WilmerHale Wins Unanimous Verdict in New York Supreme Court for Loral Space and Communications

• 1.24.2007

A WilmerHale team led by Howard Shapiro won $51 million for client Loral Space and Communications when a jury in the New York Supreme Court, New York County, unanimously ruled in its favor after a seven-day trial in a breach of contract action brought against Cablevision Systems Corporation.

The dispute related to a joint venture Loral and Cablevision formed in 1996 to launch a direct broadcast satellite service. In March 2001, Loral sold its interest in the venture to Cablevision. When Cablevision in turn sold the venture's key assets to Echostar in 2005, the WilmerHale team maintained, and the jury agreed, that Loral was entitled to an accelerated payment under the contract between Cablevision and Loral.

The WilmerHale team representing Loral also included Doug Curtis, Sanket Bulsara, Paul Winke, Li Yu, Alyshea Austern and Shauna Burgess.