Mr. Worthington has over twenty years of experience as a commercial litigator and as a transactional lawyer advising clients in the arts.
Before starting his litigation career, Mr. Worthington was a founding editor and was the founding general counsel of the internationally recognized art and culture quarterly Cabinet Magazine, and has since served as Cabinet’s outside general counsel.
Over the past two decades, he has advised clients on a wide range of art law issues, including:*
- Advising collectors and art advisors on art-related transactions, such as purchase and sale agreements, secondary market dealer consignments, auction agreements, art advisory agreements, museum loans, donations, and insurance.
- Representing fine art appraisers concerning appraisal agreements and legal issues arising in the course of appraisals.
- Representing clients in art ownership disputes.
- Advising in copyright disputes.
- Advising an investment partnership concerning art market issues.
- Serving as legal advisor to numerous public art projects produced by non-profit cultural organizations, including handling negotiations with New York City’s Department of Buildings and Department of Cultural Affairs, drafting land use contracts, and analyses of international copyright issues.
- Serving as outside counsel to numerous New York City arts organizations regarding formation, governance, and management issues.
- Leading copyright workshops for art publications.
As a litigator, Mr. Worthington has represented clients in a broad array of matters, including partnership litigations and business dispute arbitrations. He has represented both employers and departing key employees in non-competition and trade secret disputes, and he has handled non-party subpoenas for clients of all scales. Mr. Worthington has represented prominent clients in newsworthy cases, including UBS in credit crisis-era litigation over UBS’s structured debt program; the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico in litigations contesting the restructuring of PREPA (Puerto Rico’s electric power authority) and the validity of Puerto Rico’s sales tax bonds; and the Guaidó administration (Venezuelan opposition) in litigation contesting the validity of Maduro-directed PDVSA bond offerings. He also has significant experience running internal investigations and early case assessments, ranging from individual employee issues to cross-border investigations spanning multiple business units for multi-national clients.
* Referenced experience includes experience at other law firms.
Services
T: +212.680.4986
E: jworthington@tjonghsia.com
Education
New York University School of Law
J.D., 2001
American Jurisprudence Award in Constitutional Law
Seymour Goldstein Memorial Prize in Labor Relations
Environmental Law Journal, Senior Notes Editor
Yale University
B.A., Literature, 1990
cum laude
Professional Background
Partner
Paul Hastings LLP
New York
General Counsel
Cabinet Magazine
Brooklyn
Bar and Court Admissions
New York
Connecticut
U.S. District Courts for the Southern District of NY and the District of CT