Practices

Insurance Recovery & Counseling
Commercial Litigation

Michelle R Migdon
Associate

Insurance Recovery & Counseling
Commercial Litigation

New York

t: 212.969.3537

f: 212.969.2900

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Biography

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Michelle R. Migdon is a senior Associate in the Litigation Department and a member of the Insurance Recovery & Counseling Group. She has significant experience representing policyholder clients in all aspects of insurance recovery and counseling and all varieties of insurance coverage litigation. Michelle also handles other complex litigation matters in both federal and state courts covering a wide variety of commercial disputes.

Michelle has substantial experience representing financial services sector clients in insurance disputes involving directors and officers, errors and omissions, and professional liability policies. In particular, she has handled lawsuits seeking to obtain substantial recoveries for losses arising out of multibillion-dollar settlements of class action and other litigation involving securities law violations, fraud, and breach of fiduciary duty claims. These underlying lawsuits include the Enron and WorldCom securities class actions, and the collapse, amid charges of fraud, of National Century Financial Enterprises, Inc. These litigations have addressed multiple coverage issues of importance to policyholders, including the scope and application of exclusions for allegedly dishonest conduct, the insurers' claimed lack of their consent to settle, allocation of loss among covered and uncovered claims, an insurer's claims for rescission based on allegedly material misrepresentations in the underwriting process, and the sufficiency of a notice of circumstances.

Michelle also has handled insurance claims involving first-party property and business interruption insurance, commercial general liability insurance, credit risk insurance, builders risk insurance, and fiduciary liability insurance. Michelle was part of the team of lawyers that represented the lessees of the World Trade Center involving their insurance claim for property and business interruption losses following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. She also represented a major telecommunications company in an arbitration involving the recovery of credit risk insurance payments after the collapse of the telecommunications market, and represented a scaffolding contractor attempting to enforce an insurance company’s waiver of subrogation rights.

In addition to her insurance coverage practice, Michelle has represented clients in a wide variety of other commercial disputes, including breach of contract, tort, antitrust, pharmaceutical regulation, copyright, patent, trade secret, intellectual property, and bankruptcy claims.

Michelle's representative engagements include:

Insurance Coverage:

JPMorgan Chase & Co. in claims for bankers professional liability coverage in connection with its settlement of class action lawsuits arising out of the financial, banking and other professional services it provided to Enron (JPMorgan Chase & Co. v. The Travelers Indemnity Co., et al., Index No. 600674/06, Supreme Court, New York County). Among other issues in the case, the Appellate Division, First Department rendered a decision finding that JPMorgan Chase's notice of potential claims that might be brought against it concerning Enron was detailed sufficiently to bring subsequent Enron-related claims into the insurance coverage in place at the time the notice was sent. See 73 A.D.3d 9 (App. Div. 1st Dep't 2010).
JPMorgan Chase & Co. in claims for bankers professional liability coverage in connection with its settlement of class action lawsuits arising out of its underwriting of WorldCom bonds (JPMorgan Chase & Co. v. AIU Ins. Co, et. al., Index No. 601904/06, Supreme Court, New York County)
JPMorgan Chase & Co., as successor to Bank One Corporation, in claims for bankers professional liability insurance in connection with its settlement of multidistrict litigation involving breach of fiduciary duty claims by owners of NCFE bonds (JPMorgan Chase & Co. v. Indian Harbor Ins. Co., et al., Index No. 603766/08, Supreme Court, New York County)
DenTek Oral Care, Inc. in its claims for defense costs and indemnity coverage under the personal and advertising injury liability provisions of its commercial general liability and umbrella insurance policies in connection with lawsuits relating to the advertising, marketing and selling of its nighttime dental protector (National Fire Ins. Co. of Hartford, et al. v. DenTek Oral Care, Inc., Index No. 09 CV 5811, United States District Court, Southern District of New York)
Universal Builders Supply Inc., the contractor responsible for constructing and erecting the scaffolding at the construction site of Four Times Square (now the Conde Nast Building) in New York City, in an appeal to the Second Circuit involving an insurance company’s waiver of subrogation rights. After the insurer paid the property owner for property loss claims filed under a builder’s risk policy, the insurer, as subrogee of the property owner, sued Universal Builders to recover for the amounts it had paid, alleging gross negligence in the construction and installation of the scaffolding. In an important decision, in favor of Universal Builders, the Second Circuit held that the public policy of the State of New York does not prohibit waivers of subrogation with respect to gross negligence claims where the parties to a construction contract have agreed to insure such losses as part of their risk allocation agreement and where the injured party is not deprived of compensation for its loss. See St. Paul Fire & Marine Ins. Co. v. Universal Builders Supply, Inc., 409 F.3d 73 (2d Cir. 2005)
Lucent Technologies, Inc., a major telecommunications company, in an arbitration seeking recovery of credit risk insurance payments after insurer denied coverage for defaulted loans issued by Lucent to its customers prior to the collapse of the telecommunications market, which loans were insured pursuant to a trust arrangement
Silverstein Properties, Inc., the lessee of the World Trade Center, in its insurance claim for property and business interruption losses following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks

Other Engagements:

ML Media Partners in an action to enforce a settlement agreement involving the redemption of ML Media's interest in a cable joint venture in exchange for the release of litigation against its former joint venture partner, Adelphia Communications Corporation. Part of the team that defended ML Media against counterclaims by Adelphia's new post-bankruptcy directors for fraudulent conveyance and fraudulent inducement in connection with the settlement agreement.
TRC Companies, Inc. in a motion to dismiss a breach of contract complaint relating to its obligations in connection with environmental cleanup work at a New York City construction site
Biovail Corporation, a pharmaceutical company, in multiple litigations involving antitrust, patent, trade secret and complex FDA regulatory issues relating to the manufacturing and marketing of generic drugs
Alcatel USA, Inc., a major telecommunications company, in a case involving claims of copyright, patent and trademark infringement, and trade secret misappropriation
The bankruptcy trustee for Allegheny Health, Education and Research Foundation, et al., in summary judgment motion in a bankruptcy adversary preference action

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Michelle R Migdon
Associate


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Michelle R MigdonAssociate

Michelle R Migdon
Associate