(Dec. 4, 2024) — Harris Beach PLLC has added Desmond Lyons as a partner in its White Plains office. Desmond is an award-winning attorney with more than three decades of experience providing trusted counsel to corporations, municipalities, boards and executives.
Desmond previously founded a leading Westchester, N.Y.-based law firm and now joins Harris Beach’s Business Litigation Practice Group, representing a variety of domestic and international entities, from Fortune 500 companies to individual and family businesses, including banks, construction companies, securities firms, realty companies, health care organizations, not-for-profits and many other corporations.
Desmond has extensive experience in federal, state, local and appellate courts, litigating and counseling on complex matters such as corporate governance, breach of fiduciary duty, contracts, employment law, shareholder disputes, dispute resolution, ethics, corporate dissolution and significant corporate transactions. Desmond currently serves as outside general counsel for a multimillion-dollar not-for-profit social services agency, is an elected judge of the Village of Irvington, N.Y. and is an adjunct professor of Law and Ethics at Fordham University’s Gabelli School of Business.
“With his versatile background in all facets of litigation and general corporate law, Desmond will be a great addition to the White Plains Office and the Business and Commercial Litigation team,” said Office Managing Partner Darius Chafizadeh. “Harris Beach is committed to expanding its growth throughout the Hudson Valley and the addition of Desmond will enable us to do more on behalf of our clients throughout the region.”
“The Harris Beach platform offers me new and expanded opportunities to support my practice and my clients. I’m excited to be a part of the firm’s growth in the Westchester and Hudson Valley markets,” Desmond said.
Harris Beach recently approved an Operating Agreement with New England-based Murtha Cullina LLP to form a regional powerhouse in the legal industry on Jan. 1, 2025. The new firm, to be known as Harris Beach Murtha, will offer clients greater strength and reach through added geographies and expanded services, with more than 250 attorneys practicing from 16 offices in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and the District of Columbia.
About Harris Beach
Founded in 1856, Harris Beach and its subsidiaries provide legal and professional services to clients across New York state, as well as nationally and internationally. Harris Beach is among the country’s top law firms as ranked by The National Law Journal.
Clients include Fortune 100 corporations, privately held companies, emerging businesses, public sector entities, not-for-profit organizations, and individuals. The firm’s core practice areas and industries served include appellate law, business and commercial litigation, commercial real estate, corporate, environmental, energy, financial restructuring, government compliance and investigations, health care, immigration, intellectual property, labor and employment, mass torts, medical and life sciences, political law, product liability, public finance, and wills, trusts and estates.
The firm’s lawyers and consultants practice from offices throughout New York state in Albany, Buffalo, Ithaca, Long Island, New York City, Rochester, Saratoga Springs, Syracuse, and White Plains, as well as from offices in Washington, D.C., New Haven, Connecticut and Newark, New Jersey.
