Attorney Profiles
Douglas S. Gates
Douglas S. Gates graduated from Duke University in 1964 and received his law degree from Columbia University Law School in 1968. He is admitted to practice in New York's state and federal courts and is a member of the Bar of the United States Supreme Court.
His litigation practice has included many kinds of cases, including commercial, personal injury and professional malpractice. Since admission to the Bar in 1968, Mr. Gates was among counsel who successfully defended a constitutional challenge to alleged exclusionary zoning in the U.S. Supreme Court in Warth v. Seldin, 442 US 490 (1975). More recently he successfully represented an industrial taxpayer in the New York State Court of Appeals in Matter of FMC v. Unmack, 92 N.Y.2d 179 (1998). This case altered the legal landscape for litigation involving large industrial real property tax assessment cases. He has also represented Xerox Corporation in assessment review litigation affecting its 5.3 million square foot plant in Webster, New York and won a more than $75 million dollar reduction in the assessment of that property in each of the three years in issue.
Mr. Gates is AV-rated by Martindale-Hubbell. He has published several articles and is a member of the American Bar Association and the New York State and Monroe County Bar Associations. He has also served as chairman or member of various boards such as the Presbyterian Residence Center Corporation, the Rochester Broadway Theater League, and the Citizens Tax League. In the 1990s, Mr. Gates chaired the citizens' committee responsible for site selection and oversight of proposals for construction of Frontier Field, the Triple A Rochester Redwings baseball stadium. He served as court-appointed special master in the dissolution of Medi-Cap in Monroe County, New York and serves as a Judicial Hearing Officer for the New York State Judicial Ethics Commission.
Mr. Gates grew up in Kansas City and maintains a stubborn allegiance to the Kansas City Royals.
