Morgan V. Manley is a Partner in the Litigation, Art, and Bankruptcy practices of Smith, Gambrell & Russell, LLP.
Morgan assists clients in a wide variety of sectors with navigating complex issues, including those involving business torts and breakups, condo/coop disputes, art law related issues, valuation disputes, management-side employment disputes, and alleged fraudulent conveyances. Morgan has extensive experience arbitrating and litigating in state and federal courts throughout the country, including the Commercial Division of the New York State Supreme Court.
Morgan joined the New York office as an associate in June, 2019. Morgan is an active member of SGR’s Pro Bono Committee through which she expanded the firm’s outreach and services to low-income clients. She has focused her own pro-bono practice on assisting low-income artists and art-related groups. As co-chair of the summer associate committee, she also is deeply committed to training the next generation of lawyers.
During the three years prior to joining SGR, Morgan was a Commercial Division Law Clerk to the Honorable Marcy S. Friedman in the Supreme Court of the State of New York located in Manhattan. The docket was composed of complex commercial cases with amounts in controversy exceeding $500,000 or for equitable or declaratory relief involving business, corporate or insurance issues.
Morgan earned her J.D. from Fordham University School of Law in 2016. At Fordham, she was President of the Art Law Society, which hosted a record number of art constituents at various conferences she helped organize. In addition, she was an art law intern at Christie’s Inc. and the International Foundation for Art Research (IFAR). Morgan was also a Notes and Articles Editor for the Fordham International Law Journal, a position for which she was co-recipient of the annual Outstanding Notes and Articles Editor Award. In addition, she was the 2015 recipient of the William O’Connor Award for her student note, “The (Inter)National Strategy: An Ivory Trade Ban in the United States and China,” 38 Fordham Int’l L.J. 1511 (2015), which analyzed developments in the import/export laws of antique ivory.
Morgan received her undergraduate degree in Art History and International & Global Studies from Brandeis University in 2011, where she graduated Summa Cum Laude.
In her personal time, Morgan continues to enjoy her years-long interest in the arts by being involved in the art community as Young Fellow of the Frick Gallery and as a member of various other art institutions and organizations.
Frick Collection, Young Fellows Steering Committee
The Met Apollo Circle
“The Photographer Plays Big Brother: The Legal Implications of “Surveillance Art,” 26 Ent. Arts & Sports L. J. 30 (Spring 2015)
“The (Inter)National Strategy: Legal and Policy Implications of the Ivory Trade Ban in the United States & China,” 38 Fordham Int’l L. J. 1511 (2015)