Litigation

Overview

The Litigation group tries cases. That sounds obvious for a litigation practice, but it is worth saying: a meaningful fraction of Hartford commercial disputes are staffed by firms that have not taken a case through verdict in years, and the difference shows up in the settlement posture. We staff every matter from intake assuming it may end in front of a jury, and we prepare accordingly. The group is chaired by Deputy Managing Partner Lance Harrington, who clerked for Judge Guido Calabresi on the Second Circuit and has been named to Chambers USA's Connecticut Litigation list every year since 2016.

The practice is built around four subject-matter concentrations. Commercial disputes — contract, fraud, fiduciary breach, trade secret — are the largest book. Securities defense and internal investigations form a second concentration, with most of that work tied to public company clients headquartered within a hundred miles of Hartford. Insurance coverage litigation is a third, reflecting the firm's long history representing and occasionally suing Connecticut-based carriers. Appellate practice is the fourth, and it runs across the other three.

Crisis response is a subset of the overall practice that clients ask about specifically. When a SEC subpoena lands, when a board calls at 10 p.m. about a public disclosure problem, when federal agents arrive at a client's headquarters — Harrington and a rotating team of senior litigators have handled enough of those calls that the first ninety minutes are muscle memory. The firm maintains a twenty-four-hour contact protocol for existing clients in that posture.

Drake Whitmore runs the maritime and international commercial disputes docket, a specialty rooted in his years as a Coast Guard Reserve officer and U.S. Merchant Marine Academy graduate. Those matters draw on admiralty jurisdiction in the D. Conn. and occasionally in the Southern District of New York. Archie Donovan, a former enforcement counsel at the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, handles the group's environmental litigation and coastal land-use disputes. Claire Park anchors the insurance coverage docket and clerked for Judge Janet Bond Arterton in the D. Conn.

Product liability defense, sports and entertainment disputes, civil rights work, and mass torts round out the group. Roxanne Patterson teaches trial advocacy at Quinnipiac and runs the product liability docket; Brawly Caldwell handles sports and entertainment matters including athlete representation; and Ash Ketchum, a First Circuit clerk to Judge Torruella, anchors the firm's civil rights and appellate work and has logged more than 400 pro bono hours in his first two years here.

We are selective about the cases we take and blunt with clients about the ones we decline. If a complaint is weak, we will say so at the first meeting. If a cross-claim needs to be filed before anyone else sees the exposure, we will say that too. Clients hire us because they want the assessment before the brief, not the other way around.

Recent Wins

• Defense verdict after a three-week jury trial in the District of Connecticut on a $42 million commercial fraud claim against a regional insurance carrier.
• Dismissal with prejudice under Rule 12(b)(6) of a putative securities class action alleging material misstatements in connection with a Hartford-area manufacturer's registration statement.
• Second Circuit affirmance of summary judgment in a coverage dispute interpreting a manuscript CGL endorsement under Connecticut law.
• Declaratory judgment for a coastal property owner in Connecticut Superior Court (Middletown) establishing riparian rights against a DEEP enforcement action.