Biography | Sophia S. Cherif

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Sophia S. Cherif

Associate

scherif@pbwt.com

New York, NY 212.336.2299

Sophia S. Cherif

Associate

scherif@pbwt.com

New York, NY 212.336.2299

Sophia Cherif is an Associate in the firm's Litigation Department.

University of California, Los Angeles School of Law (J.D., 2024)
- Senior Editor, Criminal Justice Law Review
University of Minnesota (B.A., 2019)

Firm Highlights

Publication

Employment Law Compliance for Start-Ups

Before you press "go" to launch your next business idea, as a founder and entrepreneur of a start-up company you should address an important (if uninspiring) step: employment law compliance. Complacency now can turn into an expensive distraction later, with the potential to create surprise liabilities and maybe even scuttle future deals. This alert flags core employment law issues every start-up should tackle now so they don't snowball later. Onboarding Compliance Checklist Before work can begin, employers must check an ever-growing number of compliance boxes: Register to Do Business: Register your company in each state where you have employees (e.g., the local departments of tax, labor, state, etc.). Workers' Compensation and Unemployment Insurance: Obtain both in each state where you have employees. New Hire Reporting:...

Publication

Arbitration and Bankruptcy: Can a Debtor that is Party to an Arbitration Agreement Lack Authority to Arbitrate Core Bankruptcy Claims?

The Federal Arbitration Act was enacted to require courts to enforce parties’ agreements to arbitrate disputes. More recently, the Supreme Court has said that “[t]he federal policy is about treating arbitration contacts like all others, not about fostering arbitration.” In bankruptcy cases, a recurring issue that litigants raise is whether a conflict exists between the FAA and the requirements of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. To continue reading Daniel Lowenthal's article in The Bankruptcy Strategist, click here (a subscription may be required to view).

Blog Post

Bankruptcy Court Denies Motions to Convert Case and to Appoint an Examiner

A bankruptcy judge has ruled that a debtor can satisfy the Bankruptcy Code’s rehabilitation standard by selling its assets as a going concern and thereby avoid conversion from chapter 11 to chapter 7. In the same decision, the court denied a motion seeking the appointment of what the movants called an “examiner with expanded powers.” In re Deqser, LLC, Case No. 25-10687, 2026 Bankr. LEXIS 1004 (Bankr. D. Del. Apr. 22, 2026). The debtors operated a laundry business that serviced hotels located in New York City. The business suffered a downturn following an electrical fire at its facility as well as problems with its software. The debtors filed chapter 11 in early 2025. During their case, the debtors lost about $200,000 a...

Event

Jenny Longman to Speak at American Bar Association's 2026 May Tax Meeting

On Friday, May 8, Counsel Jenny Longman will speak on a panel at the American Bar Association's 2026 May Tax Meeting entitled "Entering the U.S. Tax System: Key Rules, Risks, and Planning Opportunities for High Net Worth Individuals." Ms. Longman will join Heather Fincher (Associate, Kostelanetz), Kirsten Burmester (Member, Caplin & Drysdale), Seth Entin (Shareholder, Greenberg Traurig), and John Fusco (Principal, EY) to share an overview of important U.S. federal income and transfer tax considerations for high-net-worth individuals and families seeking to immigrate to the U.S., along with practical strategies for evaluating existing structures, reducing risks of double taxation, and identifying planning opportunities while avoiding common pitfalls. To learn more, please click here.

Firm News

Firm Secures Appellate Victory on Behalf of Brita Products Company

On April 16, 2026, the firm secured an appellate victory on behalf of Brita Products Company ("Brita"), a unit of The Clorox Company, in a putative class action challenging the labeling of Brita's water filtration products. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld a lower court ruling dismissing the complaint, agreeing that the product labeling contained no misstatements and would not mislead a reasonable consumer. Plaintiff originally sued Brita in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, alleging that certain representations on the products’ labels, such as “Cleaner, Great-Tasting Water,” implied that the filters fully remove all contaminants from tap water or reduce them to levels below lab detection limits. The district court granted Brita’s motion to dismiss...

