Jeffrey D. Buss

Jeffrey D. Buss is a founding member of the firm and a distinguished litigator with a notable record of accomplishments, including several landmark cases for a large contingent of prestigious clients. He has successfully guided clients through complex financial and litigation problems, including the management of on-going businesses where the principal has been the target of prosecution, or the corporation has been beset by a public health crisis. He is also an entrepreneur active in the field of alternative energy, the CEO of a company developing utility scale solar energy farms, and a founding member of a vertically integrated renewable energy conglomerate.

Mr. Buss’s trials and appeals have involved significant and complex issues in the areas of business fraud, first amendment and constitutional law, governance of religious corporations, commercial bankruptcy, civil rights, public health, construction, corporate, election, employment, cooperative, condominium, environmental and real estate law. He has successfully tried numerous jury and non-jury trials before State and Federal Courts, and successfully drafted and argued appeals before the Appellate Divisions for the First, Second and Third Departments, the New York State Court of Appeals, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Jeffrey Buss is a member of the American Bar Association, the New York State Bar Association, the Association of Corporate Counsel and has served as General Counsel for several public and private Boards including the Yonkers City Council; the City of Mount Vernon; the Mount Vernon Industrial Development Agency; the Vostecs Corporation,( a multi-national energy services and technology firm); Taher Invest, (a multi-national development corporation); Silo5 Energy; and the Riverbay Corporation, (a/k/a “Co-op City”), the largest residential cooperative in the United States with more than 50,000 residents. Mr. Buss successfully represented Co-op City in a first of its kind, $621.5 million refinancing of the corporation’s debt, guaranteed by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, the State of New York Mortgage Agency, and the New York City Housing Development Corporation. Mr. Buss also assisted the Riverbay Corporation in all legal aspects of constructing and operating an on-campus co-generation facility which supplies all of Co-op City’s energy needs while selling excess power to Con Ed.

Mr. Buss is the founder and CEO of Energy for the Future, Inc., a start-up venture which is presently developing 12 utility scale solar farms in the Northeastern United States. The first of EFFI’s projects, a 19.9 MW Solar Farm in upstate New York, has been recognized by the NYS Governor’s Office and awarded Renewable Energy Credits by the New York State Energy Research and Development Agency.

Mr. Buss began his legal career as a Reginald Heber Smith Fellow and as staff counsel for the Public Utility Law Project (PULP). He served as the Governor’s appointee and Chair of the New York State Low Income Energy Assistance Block Grant Advisory Committee, a Board Member of the NYS Weatherization Program Advisory Council, and a Board Member of the Title XX Block Grant Advisory Council. He performed a legal compliance audit of a regulated New York utility on behalf of the NYS Attorney General; was a member of the Attorney General’s Martin Act Task Force; served on the NYS Bar Association Committee recommending changes to the Mitchell-Lama Housing program; and is active in numerous community, charitable, educational and public organizations.

• Weissman v. Hassett (judicial immunity exception for defamation)
• OPM Leasing Services (right to a jury trial in fraudulent transfer litigation)
• Manti v. NYCTA (right of private business to recover damages under the civil rights laws for competitive injury caused by governmental agency)
• Rubin v. Sieh (tenant’s right to damages for breach of warranty of habitability)
• NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation v. Britestarr (landfill enforcement litigation)
• Robinson v. Olivarez (right of tenants to participate in federal energy assistance program)
• Seidman v. Merchants Bank (bank liability for improper set off against corporate pension fund)
• Jones v. Smith (First Amendment rights of prisoners to access the courts and the use of the U.S. mail)
• Flatbush Manor v. Gotham (rate reimbursement and rent calculations under NYS Department of Health regulations)
• Griffin v. City of New York (excessive penalty overturned in Article 78 against NYC)
• Nadler v. FDIC (scope of the financial and trade secret exemption to the Freedom of Information Act)
• Anco Painting v. Kamen (RICO complaint involving bidding of NYC hotel painting contracts)
• Gold v. Feinberg (civil rights and election law)
• Nicolai v. McKay, Nicolai v. Kelleher, and Nicolai v. Kelleher II (standing of judicial candidates to challenge nominating convention)
• Farrell v. Sunderland, (NYS ballot access law)
• DaSilva v. Kinsho International Corp (supplemental jurisdiction of federal courts to determine state discrimination claim)
• Annabi v. the City of Yonkers (failure of municipality to refer ordinance to county planning board is jurisdictional defect precluding land use development)
• Congregation Yetev Lev d’Satmar cases Appellate 2nd Dept. 7-11-06, Court of Appeals NY 11-20-07, Orange County Supreme Court 2-9-06, Appellate 2nd Dept. 9-8-03, Kings City Supreme Court 8-22-08 (a multiplicity of trial court, Appellate Division and Court of Appeal’s decisions establishing New York law on freedom of religion and the separation of church and state)
• First Nat’l Bank of Chicago v. Silver (compliance with NY Home Equity Theft Protection Act is mandatory pre-condition to residential foreclosure action)
• HSBC v. Sofer, (lender lacks standing in mortgage foreclosure proceeding)
• Wells Fargo v Blanco (improper assignment voids foreclosure proceeding)
• Damoro Restaurant Corp v. Gazette Realty (distinction between sublease and assignment)
• Spiezio Family Holdings v. Cook, (fiduciary duty among members of LLC; professional malpractice)
• A& F Commercial Builders v. City of Yonkers (challenge of preferred municipal developer)
• Riverbay v. STONYA (termination of satellite television system)
• Fresh Meadow Mechanical Corp v. Riverbay (breach of EPC contract for construction of electric generating facility)
• Cylich v. Riverbay (Article 78 proceeding)
• Brodsky v. Board of Managers of Dag Hammarskjold Plaza (use of proxies to defeat quorum in corporate election)
• Silver v. Newman (general release obtained by fraud is unenforceable)
• Douglas Elliman v. Silver (broker must be the “procuring cause” to recover commission)
• Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch v. Sharf
• Wilmos Friedman v. CYL – Demarest – Venue

• Member, New York State Bar Association
• Member, American Bar Association
• Member, Association of Corporate Counsel
• Mediator, Eastern District, New York