NEW YORK, September 8, 2015—Duane Morris LLP is pleased to announce the addition of a six-attorney litigation team to its Trial Practice Group in its New York office. Partners Marvin Wexler, William B. Pollard III, Lawrence C. Fox and Kevin J. Fee and associates Amy C. Gross and David T. McTaggart join Duane Morris from litigation boutique Kornstein Veisz Wexler & Pollard, LLP, which has amicably dissolved after 35 years.
“After conducting an extensive search, we found the people, culture and resources available at Duane Morris the right choice for us,” said Pollard. “We’re looking forward to joining such a respected group of trial lawyers and the potential to leverage the firm’s broad, deep platform.”
“The addition of this group of highly regarded attorneys will further strengthen and expand both our Trial Practice Group and the New York office,” said Duane Morris Chairman and CEO John J. Soroko. “We also see an opportunity to provide added value to their clients through services that were not available at their previous firm.”
“The experience in high-end litigation these attorneys bring to the table will allow us to better serve our clients,” said Matthew A. Taylor, chairman of Duane Morris’ Trial Practice Group. “We’re thrilled to welcome them into the firm and look forward to increasing the depth and breadth of our litigation capabilities.”
Marvin Wexler focuses his practice on civil litigation and has represented a number of Fortune 500 companies. Other noted representations include actress Vanessa Redgrave in a three-week jury trial against the Boston Symphony Orchestra; the Navajo Nation in a consequential adjudication of tribal water rights; the government of Tunisia in a contract dispute; the Chippendales entertainment venue in a restrictive covenant action; employees of the so-called Mayflower Madam, Sydney Biddle Barrows, after Barrows’ exposure; Gosconcert (the Russian State Concert Agency) in disputes following the cancellation of its American tour; and music businesses affiliated with Warner Communications, Inc., including a trial over whether certain album music was commercially acceptable. He is noted for his trailblazing work in civil RICO litigation, having obtained the first relief ever awarded under the civil RICO statute in a landmark case involving massive auto insurance fraud in New York.
Wexler has represented most of the nation’s major insurers as plaintiffs in a broad range of fraud cases in courts in New York and across the country, as well as in coverage cases. Those representations included a case in federal court in Texas that resulted in the largest civil healthcare fraud recovery obtained to that date. Additionally, a longtime focus of Wexler’s practice is the representation of New York City hospitals now comprising the Mount Sinai Health System in commercial litigation spanning a broad array of disputes, including issues concerning physicians, suppliers and other contractors, related business ventures, landlords, competitors and regulatory authorities. Most recently, he and Lawrence Fox persuaded the New York County Surrogate’s Court to dismiss all claims against Beth Israel Medical Center seeking recovery of more than $55 million in donations to the hospital and gifts to doctors and nurses made by copper mine heiress Huguette Clark during her two-decades’ stay in the hospital up until her death at 104.
Wexler earned his J.D. in 1973 from Yale Law School. He earned a Master of Science in 1970 from the London School of Economics and is a 1969 summa cum laude graduate of Yale College. His twice-a-month poetry readings at a suburban New York nursing home were recently featured in a New York Times article.
For more than 40 years, William Pollard has had leading roles in complex civil and white-collar criminal cases, as well as grand jury and regulatory investigations representing both corporations and individuals. He has tried criminal and civil cases to verdict and regularly argues appeals in state and federal courts. Pollard’s cases have involved contract disputes, business torts, insurance coverage and claim-related disputes, SEC enforcement actions, money laundering and asset forfeiture disputes, securities law disputes and white-collar criminal defense. He regularly represents financial institutions as plaintiffs in civil fraud and RICO actions. Earlier in his career, from 1988 to 1993, Pollard served as the Deputy Chief, Criminal Division, for the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and was an Assistant United States Attorney from 1981 to 1988.
Pollard earned a J.D. and an M.B.A. from Columbia University in 1974. He is a 1970 graduate of Washington University in St. Louis.
Lawrence Fox has more than 30 years of experience representing large corporate clients in federal and state courts, through trials and appeals, in a wide variety of matters, including insurance, contracts, securities, ERISA, intellectual property and products liability. In recent years, he has represented major insurers in a series of high-profile insurance fraud recovery cases in New York, California and Florida, often in conjunction with parallel criminal prosecutions by state and federal law enforcement. Fox has represented New York City hospitals now comprising the Mount Sinai Health System in many matters, including employment and restrictive covenant cases and real estate and reimbursement matters.
Fox is a 1982 graduate of the New York University School of Law and a 1978 graduate of Princeton University.
Kevin Fee has tried dozens of cases to verdict, conducted internal corporate investigations and represented individuals and corporations in investigations conducted by various state attorneys general, state district attorneys, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the New York City Department of Investigation. Fee has represented clients in matters involving a wide variety of claims, including RICO, antitrust, the False Claims Act, state consumer protection statutes, fraud, breach of fiduciary duty and breach of contract.
Fee’s corporate clients in commercial disputes have included insurers, financial institutions, hospitals—including New York City hospitals now comprising the Mount Sinai Health System—advertising agencies, publishers and manufacturers. He represented the first company to contest the coordinated efforts of multiple state attorneys general to ban insurers from paying contingent commission to agents and brokers, and obtained dismissal on appeal of all common law and statutory claims related to such arrangements. Thereafter, each of the attorneys general amended their prior settlement agreements with other insurers and brokers to permit contingent commissions. Prior to entering private practice, Fee worked in the Labor Racketeering Unit and Trial Division of the New York County District Attorney’s Office.
Fee is a 1984 cum laude graduate of Georgetown University Law Center and a 1981 magna cum laude graduate of the State University of New York at Albany.
Amy Gross has litigated a broad range of commercial matters, including antitrust, insurance and breach of contract cases. She has represented companies of all sizes, as well as individuals. Gross has undertaken several pro bono representations, including handling adoptions for foster parents and negotiating a settlement in a case relating to educational services for a disabled child.
Gross is a 2002 graduate of Harvard Law School, where she was co-managing editor of the Harvard International Law Journal; and a 1998 magna cum laude graduate of American University, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.
David McTaggart is a commercial litigator with more than a decade of trial and appellate experience in New York state and federal courts, AAA arbitrations and JAMS mediations. He has advocated on behalf of individuals, as well as Fortune 500 corporations, financial institutions, insurance companies and record labels. McTaggart’s work experience covers a broad spectrum of substantive areas of the law, including commercial contract disputes, copyright enforcement, insurance coverage, insurance fraud, securities fraud and structured finance transactions.
McTaggart is a 2001 graduate of New York University School of Law, where he was notes development editor of the New York University Law Review, and a 1998 magna cum laude graduate of Vanderbilt University.
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