Firm News

Firm Achieves Significant Lanham Act Win for Johnson & Johnson

On April 17, 2026, Patterson Belknap secured a significant victory for our clients, Johnson & Johnson and Janssen Biotech, Inc. (“J&J”), when the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York denied a preliminary injunction in a Lanham Act suit filed by Bayer HealthCare LLC (“Bayer”). The dispute concerned a retrospective scientific study sponsored by J&J that compared the real-world efficacy of both companies’ prostate cancer medications, concluding that J&J’s ERLEADA was associated with a reduction in overall risk of death approximately 50% greater than Bayer’s NUBEQA. Bayer alleged that the study was methodologically flawed, and that J&J’s publication of the study results therefore constituted “false advertising.” The statements at issue included a presentation given by the study authors at a medical...

Publication

Insider Trading Safeguards Can Mitigate Sports Betting Risk

From sports betting to prediction markets, the phenomenon some call "the casino-ification of America" has captured the American zeitgeist. Sports betting in particular has become ubiquitous since the U.S. Supreme Court's 2018 decision in Murphy v. NCAA, which opened the door for states to legalize sports gambling. Fans can now regularly bet on games and player performances directly from their smartphones. And, as several recent criminal indictments have alleged, some bettors are capitalizing on their access to inside information to obtain an unfair advantage on their wagers. This article will discuss how, because sports-related inside information continues to become more valuable, organizations including professional sports leagues, governing bodies, college athletic conferences, athletic departments and teams are playing an increasingly prominent role in...

Event

Geoffrey Potter to Speak at National Association of Boards of Pharmacy 122nd Annual Meeting

On Wednesday, May 13, Partner Geoffrey Potter will present a program at the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy's 122nd Annual Meeting on the illegal importation of pharmaceuticals by alternative funding programs for employer-sponsored health plans. He will open a panel presentation titled "The Increasing Complexity of the Supply Chain: Shining a Light on Alternative Funding Programs and Prescription Drug Facilitators/Non-Dispensing 'Pharmacies.'" He will speak about how millions of insured workers and their families are forced to use dangerous and illegal misbranded medications paid for by their healthcare plans and what pharmacy boards can do to stop it. To learn more, please click here.

Blog Post

SEC Enforcement Results for FY 2025: “Unique Period of Transition”

The Securities and Exchange Commission issued a press release on April 7, 2026, announcing the agency’s enforcement results for transitional period under the new presidential administration.[1] Describing FY 2025 as “a unique period of transition,” the statement pointed to a pulse of enforcement actions initiated between October and December 2024 [2] under outgoing SEC Chair Gary Gensler, critiquing the activity as “unprecedented rush” and the focus as an “aggressive pursuit of novel legal theories.”[3]. Current SEC Chair Paul S. Atkins described the shift as having “redirected resources toward the types of misconduct that inflict the greatest harm—particularly fraud, market manipulation, and abuses of trust.”[4] During FY 2025, the SEC brought 303 standalone enforcement actions, a combination of civil suits and administrative procedures that...

Blog Post

It’s All Relative: Judge Komitee Holds That an Infringing Sale Can Take Place at Multiple Times Both Before and After a Patent Issues

Judge Eric Komitee recently denied a motion to dismiss patent infringement claims accusing flood prevention products sold pursuant to a contract that was entered into before the patent issued but delivered and installed after issuance. In 2013, plaintiff FloodBreak, LLC filed its patent application for a device that prevents flooding in subway systems. In 2016, while that application was pending, defendants T. Moriarty & Son, Inc. and James P. Moriarty, Jr. (collectively, “TMS”) contracted with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (“MTA”) to supply flood-mitigation devices for the New York City subway. After the patent issued in 2017, FloodBreak sued TMS’s supplier and obtained a stipulated judgment that its devices infringe. FloodBreak then filed suit against TMS alleging infringement by TMS’s offer...

Publication

Employment Law Compliance for Start-Ups

Publication

Arbitration and Bankruptcy: Can a Debtor that is Party to an Arbitration Agreement Lack Authority to Arbitrate Core Bankruptcy Claims?

Blog Post

Bankruptcy Court Denies Motions to Convert Case and to Appoint an Examiner

Event

Jenny Longman to Speak at American Bar Association's 2026 May Tax Meeting

Firm News

Firm Secures Appellate Victory on Behalf of Brita Products Company

Firm News

Firm Achieves Significant Lanham Act Win for Johnson & Johnson

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Sophia S. Cherif

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Sophia S. Cherif

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