Areas of Practice
Stephen Wald is a shareholder of Craig and Macauley. His practice includes trials, commercial litigation, and complex disputes involving business relationships, employment, commercial transactions, workouts, insurance, and environmental law.
Representative Work For Clients
Mr. Wald tries cases in state, federal, and bankruptcy courts. He also represents clients in arbitrations and before government bodies involved with land use and environmental regulation. Some of his noteworthy cases include:
- International Trademark Rights. Craig and Macauley represented an internationally known manufacturer involved in litigation over worldwide rights to certain trademarks. Mr. Wald served as co-lead trial counsel in that matter. In December 2007, after five days of trial in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, the parties settled the case and the firm’s client now owns the trademarks at issue.
- Computer Payroll Company v. Rapid Payroll, Inc., Paychex, Inc., et al. Mr. Wald represented a payroll business in a licensing dispute against Paychex, Inc., a Paychex subsidiary, and other defendants. In 2007, after an eleven-week trial, a Los Angeles jury returned a verdict for Mr. Wald’s client totaling $26,000,000 for breaches of the software license at issue, punitive damages, and related claims. In March 2010, the California Court of Appeal affirmed in full the verdict. An article on Mr. Wald’s cases against Paychex, entitled Big Paychex For Plaintiffs, appeared in Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, September 24, 2007.
- Other Trials and Litigation Against Paychex. Mr. Wald represented 20 other payroll companies against Paychex and others in state and federal courts in Los Angeles. In 2004, in the first case to reach trial, he obtained a jury verdict of $6,200,000 against a Paychex subsidiary. In 2005, he obtained a specific performance award in a second case that went to trial. After a failed defense strategy to avoid further trials by putting its subsidiary into bankruptcy, and following Bankruptcy Court orders that forced Paychex to guarantee payment of all of its subsidiary’s debts, all but one of the cases against Paychex were favorably settled in February 2007.
- Jury Verdict In Gender Discrimination Against Fortune 500 Company. Mr. Wald represented the first women chemical engineer at her company to supervise a production line. In 1999, Mr. Wald obtained a jury verdict of $1,250,000 for gender discrimination and punitive damages against his client’s Fortune 500 employer.
- Jury Verdict In Lender Liability Case Against Fleet National Bank. Mr. Wald represented a real estate developer involved in a lending relationship and joint venture with the predecessor of a national bank. In 1999, he obtained a jury verdict of $1,000,000 against Fleet National Bank.
- Jury Verdict In Pro Bono Race Discrimination Case Against Polaroid. Mr. Wald represented an hourly worker at Polaroid at the request of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. A jury returned a verdict for Mr. Wald’s client of $400,000 against Polaroid for race discrimination. (The verdict was overturned on appeal because before he had counsel the plaintiff did not timely file a proper claim with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination.)
Other cases in which Mr. Wald has obtained million and multi-million dollar recoveries or defended clients in substantial matters include:
- Rights on retirement of a founder of the area’s largest regional accounting firm.
- Formation and initial public offering of REIT.
- Environmental remediation and “property damage” for historic mill building.
- Remediation costs for site of what had been the largest fertilizer plant in the U.S.
- Coverage under general liability insurance policies for environmental claims.
- Insurance coverage and bad faith.
- Defense of class actions.
Awards and Professional Activities
Mr. Wald has also been recognized as a “Super Lawyer” by Law and Politics and Boston Magazine. Mr. Wald is also a member of the Boston and Massachusetts Bar Associations.
Bar and Court Admissions
- Massachusetts
- New York
- United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts
- United States Courts of Appeals for the First and Ninth Circuits
Education
Mr. Wald received his A.B. from Vassar College (1976) and his J.D., cum laude, from Boston College Law School (1982).