Law Office of Steven R. Sutton

Focus and practice areas

The firm works in civil litigation, with a base in Manhattan. Its docket covers real estate disputes, commercial litigation, and landlord/tenant matters. On the landlord/tenant side, the site lists commercial disputes and Yellowstone injunctions, a form of relief that commercial tenants in New York use to pause a lease default before it ripens into termination.

Beyond those areas, the firm handles breach of contract claims, commercial collections, and partnership disputes. Each of these tends to turn on documents: the lease, the contract, the partnership agreement, and the ledger of what was paid and what was owed. Partnership disputes can also draw in questions of accounting between the partners and the value of the business itself. In my opinion, that document-driven quality is what ties the litigation side of this practice together.

The attorney behind the work

Steven R. Sutton is the attorney the site names. He was admitted to the New York bar in 1976, the same year he earned his J.D. from New York University School of Law. Before that, he completed a B.A. at Brooklyn College in 1973.

Early roles and firms

His early career ran through the courts and two established firms. From 1976 to 1978 he worked as a Law Assistant to the Justices of the Appellate Division, Second Judicial Department, a role that puts a young lawyer close to how appellate judges read a record and reach a decision. He then spent time at Shea & Gould from 1978 to 1980 and at Herrick Feinstein from 1980 to 1982. He has been in private practice since 1982.

His admissions extend to the federal courts. The site lists the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, alongside the New York state bar. The firm describes more than four decades of experience, which lines up with a 1976 admission date.

In my opinion, a background that starts inside an appellate court and then moves through two firms before a solo practice tends to shape how a lawyer reads a case. The appellate assistant role centers on the written record and the argument built on it. The years at Shea & Gould and Herrick Feinstein put a lawyer inside larger commercial teams. The step into private practice in 1982 turned that grounding into a book of work Sutton runs himself.

What the litigation covers

Commercial litigation at the firm reaches breach of contract, commercial collections, and partnership disputes. A breach of contract claim covers the ground where one party says another failed to keep a promise the contract set out, and the court measures that against the written terms and what each side actually did. Commercial collections work follows a familiar path: demand, suit, judgment, and then the steps to enforce that judgment.

Real estate litigation and landlord/tenant work form the other half of the courtroom practice. Commercial landlord-tenant disputes in New York can involve rent claims, holdover proceedings, and arguments over lease terms. A Yellowstone injunction, which the site names, lets a commercial tenant hold off a lease termination while a court sorts out the underlying default. As a reviewer, I read the inclusion of that specific remedy as a sign the firm handles the sharper end of commercial tenancy fights.

The transactional side

The firm also handles work outside the courtroom. On the real estate transactional side, it covers residential and commercial acquisitions and sales, commercial leases, and mortgages. Acquisitions and sales work often runs to a closing table where title, financing, and contract terms all have to line up on the same day. These matters run on drafting, review, and closing, and the work shows up in signed documents and completed deals.

Commercial leases connect the firm's two sides. A lease starts as a drafting and negotiation task, and the same document can later become the center of a dispute over rent, renewal, or default. A lawyer who drafts leases and also litigates them can read a clause with both uses in mind.

Mortgage foreclosures round out this part of the practice. A foreclosure in New York moves through the courts and can involve a lender, a borrower, and a set of deadlines that shape each side's options. Having a lawyer who also litigates real estate disputes can help when a transaction turns contentious and a deal question becomes a legal one.

Where the firm works

The firm takes on matters across New York City, in Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Staten Island, and Queens. Its reach extends into the suburbs as well, and the site lists Nassau, Suffolk, and Westchester counties among the areas it covers.

That footprint fits the mix of real estate and commercial work the firm names, since property and business disputes in the region often cross county lines. The federal admissions in the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York reach courts that hear commercial cases from across this same area. Steven R. Sutton has litigated in both the state and federal courts of New York, and he handles transactional business and real estate matters as well.