Focusing on insurance coverage matters and commercial litigation, Meredith Elkins represents clients at every stage of disputes, including trials and appeals. With a practice that is national in scope, she is highly experienced in advocating in state, federal, and appellate courts in Texas, New York, and Delaware, as well as serving clients in other jurisdictions.
In her practice, Meredith advises a diverse range of organizations in industries including financial services, pharmaceuticals, alternative energy, technology, manufacturing, hospitality, and food production. An experienced and sophisticated trial lawyer, Meredith’s excellent oral advocacy talents, writing skills, and ability to distill complicated legal issues into clear, comprehensible language give her a major advantage in persuading judges and juries and gaining the best possible outcomes for her clients.
Throughout the course of her career, Meredith has secured several groundbreaking victories, including a substantial verdict in a jury trial against several insurers that denied coverage for financial services organization TIAA-CREF following class actions stemming from its software implementation effort. That verdict was affirmed by the Delaware Supreme Court on appeal.
In a high-profile case touching on a national crisis, Meredith is playing a key role on the Cohen Ziffer team championing Walmart’s claim for billions of dollars in coverage for opioid-related liability. Meredith and her team recently defeated efforts by dozens of Walmart’s insurers to dismiss the action and earned a ruling establishing Walmart’s right to coverage for defense costs in thousands of opioid-related lawsuits. The court’s January 2024 decision addressed multiple issues of first impression under Arkansas law.
Meredith was also part of an all-women team that secured a precedential ruling allowing a pandemic-related insurance coverage case brought by policyholder JDS Construction Group, LLC to move forward, and secured three federal court decisions affirming Chubb’s duty to defend its policyholder CONMED Corp. in a series of toxic tort litigations.
Within Cohen Ziffer, Meredith serves as the firm’s hiring partner. Following the firm’s launch in January 2021, the firm has tripled in size, and Meredith has overseen the recruiting and hiring process of all of the firm’s new attorneys. Notably, nearly half of the firm’s attorneys are female, and more than 30% are otherwise diverse.
Meredith has been recognized as a Plaintiffs’ Lawyers Trailblazer by The National Law Journal, an Insurance Rising Star by Law360, and a Woman Worth Watching by Profiles in Diversity Journal. She also serves as a member of Law360’s Insurance Authority Specialty Lines Editorial Advisory Board.
Practice Areas:
- Complex Commercial Litigation
- Insurance
Education:
- The University of Texas School of Law (JD)
- University of Southern California (BA)
Updated Sep 2024
