Hoguet Newman Regal & Kenney continues to distinguish itself as a formidable force in its native New York as well as nationally. “They have some ‘Big Law’ credentials while having that kind of personal touch you can only get from boutiques,” declares a peer. Indeed, the firm’s founding partners do come equipped with experience from global juggernaut firm White & Case and have since forged ahead on building out this boutique with a high-touch approach. While the firm has some particularly strong niche areas – insurance and labor and employment, most notably – founding partners
Dorothea Regal and Fredric Newman have instilled a culture that welcomes work that one partner quips is “pike law – anything that comes down the pike.” Whereas Regal represents international and domestic clients at trial and on appeal in complex commercial and insurance coverage litigation, Newman dedicates his practice to commercial trial representation.
While Regal and Newman remain active in these matters, the torch is being passed to younger generations of talent at the firm. Most notably,
Joshua Blosveren has proven an especially visible and active member of the group. “Josh is a very good litigator who offers very good insurance analysis.” Blosveren leads a team that represents Syngenta Crop Protection in an insurance coverage litigation filed by its primary and umbrella insurance companies in Delaware Superior Court seeking a declaratory judgment of no coverage for long-tail personal injury exposure claims made against Syngenta arising out of the manufacture and sale of Paraquat pesticide products by Syngenta and its predecessor companies. The basis for the insurers’ denial of coverage is that Syngenta’s notice of the claim was allegedly late and should have been noticed before the claim was filed against Syngenta. In August 2020, the Hoguet team secured Syngenta summary judgment on the threshold issue of the timing of the claim, which secured Syngenta $24 million in coverage. At the same time, the firm team defeated the insurance company’s pre-discovery motion for summary judgment, alleging that Syngenta made a misrepresentation in its application for insurance. A bench trial was held in October 2022 and in March 2023 – the court issued a post-trial decision that handed Syngenta a complete victory. Zurich appealed the court’s two summary judgment decisions in the Delaware Supreme Court which, in February 2024, affirmed the two summary judgment rulings. The firm team behind this matter also included
John Curley and Miriam Manber. This same team, along with
Bradley Nash, also acted on a case, led by Regal, for this same client in an insurance coverage litigation filed by Syngenta in Delaware Superior Court against various insurance companies that issued primary and excess insurance policies to Syngenta’s corporate predecessors in the years 1971-1986—providing over $800 million in coverage—for losses arising from long-tail personal injury exposure claims made against Syngenta arising out of the manufacture and sale of Paraquat pesticide products by Syngenta and its predecessor companies. The firm’s labor and employment capacity is largely run by
Damian Cavaleri, who has an active docket of matters for a novel and varied roster of clients. Cavaleri led a case for Cosmax USA and Nu-World against plaintiffs, who are a contract manufacturer specializing in beauty products, who brought an action upon the client’s breach of a contract in an attempt to recover approximately $2 million owed pursuant to the contracts. The client asserted counterclaims related to several alleged agreements that it claims were breached and resulted in lost profits as well as other damages, including fines from major retailers. Manber also works with fellow future star
Helene Hechtkopf on a labor and employment matter for the New York MTA, a longtime mainstay client for the firm.
