Managing Partner Emails — Loss of Control Over Name / Professional-Identity Signaling
Prepared for: Counsel for Richard Litman
Date: 2026-04-16
Case: Litman v. Goldberg, NY Sup. Ct., Kings County, Index No. 524343/2025
Purpose: Document communications between the two NGM managing partners — Joshua B. Goldberg and Jerald L. Meyer — and Richard Litman that demonstrate Litman's progressive loss of control over his name, title, bio, website listing, and client-contact designation during the post-SOL (6/15/2020) and post-arbitration-confirmation (6/14/2023) periods. The cataloged three-way threads span 2020, 2023 (pre-award), and 2025; three-way threads strictly post-dating the 6/14/2023 award have not yet been located and are an open-discovery item.
Legal Framing
Under NY Civil Rights Law § 51, each "use for advertising or trade" of a person's name without written consent is independently actionable. The threads below show that during the relevant period, decisions about Litman's professional-identity signaling — whether he was listed on the website, whether he was designated client contact, how he was captioned to clients, whether his name stayed on filings and invoices — were made by Goldberg and Meyer in the course of NGM's work for Middle East institutional clients. Litman is typically a CC recipient or a passive "look-in"; he is not the decisionmaker. Meyer's repeated appearance on the CC line (and, in the 2025 chain, as a direct addressee) extends liability beyond Goldberg personally and ties the partnership-level decisions to both managing partners.
The Three Eras
Era 1 — Early post-SOL (2020)
Goldberg unilaterally manages Middle East client strategy and invoicing, CC'ing Litman. Litman is being held out as continuing firm attorney by Goldberg's formatting choices. Threads: 13, 14, 15.
Era 2 — 2023 pre-award / post-SOL-termination
All three Era 2 threads fall in the first half of 2023, before the 6/14/2023 arbitration award. They remain § 51-relevant because the award later confirmed that Litman's Senior Counsel status had ended on 6/15/2020 — so these 2023 emails are post-termination even though pre-award. In this window Goldberg continued CC'ing Litman into KSU client workflow emails tied to the $1.4M KSU wire and the KSU filing pipeline. Thread 10 (2023-05-18) is the strongest single exhibit: a recurring three-way KSU meeting 27 days before the award, with Goldberg speaking to the client (Thamer Ali Albahkali) and Litman + Meyer on the CC line — the template three-way thread. We do not currently have three-way threads cataloged from the post-6/14/2023 window; that is an open-discovery item. Threads: 10, 11, 12.
Era 3 — Late period / litigation trigger (June–July 2025)
Litman writes directly to both managing partners (and outside counsel Heba Carter / Grace Clagett Kren at GCPC) demanding removal of his name, image, and profile from nathlaw.com and litmanlaw.com, correction of trust-allocation reports, and good-faith payment. These are the contemporaneous record of Litman trying — and failing — to regain control. Threads: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.
Catalog (chronological)
Thread 13 — Re: Statement of Account, 2020-03-01
- Bates: ND0001/C2051472_ND0000018354
- From: Goldberg — To: Martha Long, Kimberly Thompson — CC: Richard Litman; Jerry Meyer; uos@4patent.com
- Significance: Goldberg personally edited and approved the firm's accounting outreach to University of Sharjah ("I looked over, edited, and approved Kim's email before she sent it"). Reply enumerates 14 @4patent.com client-alias mailboxes. Establishes pre-SOL baseline of Goldberg's unilateral control over client-facing infrastructure operating on the
4patent.com domain (acquired by NGM in the May 2017 Amendment).
Thread 14 — Re: about your visit to KFU, 2020-03-08
- Bates: ND0002/C2051472_ND0000272187
- From: Goldberg — To: KFU Dean of Scientific Research — CC: Litman; Meyer
- Significance: Goldberg manages the KFU institutional relationship directly, proposing lectures and two-day KFU visits, signed "Co-Managing Partner." One week before the SOL window opens, Goldberg is already in unilateral control of the largest post-SOL revenue relationship.
