BGC Partners, Inc. v. Avison Young (Canada), Inc.

Opinion

1 Robert S. Larsen, Esq. (NV Bar No. 7785) Wing Yan Wong, Esq. (NV Bar No. 13622) 2 GORDON REES SCULLY MANSUKHANI, LLP 300 South Fourth Street, Suite 1550 3 Las Vegas, Nevada 89104 Telephone: (702) 577-9301 4 Facsimile: (702) 255-2858 rlarsen@grsm.com 5 wwong@grsm.com 6 Nathaniel Kritzer, Esq. (Admitted Pro Hac Vice) STEPTOE & JOHNSON LLP 7 1114 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10036 8 Tel. (212) 378-7535 9 Fax. (212) 506-3950 nkritzer@Steptoe.com 10 Attorneys for Defendants 11 Avison Young (Canada) Inc.; Avison Young 12 (USA) Inc.; Avison Young-Nevada, LLC; Mark Rose, Joseph Kupiec, John Pinjuv and 13 The Nevada Commercial Group, LLC 14 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 15 FOR THE DISTRICT OF NEVADA 16 17 NEWMARK GROUP, INC., G&E ACQUISITION ) CASE NO.: 2:15-cv-00531-RFB-EJY COMPANY, LLC, and BGC REAL ESTATE OF ) 18 NEVADA, LLC, ) ) 19 Plaintiffs, ) DEFENDANTS’ MOTION FOR vs. LEAVE TO APPEAR 20 ) TELEPHONICALLY BY ) AVISON YOUNG (CANADA) INC.; AVISON CELLULAR PHONE AT APRIL 6, 21 YOUNG (USA) INC.; AVISON YOUNG - ) 2020 HEARING NEVADA, LLC, MARK ROSE, THE NEVADA ) 22 COMMERCIAL GROUP, JOHN PINJUV, and ) (Emergency Motion) JOSEPH KUPIEC; DOES 1 through 5; and ROE ) 23 BUSINESS ENTITIES 6 through 10 , ) ) 24 Defendants. ) ) 25 26 Defendants respectfully request that Defendants’ out-of-state counsel Nathaniel Kritzer 27 and Jeremy Goldkind be permitted to attend the April 6, 2020 hearing telephonically by cellular 1 phone. Local counsel Robert S. Larsen intends to appear telephonically through a landline. This 2 request is made pursuant to LR 7-4 and the following Memorandum of Points and Authorities. 3 MEMORANDUM OF POINTS AND AUTHORITIES 4 This Court has set a hearing for April 6, 2020 on Plaintiffs’ Motion to Compel Directed 5 to the AY Defendants and the NCG Defendants. See ECF No. 318. The Court permits the 6 parties to appear telephonically but prohibits the use of a cell phone. Id. Given the 7 extraordinarily unusual circumstances with the COVID-19 outbreak, and the current lockdown in 8 New York and Chicago where Mr. Kritzer and Mr. Goldkind reside respectively, Defendants 9 request that counsel be permitted to attend the hearing through the use of cell phones. 10 The governors of New York and Illinois have issued directives prohibiting residents from 11 traveling and requiring residents to stay at home, with exceptions not applicable here. See New 12 York Exec. Order No. 202.6 (March 18, 2020), https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/no-2026- 13 continuing-temporary-suspension-and-modification-laws-relating-disaster-emergency; Ill. Exec. 14 Order No. 2020-10 (March 20, 2020), https://www2.illinois.gov/Pages/Executive- 15 Orders/ExecutiveOrder2020-10.aspx. Under those two states’ directives, law firms are not 16 considered “essential businesses” and attorneys are prohibited from entering the work premises 17 to conduct “non-essential business.” Mr. Kritzer is the lead counsel for Defendants. Both Mr. 18 Kritzer and Mr. Goldkind do not have access to a landline at their respective residences. See Ex. 19 1, Decl. of Nathaniel Kritzer at ¶¶ 7-8. They anticipate that they will not be able to travel to or 20 enter their respective offices where landline access is available to attend the April 6 hearing. Id. 21 This Court has inherent power and discretion to manage its courtroom. U.S. v. W.R. 22 Grace, 526 F.3d 499, 509 (9th Cir. 2008) (“[a]ll federal courts are vested with inherent powers 23 enabling them to manage their cases and courtrooms effectively”). Allowing telephonic 24 appearances by cell phone would not prejudice Plaintiffs. Counsel will take steps to ensure that 25 the cell phone connection will be as clear and with as few interruption as practicable within their 26 control. Local counsel Mr. Larsen intends to appear with the use of a landline. 27 1 For these reasons, Defendants respectfully request that counsel be permitted to appear 2 || telephonically through the use of cell phones. 3 Dated: March 24, 2020 4 Respectfully submitted, 6 /s/_Robert S. Larsen Robert S. Larsen, Esq. 7 Nevada Bar No. 7785 Wing Y. Wong, Esq. 8 Nevada Bar No. 13622 GORDON REES SCULLY 9 MANSUKHANI, LLP 300 South Fourth Street, Suite 1550 10 Las Vegas, Nevada 89101 Telephone: (702) 577-9301 4 11 Facsimile: (702) 255-2858 rlarsen @ grsm.com 12 S2e Nathaniel J. Kritzer (pro hac vice) a3 B 13 STEPTOE & JOHNSON LLP 1114 Avenue of the Americas 14 New York, New York 10036 & Tel. (212) 378-7535 15 Fax (212) 506-3950 2 nkritzer @ steptoe.com am 16 3 Attorneys for Defendants Avison Young & 17 (Canada) Inc., Avison Young (USA) Inc., Avison Young-Nevada, LLC, Mark Rose, 18 Joseph Kupiec, The Nevada Commercial Group, and John Pinjuv 19 20 IT |S SO ORDERED. 21 22 23 UNITED/STATES/M TRATE JUDGE 24 Dated: March 26, 2020

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