Lauren M.
Manduke

Member Lauren M. Manduke helps businesses, property owners, and stakeholders navigate high-stakes disputes with strategic, business-focused counsel across New York and New Jersey.

Experience

Lauren handles complex commercial disputes in state and federal courts involving matters related to shareholder disputes, business divorce, licensing disputes, employment issues, commercial real estate matters, and land use litigation. She has extensive experience before the American Arbitration Association (AAA), as well as appeals before both the New Jersey Appellate Division and New York Appellate Division, First and Second Departments.

Lauren’s practice also spans to include the representation of official committees in some of the most complex and high-profile chapter 11 cases in the country, including the creditors’ committees in the bankruptcy cases of Purdue Pharma and Mallinckrodt.

On behalf of individual clients, Lauren has litigated and successfully resolved various probate, trust and estate matters. Some examples include disputes involving will contests and interpretation, undue influence, tax issues and breaches of fiduciary duty by executors and trustees. She also regularly advises beneficiaries, executors, and trustees with respect to their rights and obligations outside of the litigation context.

Representative Matters

A selection of Lauren’s notable engagements include:

• Stairway Capital – counsel to secured creditor in enforcement of loan obligation in actions before both the New York Supreme Court and AAA; obtained dismissal of lender liability counterclaims in New York Supreme Court
• Successfully resolving a commission dispute on behalf of a national car dealership
• Successfully negotiated a resolution between participants and the primary lender with respect to several participation agreements of an underling loan to a cannabis distributor
• Obtaining an injunction on behalf of an officer/shareholder of a substantial real-estate holding company enjoining the other shareholders and third-parties from taking any action on behalf of the company without the client’s consent, quickly followed by a settlement in the client’s favor
• Represented New Jersey taxpayers against the State of New Jersey for improper retroactive taxation and successfully defeated a proposed 100-unit development that was not compliant with local zoning in Somerset County, New Jersey
• Successfully prosecuted a wide variety of commercial landlord/tenant disputes for New Jersey commercial landlords
• Negotiating a favorable settlement for New Jersey Mega-Million Lottery winners – Initiating litigation against the State of New Jersey for retroactively taxing New Jersey residents who won and began receiving lottery prizes prior to a change in the applicable law
• Town Sports International, LLC (d/b/a New York Sports Clubs) – obtaining dismissal of claims in litigation initiated against our client relating to an exclusive use provision in a lease
• Humanscale Corporation – obtaining dismissal of a fraud claim asserted against our client in connection with licensing agreements
• Defended and prosecuted numerous breach of fiduciary duty and fraud claims for and against directors and officers of major corporations
• Handled numerous highly complex will contests and estate lawsuits in both New Jersey and in Florida
• Represented several real estate developers in disputes with their lenders
• Represented shareholders and members of closely-held businesses fighting for control of those businesses and/or alleging they have been oppressed by the majority shareholders
• Clark Commons, LLC – obtaining a favorable settlement allowing a multi-million dollar strip-mall development to proceed in Clark Township, New Jersey
• Charles & Jared Kushner – obtaining a favorable outcome on behalf of our client in an employment dispute
• On the eve of trial successfully mediated a licensing agreement dispute resulting in our client’s payment of only ten percent of the plaintiff’s damage claim
• Obtaining an approximately $15.5 million buyout of our clients’ minority interest in several entities
• Obtaining dismissal of claims in litigation initiated against our client alleging tortious interference and other tort claims concerning a UPS franchisee
• Securing the voluntary dismissal of a will contest filed in Florida
• Obtaining a favorable settlement in a breach of fiduciary duty matter on behalf of an executrix where the claimed damages exceeded several millions of dollars
• Obtaining a consent order on behalf of a beneficiary of an estate against an attorney-in-fact accused of exceeding her authority under the power of attorney.

Networks & Affiliations

Lauren is active in a host of influential industry organizations, including:

• District II-B Ethics Committee, Bergen County – South
• Fellows of the American Bar Foundation
• New Jersey Women Lawyers Association (2009-present)
• Bergen County Bar Association (2009-present)
• Co-Chair of the Civil Practice section of the Bergen County Bar Association (2013-2018)
• Bergen County Chair of the Vincent J. Apruzzese Mock Trial Competition (2012-2015)

Deeply connected to the community, Lauren serves on several municipal groups, such as:

• Bernards Township Planning Board
• Bernards Township Affordable Housing Task Force for the 2019 term
• former member of the Bernards Township Zoning Board of Adjustment (2012-2014),
• former Republican Female Representative, District 20 for Bernards Township (2010-2014)

Additionally, Lauren is an active alumni with Lehigh University, having served as a former Director at Large of the Alumni Association Board of Directors (2014 – 2018), appointed Vice President of the Board for the 2018/2019 term, and served as President in 2019/2020. Lauren also served a three-year term on the Lehigh University Board of Trustees. She is the former President of the Young Alumni Council, Lehigh University (2014-2015).

She is a frequent volunteer at St. James School in Basking Ridge, NJ.

HONORS & AWARDS

Recognized for her contributions to mentorship at Cole Schotz, Lauren was chosen as an honoree in the “Best Mentor” category for the 2023 Corporate Counsel’s Women, Influence & Power in Law Awards. Lauren has been previously recognized on the Super Lawyers New Jersey Rising Star list from 2018-2021. She is now included on the New Jersey Super Lawyers and Best Lawyers lists.

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See Award Methodology.