Mr. Verner is a highly skilled trial attorney and appellate litigator with 35 years of experience in federal and state courts, primarily in New York and New Jersey. Mr. Verner’s areas of concentration are commercial litigation, first- and third-party insurance defense, policy coverage disputes and entertainment/intellectual property litigation.
From 1986 until he began his own practice in 1993, Mr. Verner was a trial attorney with Ceaser & Napoli, Esqs., where he handled insurance defense litigation on behalf of Liberty Mutual, Old Republic, Calvert, Trans State, Galaxy, GeneralAccident, Prudential, Walbrook and Sphere Drake Insurance Companies. He has also represented various Lloyd’s Underwriters and the Institute of London Underwriters.
Upon founding what is now the law firm, Verner Simon, from 1994 through 1999, Mr. Verner was selected to act as Special Counsel to Bankruptcy Trustees in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey representing commercial debtors’ estates in a large commercial antitrust boycott action - Sciarra et al. v. AIPSO et al., No.: 1:92-CV-01369 (JHR). The case lasted nearly three years and was successfully litigated against fifteen insurance company defendants represented by four major law firms.
Mr. Verner has handled many complex commercial and insurance related litigations and appeals in the federal courts of New York and New Jersey over the last three decades. Further, Verner has litigated over 15 cases involving either federal andstate RICO causes of action.
Mr. Verner has represented eastern European financial institutions in United Stated cases and successfully represented the former Parex Bank, a leading Latvian financial institution, against the Savings Bank of the Russian Federation (“Sberbank”) ostensibly the central bank of the Russian government in a series of forward exchange contract disputes (Parex v. Sberbank, United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, 99 CIV. 8760 (RWS)). Parex sought reimbursement on a non-deliverable forward exchange contract which was breached following the government’s devaluation of the Russian ruble in 1998. Following the lifting of the state imposed moratorium, Sberbank continued to refuse to honor the multimillion dollar contract. Asserting novel jurisdictional theories, Mr. Verner successfully attached the Sberbank New York based correspondent bank accounts and defended against forum non conveniens transfer to Russia. The case was thereafter successfully concluded under a sealed settlement agreement.
Mr. Verner has also tried numerous liability cases and first-party actions against insurers involving both marine and non-marine risks, including suits for bad faith and other punitive damages in New York, New Jersey and other State and Federal venues.
Mr. Verner has represented a Gibraltar concern against Lloyd of London in a $15 Million litigation involving massive thefts of frozen cargoes from Eastern European warehouses. Various issues of international trade law, insurance coverage and admiralty law were at issue.
Additionally, in the entertainment law arena, Mr. Verner has represented movie producers, authors and musicians incopyright and intellectual property litigations. Several cases involve defense of breach of fiduciary duty claims, partnership disputes and actions for tortious interference with contract and intellectual property licenses. Most recently, Mr. Verner has represented several hip hop and raps artists in royalty disputes against major billion-dollar entertainment companies including Sony.
Finally, in his career as a plaintiff’s trial counsel, Mr. Verner has won multi-million-dollar verdicts in commercial tort cases asserting tortious interference and trade libel causes.
EDUCATION: 1986 Juris Doctorate, Brooklyn Law School, 1983 B.S. University of California, San Diego, cum laude
BAR ADMISSIONS: All Federal Courts in the States of New York and New Jersey; Middle District, District of Pennsylvania and District of Columbia; the New York and New Jersey State Courts; numerous Federal District Courts in Oklahoma, Texas, Florida and California; and the Court of Appeals for the Second, Third, Fifth, Eleventh, and D.C. Circuits; numerous state court admissions pro hac vice including: Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Texas, and Washington.
Member: New York State Bar Association; American Bar Association.
Faculty: New York State Bar Association - Practical Skills - The Trial: 2000 through
2007
Certifications: Register of Preeminent Lawyers - 2000 through 2007
New York Lawyers’ Top 100 Verdicts - 2016/2017
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