Jane Felton has aggressively handled all aspects of litigation, with an emphasis in commercial matters and high-asset divorces. She has appeared in state and federal courts at both the trial and appellate levels, and she has represented her clients in mediations and arbitrations as well. Jane has handled appeals of First Amendment issues, and she also has experience appearing before rabbinic tribunals (batei din).
Skoloff & Wolfe, P.C.’s matrimonial practice benefits from Jane’s extensive litigation background and her love for “hard cases,” particularly those involving complex business interests, trust assets in dispute, and cases that raise unsettled questions of law. Such cases require an attorney to be steadfast in learning complicated facts and skillful in explaining those facts cogently and persuasively to advance the client’s interests. When cases can be resolved amicably, Jane brings her skills to bear in negotiating and structuring favorable settlements while working closely and directly with clients every step of the way. Jane also authored the chapter on New Jersey prenuptial agreements in the definitive treatise, Drafting Prenuptial Agreements (Wolters Kluwer, 2023).
Jane’s commercial practice includes business divorce, trade secret litigation, and disputes regarding non-competition agreements. She has represented financial institutions, a major league sports team, as well as many mid-sized and closely held businesses. Jane maintains a limited, but significant, pro bono practice. Her commitments have included, among others, helping children with diabetes obtain needed accommodations in schools and camps. She is also passionate about fighting for women whose husbands abusively withhold religious divorces to gain leverage in divorce and custody battles.
Representative Matters
Commercial Matters
- Jane tried, and won, a preliminary injunction hearing in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey on behalf of a corporate executive accused of misappropriating trade secrets and violating a non-competition agreement in the medical device industry.
- After more than a year of intensive international discovery, Jane successfully obtained the dismissal of her clients, two corporate executives, from trade secret litigation in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey between competitors in the international wireless antenna industry.
- Jane litigated a business partnership divorce involving crossclaims of financial improprieties and fraud in the Superior Court of New Jersey, Chancery Division, which ultimately led to her client, a successful designer, winning the appointment of a fiscal agent, a winding down of the business, and the opportunity to rebuild his business anew.
- In a multi-party trial venue in the Superior Court of New Jersey, Chancery Division, Jane served as lead trial counsel in the successful defense of a corporate trustee accused of mismanaging trust assets.
- After more than a year of litigation, Jane achieved a favorable settlement of a compensation dispute between her client, a hedge fund manager, and a New York hedge fund.
- Jane represented a clean energy asset developer, owner and operator in a New York arbitration with its former chief executive involving disputes as to compensation and theft of trade secrets.
Matrimonial
- Jane assumed responsibility for a 4-year-old divorce case handled by another firm, and after another year of aggressive litigation, settled the case on the eve of trial with an agreement distributing $130 million in assets, many of them illiquid.
- Jane defended an individual whose net worth was more than $160 million in a palimony suit. After motion practice, the claims against her client were dismissed.
- Jane successfully litigated the right to compel international discovery through the Hague Convention on behalf of a client seeking information about her spouse’s offshore assets.
- Jane has litigated and won pendente lite motions restraining uses of marital funds pending divorce.
- Jane negotiated a unique property settlement agreement involving variable alimony designed to account for a divorcing celebrity’s widely fluctuating annual income.
- Jane has litigated on behalf of a client caught in the “black hole”—i.e., the situation in which a spouse dies in the middle of a divorce case, and the right to equitable distribution is unsettled.
- Representing a foreign national sued for divorce in a foreign jurisdiction, Jane negotiated a favorable out-of-court agreement preserving the client’s United States assets.
- Jane won a jury trial for her client of a contract fee dispute in the Superior Court of New Jersey, Law Division.
- Jane has received a commendation from the Americans with Diabetes Association for representing disabled students in efforts to negotiate reasonable accommodations in public schools.
First Amendment
- Jane successfully appealed a domestic violence court’s Order that punished and restrained her client for having “harassed” her husband by making a video that was posted to social media reporting that her husband had denied her a get, or Jewish religious divorce, and asked for community support. In the first reported case of its kind, S.B.B. v. L.B.B., the New Jersey Appellate Division noted expert testimony that get refusal is a “form of abuse” in response to which a social justice movement has arisen to liberate women posting videos like the one in this case. The court ruled that the First Amendment protected the woman’s speech.
- Jane appeared before the Supreme Court of New Jersey in the notable case of Committee for a Better Twin Rivers v. Twin Rivers Homeowners’ Association, successfully briefing an array of constitutional property and speech rights on behalf of a large New Jersey homeowners’ association.
Results may vary depending on your particular facts and legal circumstances.
Selected Decisions
- S.B.B. v. L.B.B., 476 N.J. Super. 575 (App. Div. 2023)
- Schwartz v. Abedrabbo, 2023 WL 6545268 (App. Div. 2023)
- Stryker Corp. v. Hagag, 2022 WL 3107163 (D.N.J. 2022)
- Steiner v. Steiner, 470 N.J. Super. 112 (App. Div. 2021)
- Commscope, Inc. v. Rosenberger Technology (Kunshan) Co., Ltd., 2021 WL 365168 (D.N.J. 2021)
- Hugo Neu Corp. v. Freeman Family LLC, 2020 WL 11270461 (D.N.J. 2019)
- PSEG Energy Resources & Trade, LLC v. Onyx Renewable Partners, LP, 2018 WL 844143 (App. Div. 2018)
- In re September 11 Litigation v. United Airlines, Inc., 889 F. Supp. 2d 616 (S.D.N.Y. 2012)
- Frungillo v. Imperia Entertainment, Inc., 2009 WL 3229760 (D.N.J. 2009)
- Cmte. for a Better Twin Rivers v. Twin Rivers Homeowners’ Assn., 192 N.J. 344 (N.J. 2007)
- Pharmaceutical Sales Consulting Corp. v. Accucorp Packaging, Inc., 231 Fed. Appx. 110 (3rd Cir. 2007)
- Exit A Plus Realty v. Zuniga, 395 N.J. Super. 655 (App. Div. 2007)
- Frick Joint Venture v. Starwood Ceruzzi Union, LLC, 2006 WL 3498315 (App. Div. 2006)
