Newman & Lickstein, LLP

Focus and practice areas

The firm works out of Syracuse, New York, and its footprint centers on Central and Upstate New York. It runs as a business law firm, and the client mix covers companies, startups, families, and individual clients. Some of that work reaches clients outside the region as well.

The firm organizes its practice around four core areas: corporate and business law, real estate transactions, technology with startups and venture capital, and litigation and disputes. Two further areas sit alongside them, trusts and estates, and intellectual property with technology transactions. Corporate and business law of this kind usually covers entity formation, governance questions, and the contracts a company signs as it grows. That range keeps the firm close to the transactional side of law while leaving a home for the disputes a deal can produce.

History and where it works

The firm traces its founding to 1967. A run that long means it has worked through several shifts in the regional economy, and its client base now includes startups and creators that did not exist when it opened. As a reviewer, I treat a founding date this early as a mark of steadiness in the Central New York market.

Syracuse anchors the work, and the surrounding Central and Upstate New York region supplies much of it. Clients further afield fill out the base. The firm keeps a single office, which tends to make coordination across practice areas simpler for a client with more than one matter open. Keeping records, filings, and contacts in one location also shortens the chain when a matter needs several attorneys.

How the team is built

The team page lists fifteen attorneys. The roster spans partners, counsel, associates, and an of counsel attorney, together with a retired partner, Paul I. Newman. His name accounts for one half of the firm's name, and the Lickstein name shows up among the current partners.

Four attorneys hold the partner title: Scott A. Lickstein, Steven D. Lickstein, Linda L. Morgan, and Bradley D. Morien. The counsel group includes Kelly J. Graves, Dean J. DiPilato, Wes L. Gerrie, Daniel S. Greene, and Maria C. Lesinski. Steven L. Eychner, Nicholas J. Graham, and R. Christopher Corona work at the associate level. The counsel tier carries five names, a notable share of the roster. That blend of partners, counsel, and associates gives the firm a layered structure, with senior lawyers able to hand routine steps to associates.

Real estate and transactional work

Real estate transactions make up one of the four core areas. The practice covers buying, selling, financing, and restructuring property, on both the commercial and residential side. A commercial purchase can move through a purchase agreement, title review, financing terms, and a closing, so keeping those steps in one place saves handoffs. Restructuring an existing loan or ownership stake often means redrawing paperwork on a deal that already exists.

The corporate side runs next to this work. The firm advises clients on acquisitions, and its home page carries client news tied to mergers and acquisitions. That pattern points to a group used to sitting across the table on a live deal. An acquisition usually runs through due diligence, a purchase agreement, and post-closing steps, and a corporate team that does this often knows where the friction tends to sit.

Technology clients and intellectual property

One detail in the client list is worth noting. The firm advises content creators, influencers, streamers, and video gamers on their legal needs. That group brings its own questions around contracts, sponsorship terms, and ownership of the work they make. Streaming and gaming careers move quickly, and the legal work behind them sits where media contracts meet intellectual property.

The technology, startups, and venture capital practice gives those clients a place to land. The intellectual property and technology transactions work supports it, since a creator's main asset is often the intellectual property itself. A startup raising venture capital deals with term sheets, equity splits, and investor rights, and this is the practice set up for that kind of round.

Litigation, trusts, and community role

Some transactional firms hand their fights to outside litigators. Here, litigation and disputes stays one of the core areas. A client who signs a deal with the firm can stay with it if that deal later turns contentious. Business litigation often opens with a demand, moves through discovery, and ends in a settlement or a trial, and a firm that drafted the original agreement holds useful background.

Trusts and estates fills out the personal side of the practice. Families who work with the firm on a company or a property matter can handle estate planning in the same office, and estate work usually covers wills, trusts, and the steps that carry an estate through probate. In my opinion, that overlap is the practical value of a firm that runs both business and personal work under one roof.

The firm's attorneys take part in pro bono work. They also hold leadership roles in civic groups and in organizations tied to the legal profession across Central New York. For a firm based in Syracuse since 1967, that involvement points to a long relationship with the community it serves.