Judd Grossman

Practice Areas

Judd Grossman is the Founder and Managing Partner of Grossman LLP. Judd’s clients include high-net-worth individuals, art galleries and advisors, businesses, and institutions in a wide variety of matters, including art-related disputes and commercial cases. Year after year Judd has been recognized by Chambers as one of the country’s leading litigators in the field of art and cultural property law. ArtNews recently named him among the country’s Top 75 Art World Professionals. And he was included among New York’s 2024 Arts & Culture Power 100! as “the top arts attorney” in all of New York.

Judd has represented many of the leaders in the art world, from countless collectors worldwide on the ARTnews annual "Top 200 Collectors" list, numerous art galleries in New York and throughout the country, and prominent institutions such as major museums, corporate collections, and artists' foundations. Judd and his team have secured major victories, including the following recent highlights:

- Securing plaintiff’s judgment after a 3-day bench trial in the Southern District of New York, affirmed on appeal by the Second Circuit, in a title dispute seeking the return of a stolen American modernist painting to a major corporate art collection. See Abbott Laboratories v. Feinberg, et al., 18-cv-8468 (LGS) (S.D.N.Y.).

- Obtaining total victory, affirmed on appeal, in a lawsuit by Madonna against her former art advisor seeking to enjoin sale of a Tupac love letter and other memorabilia. See Ciccone v. Gotta Have It! Collectibles, Inc., et al., Case No. 156454/2017 (Sup. Ct. N.Y. Co.).

- Securing summary-judgment ruling on behalf of prominent art collector in a case that the Baer Faxt called "the first major decision to be handed down in the numerous lawsuits stemming from Inigo Philbrick's massive fraud" arising out of an ownership dispute with an art lender over a major Jean-Michel Basquiat painting. See Athena Art Fin. Corp. v. Certain Artwork by Jean-Michel Basquiat Entitled Humidity, 1982, No. 20-cv-04669 (S.D.N.Y. Oct. 2, 2024).

- Winning summary judgment on behalf of a prominent Manhattan art gallery in a title dispute concerning an Alexander Calder stabile, see Meaders v. Helwaser, 436 F. Supp. 3d 677 (S.D.N.Y. 2020), and successfully arguing the appeal in the Second Circuit. See Meaders v. Helwaser, No. 20-730 (2d Cir.).

- Securing complete dismissal for one of the country’s leading art galleries of a lawsuit brought by a billionaire art collector arising out of the $12 million sale of a Gilbert Stuart full-length George Washington portrait.

- Obtaining summary judgment for Peter Beard, and successfully arguing the appeal in the First Department, in an action to recover three of the artist’s original artworks. See Beard v. Chase, 56 Misc.3d 1202(A), 63 N.Y.S.3d 304 (Sup. Ct. N.Y. Co. June 19, 2017).

- Obtaining a complete dismissal of a lawsuit on behalf of a prominent art advisor, affirmed on appeal by the Second Circuit, filed by NBCUniversal executive Ron Meyer arising out of an art deal involving a painting, purportedly by famed abstract expressionist Mark Rothko, that turned out to be a forgery. See Meyer v. Seidel, et al., 20-cv-03536 (VSB) (S.D.N.Y.).

Career

Judd previously was Counsel in the securities-litigation practice group of O’Melveny & Myers LLP. He graduated cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania, where he also received his law degree. Following law school, he served as a law clerk to the Hon. Jerome B. Simandle, U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.

Professional Memberships

Judd formerly served as the Chair of NYCLA’s Art Law Committee, and he is a member of the New York City Bar Association’s Art Law Committee. Judd is on the board of Lincoln Center Education, and previously he served on the Board of Directors of Urban Arts Partnership.

Publications

Judd regularly is invited to speak on art-law topics, and he frequently offers commentary regarding art-law matters on television and in major news publications, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, CNBC, Artnet, and the Art Newspaper, among many others. He regularly is invited to speak on art-law topics, including at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, the NYU Art Crime Symposium, Sotheby's Institute Graduate Program, NYCLA’s Art Law Day, and the International Bar Association annual conference in Rome, Italy.

Education