Dan Kornstein is a skilled, experienced, and successful trial lawyer and appellate advocate, with an exciting and varied civil litigation practice. He has conducted over 100 trial-type proceedings (including 20 jury trials) and argued more than 80 appeals. To each case he brings a creative, energetic, and aggressive approach. Dan’s clients range from individuals (including Pulitzer Prize-winning authors, Academy Award winning actors, publishing executives, and rising entrepreneurs) to large corporations and financial institutions. In his 50 years at the bar, he has litigated several notable First Amendment cases, as well as substantial antitrust, securities, commercial, employment, product liability, family law, and international matters.
“Mr. Kornstein is a man of high principle, great compassion and profound intelligence who has elevated the practice of law to the level of moral statement. He has the personal integrity to stand up for people, books and causes he believes in, even when others do not.” Joe McGinniss (author), Acknowledgment in Blind Faith (1989).
Dan has been chosen as a New York Super Lawyer (Business Litigation) for many years, including this year, and named in “The Top 100” in the 2010 New York Super Lawyers Metro Edition. For more than 30 consecutive years, Dan has been listed in the Best Lawyers in America in the Business Litigation category, and for 2024 is listed in two litigation practice areas: Commercial Litigation, and Trusts & Estates. He was the subject of a feature article (“Dan’s Law”) in the New York Metro 2012 Super Lawyers Magazine.
Before joining the firm in 2015, Dan was a founding partner of what the New York Law Journal referred to as the “prominent” “powerhouse” litigation boutique Kornstein Veisz Wexler & Pollard, LLP, where he practiced for 35 years until the firm dissolved.
“Dan is a complete lawyer, a lawyer not only as a master of technique, but also a lawyer as philosopher, as historian, as humanist.” Jack Fuller, Pulitzer Prize winner and former editor-in-chief and president of the Chicago Tribune (Super Lawyers Magazine New York Metro 2012).
“Mr. Kornstein is a brilliant lawyer.” Washington Times, July 24, 1994
A “polymath” and “a premier New York litigator.” Andrew J. Field, Chess and the Law (2019).
“an outstanding defamation lawyer . . . who has fearlessly stood at the forefront of the American libel reform campaign” Cardozo Journal of International and Comparative Law (2012)
“Combines a very effective New York legal practice with apparently indefatigable intellectual curiosity and drive.” Michael Pakenham (former book editor, Baltimore Sun) 2014
“Armed with deep knowledge of the law, easygoing, very patient, and a gifted performer with the instincts of a boxing champion, Dan elegantly thwarts his opponents’ arguments in court.” Rachel Ehrenfeld, American Center for Democracy (Blog, April 4, 2014)
“a highly regarded attorney . . . a man of letters with noble values and an abiding love of America and its promise” Michael Miller, New York Law Journal (June 19, 2014)
A past president of the Law & Humanities Institute, Dan has coupled a busy law practice with frequent writing and speaking about the law. He has published ten non-fiction law-related books, eighteen law review articles, and hundreds of essays and book reviews (many in the New York Law Journal). His work has also appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun, USA Today, and Boston Globe, and has been cited by a number of courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. Dan’s most recent book — Uncle Sam Wanted Me — is about his experience as a draftee in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam Era and was published in 2022. In 2020 he published Legal Writing and the Lone Ranger and in 2017 Dan published a book-length study of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. titled The Second Greatest American, one of Lawline’s “20 Books for Your 2020 Reading List.”
In 2015, Dan gave a keynote address on “Creative Lawyering” – one of his signature topics – to the Federation of Defense and Corporate Counsel. In 2012, the New York Court of Appeals invited Dan to deliver a public lecture at the Court on “Shakespeare and the Law.” In 2002, Dan received the Prix du Palais Littéraire from the Law & Literature Society of France. At the award ceremony in May 2002 in the Palais de Justice in Paris, Dan delivered an address in French on “Balzac and the Law After 9/11: A New York Lawyer’s View.” From 1988 to 1995, Dan was an adjunct professor at New York Law School, where he taught a course on Defamation, Privacy and Publicity.
After publishing his influential book in 1994 on Shakespeare and the Law — Kill all the Lawyers? (Princeton U. Press) — Dan was invited to participate in several moot courts based on Shakespeare’s plays. Over the years, Dan has both defended Hamlet and later prosecuted him, represented Shylock and in another moot court represented his nemesis Antonio, and once represented King Lear in an effort to recover the gifts given to his evil daughters Goneril and Regan when Lear arguably lacked the required mental capacity. Dan’s Shakespeare moot courts have taken place at the New York City Bar Association (N.Y. Times, Oct. 18, 1994), the Shakespeare Society (N.Y. Times, Nov. 17, 2004), Yale Law School, Cardozo Law School (The New Yorker, Dec. 22, 2008), Hofstra Law School, and Weill Cornell Medical College (Cornell Chronicle, Oct. 20, 2006).
