Francis V. Cuttita joined the firm as a Partner in 1997. Mr. Cuttita has extensive expertise in residential and commercial real estate transactions ranging from purchase, sale, refinance and leasing. Within our robust sports and entertainment practice, Mr. Cuttita focuses on the business and personal needs of legendary professional athletes, internationally acclaimed entertainers, actors, sports agencies, professional coaches, and related companies. Among his notable representations include the Miami Dolphins Marc Anthony collaboration, designed to create and enhance the Dolphins' celebrity ownership group. Mr. Cuttita introduced his client, Marc Anthony to the Miami Dolphins and counseled them throughout the transaction. Mr. Cuttita is privileged to represent numerous legendary current and retired NFL and NBA professional athletes, premier sports agencies, coaches, fashion models, Grammy award winning musicians, Fortune 100 corporations and their CEOs, and television/radio personalities from ABC, NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, MTV, HGTV, BRAVO and ESPN Networks. Mr. Cuttita has been a guest speaker at various events, has written several articles and has been interviewed and quoted as an expert legal analyst in the NY Post and Wall Street Journal, and other national newspaper publications. He also serves as a business advisor to several domestic and international companies, as well as various sports entities, and has advised the NFL Alumni Association and professional sports franchise ownership. He previously served as a senior associate at Beattie, King & Abate LLP (a spinoff law firm of Sidley Austin LLP) and as an associate at Martin Clearwater & Bell LLP, both in New York. Mr. Cuttita is a member of the Bar of the States of New York and New Jersey and is admitted to practice before the U.S. District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York and the District of New Jersey. His accomplishments include several appointments from the New York State Supreme Court Judiciary. He is a member of the New York State Bar Association. Mr. Cuttita received a B.A. from Swarthmore College in 1990, where he played varsity football and basketball. He received a J.D. from Fordham University School of Law in 1993.

Melanie L. Cyganowski joined Otterbourg P.C. as a partner in 2008, after serving a full 14-year term as a Bankruptcy Judge in the Eastern District of New York. From November 29, 2005 through the end of her term, she was the Court’s Chief Judge. Graduating magna cum laude from the School of Law at the State University of New York at Buffalo, Ms. Cyganowski then served as a law clerk to the late Hon. Charles L. Brieant, former Chief Judge in the Southern District of New York. Following her clerkship, Ms. Cyganowski was a litigator at Sullivan & Cromwell, and Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy. Ms. Cyganowski presently chairs Otterbourg’s Bankruptcy practice. She was lead co-counsel to the Official Committees of Claimants in LTL 1 and LTL 2, and Aearo Technologies (3M); co-counsel to the Ad Hoc Committee of consenting governmental parties in Purdue Pharma, and counsel to the Ad Hoc Committee of States with Acthar-related claims in Mallinckrodt. She has been appointed as Receiver in SEC v. StraightPath Management, SEC v. Platinum Partners, and in ÂCP Investment Group, LP. Her other fiduciary appointments include (a) Chief Restructuring Officer and Temporary Operator of Brooklyn’s Interfaith Medical Center, a 287-bed acute care teaching hospital with ambulatory and out-patients clinics in the surrounding Bed-Stuy neighborhood, and (b) Patient Care Ombudsman in Randolph Health, Promise Healthcare, 21st Century Oncology and California Proton. She has also represented Official Committees of Unsecured Creditors in bankruptcy cases, including L&L Wings, Quirky and Escada. In addition, Ms. Cyganowski has represented the FDIC as Receiver in various bankruptcy cases; has served as the Auditor of Capital One in connection with a consent judgment in a national matter; and is an arbitrator/mediator in numerous disputes, including Drivetrain (Puerto Rico post-confirmation), Madoff, Lehman, Century 21, Quebecor and Metaldyne. In 2014, Ms. Cyganowski was inducted as a Fellow into the American College of Bankruptcy. An author of numerous articles, she sits on the Editorial Advisory Board of the Norton Journal of Bankruptcy Practice & Law. Ms. Cyganowski is also a Fellow of the American and New York State Bar Foundations, and a retired adjunct professor of law at St. John’s University School of Law.

Sandra Drewniak Nicks became a well-respected and passionate Litigation Attorney after working for years as a state prosecutor, military prosecutor, federal prosecutor, and private defense attorney. She has a consistent history, filled with countless victories defending and prosecuting a wide variety of criminal and civil matters.