Thread 15 — Re: URGENT REMINDER Still Unable to Upload, 2020-04-23
- Bates: ND0001/C2051472_ND0000016214
- From: Goldberg — To: Martha Long — CC: Litman; Meyer; qf@4patent.com
- Significance: Goldberg directs QF invoicing workflow and presses paralegal Long to "push hard on them." Litman CC'd on the chase; he is not invoicing, approving, or collecting. Operational control rests with Goldberg.
Thread 12 — RE: wire transfer with amount ($1,437,568.00), 2023-02-07
- Bates: ND0002/C2051472_ND0000226527
- From: Goldberg — To: Thamer Ali Albahkali (KSU); IPTL@KSU; Long — CC: ksu@4patent.com; Meyer; Litman
- Significance: Eight months before the arbitration award. Goldberg is single point of contact for the $1,437,568 KSU wire (Exhibit J); he negotiates "the +$129,000 wire will be within 2 months" and the "$1 Million budget." Litman CC'd to lend name-weight. Goldberg signs "Green Patent Guy / Brooklyn, NY."
Thread 11 — Patent Application Status (KSU), 2023-02-24
- Bates: ND0002/C2051472_ND0000226566
- From: Goldberg — To: Albahkali — CC: Litman; Meyer; Long; Lafave
- Significance: Two-table workplan for all completed KSU applications "waiting to be filed" — "the current plan is to file four applications per week until we are caught up." Each resulting application bears the Customer Number 37833 correspondence block with Litman's name (until 5/1/2025). Goldberg decides filing priority; Litman CC'd as courtesy. Direct evidence Goldberg controlled which Line-74 name uses would be generated.
Thread 10 — Re: Regular Meeting (KSU), 2023-05-18 — STRONGEST POST-ARBITRATION HIT
- Bates: ND0002/C2051472_ND0000246636
- From: Goldberg — To: Albahkali — CC: Litman; Meyer
- Significance: Recurring KSU Zoom 27 days before the arbitration award. Goldberg's signature: "Co-Managing Partner — Green Patent Guy — Brooklyn, NY" — self-describing personal management of the KSU relationship from Brooklyn. KSU sends filing lists (13 ready, 36 to draft). Both Litman and Meyer CC'd. The template three-way thread: Goldberg speaks to the client; the two people whose names appear on the resulting Line-74 blocks sit on the CC line.
- Bates: ND0002/C2051472_ND0000182379
- From: Litman (rlitman@nathlaw.com) — To: Meyer; Goldberg
- Significance: Litman writes directly to both managing partners invoking the Amendment clause permitting a one-or-two-year extension "upon mutual agreement of all parties" — arguing that NGM's continued post-6/15/2020 website representation of him as Senior Counsel is the mutual agreement, moving expiration to 6/15/2027. Preserves quantum meruit and unjust enrichment.
Threads 6 & 7 — Duplicate copies of Thread 9, 2025-06-17
- Bates: ND0002/C2051472_ND0000263991 and C2051472_ND0000263992
- Significance: Three retained copies of the same formal extension notice across production — kills any "non-receipt" defense.
Thread 8 — Mischaracterization of $90,000 Trust Entry, 2025-06-17 15:00
- Bates: ND0002/C2051472_ND0000263995
- From: Litman — To: Goldberg; Meyer
- Significance: Same day as extension notice. Litman challenges a 7/16/2021 "Op to Trust RCL" $90,000 entry as phantom: "No deposit... No transfer... No disbursement... funds were not used to pay client invoices tied to me." Direct demand on both managing partners. Ties to trust-misallocation pattern (Findings #19, #51, #64).
