included auto accidents, arbitrations, civil procedure, contempt, foreclosure, fraudulent conveyances, insurance and matrimonial disputes.Recognition In addition to lending his skills to firm clients in major litigation matters, Mr. Ciaffa serves as a mediator for the United States District Court, Eastern District of New York. Over the past five years, he has succeeded in settling numerous cases that would otherwise have clogged the crowded docket of the court. Additionally, Mr. Ciaffa’s pro bono work was recognized by Touro Law School, where he received an award in April 2003 as Pro Bono Attorney of the Year.Admissions Mr. Ciaffa is admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, the United States District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, and all the courts of the State of New York. He is a member of the New York State and Nassau County Bar Associations, and is also a member of the American Judicature Society.Representative Matters Over the years, he has been called upon to draft legal arguments in some of the firm’s most complex and notable cases. Mr. Ciaffa’s most prominent successes have come in lawsuits challenging illegal or unconstitutional government actions. In McCann v. Scaduto, for example, he saved a widow’s home from tax foreclosure by convincing the New York Court of Appeals that Nassau County’s tax foreclosure law violated the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. In a rare decision where the Court agreed to overrule one of its own precedents (Botens v. Aronour), the Court accepted Ciaffa’s argument that the County’s interest in tax enforcement did not allow it to take a person’s home, summarily, for unpaid taxes, without having first afforded the homeowner actual notice at each and every step of the process.In another prominent case handled by Mr. Ciaffa, Kenny v. Inc. Village of Garden City, the Village of Garden City learned an important civics lesson when it tried to lease a beautiful and historic former school building (the former St. Paul’s school) to a commercial developer after acquiring the building and acres of surrounding land through eminent domain. Working on behalf of local residents who opposed the planned commercial development, Mr. Ciaffa successfully argued in the Appellate Division that the entire property was held in public trust, and that no part of it could be leased for commercial purposes without special state legislative approval. Other notable municipal law cases litigated by Mr. Ciaffa include ABLI v. County of Suffolk, where he successfully challenged the wording of a ballot referendum respecting the Long Island Power Authority’s takeover of LILCO, and Matter of Hempstead Democratic Club v. Inc. Village of Hempstead, where the Appellate Division ruled that the Village of Hempstead could not prohibit a political group from meeting in a public park facility without violating the First Amendment.Mr. Ciaffa’s litigation skills have also been critical to the firm’s success in several large verdict cases. In Sumitomo v. Town of North Hempstead, Mr. Ciaffa worked closely with litigation partner Jeffrey Stark on a series of complex motions and legal issues that resulted in a $28 million judgment against the Town. The judgment was thereafter affirmed on appeal. In Angerome v. City of New York, his appellate work on behalf of an injured woman resulted in an appellate court decision affirming pain and suffering damages of $3.5 million, one of the highest amounts ever approved for pain and suffering by an appellate court in New York.