Photo of Adam L. Deming

Adam Deming is an associate in the Litigation Department and a member of the Appellate and International Arbitration Groups. His practice focuses on complex commercial disputes, including corporate governance, transactions, fiduciary duties, securities and insolvency. Adam has successfully argued before state and federal appellate courts and has drafted dozens of briefs for appeals to the United States Supreme Court, various Circuit Courts of Appeals and several state appellate courts, including the New York Court of Appeals and Delaware Supreme Court. He has also played a key role in leading trial teams to winning outcomes before federal, state and arbitral tribunals.

A member of the Appellate group, Adam has represented a wide range of clients in high-stakes appeals involving commercial transactions, labor relations, life sciences, insurance, patent and constitutional law. Adam leverages his appellate expertise at the trial level to advise clients on litigation strategy, preserve appellate issues, and draft key filings spanning the litigation lifecycle. He has co-authored chapters of Principles of Appellate Litigation: A Guide to Modern Practice (PLI Press), a leading annual treatise on appellate law.

Adam also draws on his extensive experience with complex legal issues and appeals to effectively represent clients in an array of commercial disputes. He regularly represents corporations and board members in complex cases and arbitrations arising from business transactions, including matters before the Delaware Chancery Court and New York Supreme Court Commercial Division. Adam has also handled cross-border transaction cases to completion under the rules of both the American Arbitration Association and the International Chamber of Commerce. Representative matters include:

  • Pursuit of claims on behalf of an international chemical company arising out of its acquisition of a subsidiary
  • Defense of a board member and company private-equity investor against claims of breach of fiduciary duty in connection with drag-along sale of a fantasy sports company
  • Pursuit of claims on behalf of a healthcare company founder and stockholders arising from post-merger breaches of earnout provisions by acquiring company
  • Defense of a real estate company, including by the pursuit of an anti-suit injunction, against state claims for breach of corporate governance agreement by an investment entity

Adam actively maintains a pro bono practice. Recently, he represented a New York inmate in his appeal of the dismissal of his Eighth Amendment claims arising from an alleged series of abusive pat frisk searches. Arguing before the Second Circuit, Adam successfully secured a reversal of the district court’s decision.

Before joining Proskauer, Adam served as a law clerk to Judge Patty Shwartz of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. Adam also spent a year as a litigation associate at another international law firm. Prior to his legal career, Adam spent three years as a Teach for America Corps Member in New Orleans, Louisiana, where he taught middle school English.

On November 25, 2020, Proskauer filed a motion for leave to file an amicus brief on behalf of Citizens for Juvenile Justice and the Committee for Public Counsel Services, Youth Advocacy Division in support of Raymond Concepcion, a youth with disabilities who was automatically tried as an adult, convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after 20 years.  Proskauer’s brief urged the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts to find that section 74 of the Youthful Offender Act is unconstitutional, reverse Raymond’s conviction and remand the case to the trial court for further proceedings.

Background

When Raymond was 15 years old, two adult gang members ordered him to shoot a stranger, promising that he could leave the gang if he complied.  Out of fear, Raymond did as instructed and shot a man, killing him.  Raymond has an IQ of 66 and the developmental maturity of an eight- or nine-year-old.  As a younger child living in the Dominican Republic, Raymond suffered emotional distress after witnessing shootings of multiple family members.  When he was 12 years old, Raymond moved to Boston, where he attended three different public schools and failed nearly all his classes.  An expert testified to Raymond’s psychological, social and intellectual capacities.  Nevertheless, pursuant to section 74 of the Youthful Offender Act, due to his age and alleged offense, Raymond was automatically tried in adult court, where he was automatically sentenced to life imprisonment and given an above-minimum parole eligibility date.  Raymond’s youth and intellectual disability were disregarded at his indictment, trial and sentencing.