Thread 3 — Demand for Corrected Reports, Quarterly True-Up and Good Faith Payment, 2025-07-15
- Bates: ND0001/C2051472_ND0000117245
- From: Litman (litman@4patent.com) — To: Heba Carter — CC: Meyer; Goldberg
- Significance: Formal demand for corrected KFU/KSU allocations, flagging "transfers from trust to operating accounts that exceed the total invoiced amounts, with no corresponding allocation to me" and "continued misuse of my name... despite your successful argument in arbitration that my employment ended on June 15, 2020, as though I died." Threatens Lanham Act and arbitration. P.S.: "I am sending this from litman@4patent.com for which I have a perpetual royalty free license pursuant to the amended agreement" — preserves Amendment § 3 email license.
Thread 4 — Clarification of Governing Agreement and Applicable Dispute Resolution, 2025-07-16
- Bates: ND0001/C2051472_ND0000117254
- From: Litman — To: Grace Clagett Kren — CC: Meyer; Goldberg; Carter
- Significance: Demands clarification whether the Amendment still governs; asks for stipulation that misappropriation claims fall outside the arbitration clause. Specific discovery ask: "review the BoA bank account, particularly transfers IN and OUT of the holding account for King Faisal University." Foreshadows the Freedom Bank subpoena. 11 attachments including "Trust Register Report June 2025.pdf."
- Bates: ND0001/C2051472_ND0000117239
- From: Litman — To: Carter — CC: Kren; Goldberg; Meyer
- Significance: Chain-of-custody preserving the 6/30/2025 original demand: "I am writing to formally demand the immediate and complete removal of all references to my name, image, and past employment from the Nath, Goldberg & Meyer websites (nathlaw.com) and any other public materials and filings." Sets out Lanham Act claims including "disgorgement of profits — specifically requesting at least 40% of revenues attributable to wrongful use of Litman's identity and goodwill." Both managing partners CC'd — formally on notice.
- Bates: ND0001/C2051472_ND0000117240
- Significance: Duplicate Bates copy ten seconds after Thread 1 — confirms NGM/outside counsel retained the demand.
Thread 5 — Re: Notice of Intent to Represent Myself in Post-Award Proceedings, 2025-07-17
- Bates: ND0001/C2051472_ND0000117260
- From: Litman — To: Heidi Colwell (McCammon Group arbitration administrator) — CC: Carter; Kren; Meyer; Goldberg
- Significance: Litman initiates a second arbitration targeting post-award breaches. Key admission: "I have communicated directly with Joshua B. Goldberg, co-managing partner of the respondent firm, who has indicated he has no objection to my self-representation." Requests an arbitrator "with experience in trust accounting" — tees up trust-misallocation theory. Sent one day before the 7/18/2025 email elimination (Finding #23).
Cross-references
Stacks with Finding #23 (7/18/2025 email elimination — one day after Thread 5); Finding #33 (6/10/2025 website-removal demand preceding Threads 1–2); Finding #77 (Exhibit K, 6/2020 Goldberg disability-concealment directive — genesis of unilateral-control pattern); Finding #88 (Exhibit L, March 2021 Meyer written trust-account and 5-year-tail admissions — confirms Meyer's substantive role, not merely CC-line presence); Finding #94 (Amendment § 3 email license — invoked in Thread 3 P.S.); Finding #99 (Freedom Bank spoliation — the "three banks: Freedom Bank, BoA and Eagle Banks" reference in Thread 1's embedded 7/7/2025 message); Finding #107 (5/1/2025 CN-37833 removal — six weeks before Era 3 opens).
Open items
All 15 threads have been confirmed from Bates-stamped email metadata export with full body text available. No body-text gaps remain. Follow-ups for counsel: (1) pull the 11 attachments from Thread 4 (likely includes the Soluno "Trust Register Report June 2025.pdf" behind Finding #99's Freedom Bank evidence); (2) cross-reference Thread 10 (2023-05-18 KSU meeting) against the 12/22/2022 KSU wire and 2024–2025 KSU Line-74 issuances to establish mechanism — Goldberg's personal KSU management translated directly into patents bearing Litman's name.