During the Vietnam era, Dan served in the U.S. Army on active duty in 1969-71 with the First Armored Division and the First Cavalry Division. He was a legal clerk on the prosecution team in the 1970 My Lai Massacre court-martial of one of Lt. William Calley’s platoon sergeants. Based on that experience, Dan wrote two articles for the Yale Law Journal that were cited by the courts, one by the U.S. Supreme Court. At the end of his tour of active duty, Specialist Fifth Class Kornstein was awarded the Army Commendation Medal for “exceptionally meritorious service.” In 1979, Dan testified in Congress on behalf of the NYC Bar Association regarding reinstituting registration for the draft.
Education
Yale Law School, J.D., 1973
Note and Comment Editor, Yale Law Journal
City College of New York, B.S., 1968
Phi Beta Kappa
Felix Cohen Prize in Legal Philosophy
Admissions
U.S. Supreme Court
U.S. Tax Court
U.S. Court of Appeals, First Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals, Third Circuit
U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York
U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York
U.S. District Court, Western District of New York
New York State
Memberships
American Bar Association (section on litigation)
New York State Bar Association
Commercial & Federal Litigation Section
Task Force on the Evaluation of Candidates for Election to Judicial Office (2018-19)
Federal Bar Council
Supreme Court Historical Society
New York City Bar Association
Chair, Committee on Legal History (2017-20)
Committee on Military Justice/Military Affairs (1975-78)
Committee on Federal Legislation (1978-81)
Committee on Lectures and Continuing Education (1982-85)
Committee on the Profession (1988-92)
Committee on Women in the Profession (1992-95)
New York County Lawyers’ Association
Chair, Committee on Law and Literature 1999-2009
President, The Law & Humanities Institute (1991-98)
Member, Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction Selection Committee (2014)
Historical Society of the New York Courts
American Civil Liberties Union
Attorney News
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18 ECBAWM Attorneys Named to 2023 Super Lawyers Lists
April 10, 2023
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17 ECBAWM Attorneys Named to 2022 Super Lawyers Lists
October 12, 2022
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19 ECBAWM Attorneys Named to 2021 Super Lawyers Lists
October 6, 2021
Representative Cases
Won two appeals affirming decisions for discovery under 28 U.S.C. § 1782 in aid of foreign proceedings on behalf of a victim of alleged large international art fraud. In re Accent Delight Int’l Ltd., 869 F. 3d 121 (2d Cir. 2017) and 791 Fed. App’x 247 (2d Cir. 2019). Currently representing same clients in federal suit against large auction house for allegedly aiding and abetting fraud and breach of fiduciary duty. Accent Delight Int’l Ltd. v. Sotheby’s, (Dkt. No. 18 Civ. 9011) (S.D.N.Y.) (Furman, J.). Case is set for trial in January 2024.
Successfully represented a prominent sculptor (Winston Churchill’s granddaughter) who sued because a number of her original sculptures were broken while in the care and custody of defendants. After discovery and mediation, the matter settled favorably. Sandys v. Inson Dubois Wood LLC (Sup Ct. N.Y. Co. 2017).
Dan litigated this breach of contract case on behalf of a company that supplied home health care aids to a nursing home that failed to pay. After a court ruling that denied dismissal of a claim for personal liability against the nursing home owner, the case settled in February 2019 for one hundred cents on the dollar ($6.5 million). Caring Professionals Inc. v. Excellent Home Care Services LLC (Sup. Ct. Kings Co. 2019).
Dan represented an advertising agency and mobile phone manufacturer sued for copyright infringement for using an excerpt of a song by deceased singer Nina Simone without paying the singer’s estate. Agency and manufacturer had paid a licensing organization for what they thought were the applicable rights. Case settled. Estate of Nina Simone v. HTC Corp. and Deutsch LA (S.D.N.Y. 2017).
Publications
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"A Cautionary Tale of Relying Too Much on Judges to Police Themselves"
Sept. 14, 2023 —
New York Law Journal -
Review of "Myron Taylor: The Man Nobody Knew"
June 23, 2023 —
New York Law Journal -
"'Shyster' and Anti-Semitism: A Delayed Reaction"
May 15, 2023 —
New York Law Journal
Recent Articles

Education
Yale Law School, J.D., 1973
Note and Comment Editor, Yale Law Journal
City College of New York, B.S., 1968
Phi Beta Kappa
Felix Cohen Prize in Legal Philosophy
Admissions
U.S. Supreme Court
U.S. Tax Court
U.S. Court of Appeals, First Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals, Third Circuit
U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York
U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York
U.S. District Court, Western District of New York
New York State
Memberships
American Bar Association (section on litigation)
New York State Bar Association
Commercial & Federal Litigation Section
Task Force on the Evaluation of Candidates for Election to Judicial Office (2018-19)
Federal Bar Council
Supreme Court Historical Society
New York City Bar Association
Chair, Committee on Legal History (2017-20)
Committee on Military Justice/Military Affairs (1975-78)
Committee on Federal Legislation (1978-81)
Committee on Lectures and Continuing Education (1982-85)
Committee on the Profession (1988-92)
Committee on Women in the Profession (1992-95)
New York County Lawyers’ Association
Chair, Committee on Law and Literature 1999-2009
President, The Law & Humanities Institute (1991-98)
Member, Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction Selection Committee (2014)
Historical Society of the New York Courts
American Civil Liberties Union