Philadelphia, March 25, 2022 — Cozen O'Connor promoted 28 attorneys to member: Peter Berg, Jonathan Ciriello, Joshua Goldenberg, Christopher Hanlon, Corey Hickman, Ingrid Hopkinson, Thomas Ingalls, Tiffany Jenca, Sandra Kelly, Danielle Le Jeune, Daniel Levin, Dana Meyers, Farrell Miller, Karl Neumann, Michael O’Donnell, Adam Reid, Rafael Rivera, Colleen Rush, Alexandra Schultz, Alexa Sebia, Harper Seldin, Adam Shapiro, Julia Simonet, Bobbi Britton Tucker, Rachel Welford, Benjamin Wilkoff, Eli Wolfe, and Kelly Zerillo.
“It is really exciting for Cozen O'Connor to see so many talented attorneys continue to rise through the ranks of the firm,” said Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Michael J. Heller. “This is a group of terrific lawyers and people and they will do a wonderful job representing Cozen O’Connor.”
Peter Berg (Seattle) focuses his litigation and counseling practice on complex insurance coverage matters. His experience spans all areas of insurance, including commercial general liability, directors and officers, public entity liability, and commercial and personal lines property and auto policies. Peter advises his clients on how to avoid and limit extra-contractual exposure, and frequently defends carriers in bad faith litigation.
Jonathan Ciriello (Philadelphia) is an experienced commercial litigator focusing his practice primarily on construction law. He counsels and represents project owners and developers, contractors, and design professionals in all stages of construction projects, including contract formation/negotiations, project management, pre-suit investigation and development of potential claims, and litigation of claims in state and federal trial and appellate courts across the country. Jon’s practice includes public and private projects, agency appeals, and alternative dispute resolution in the form of arbitrations and mediations relating to traditional vertical construction, as well as some of the largest linear infrastructure and energy projects in the United States. In addition to traditional breach of contract actions and extracontractual claims, Jon regularly handles claims and issues relating to performance and payment bonds, insurance, and mechanics’ liens.
Joshua Goldenberg’s (Philadelphia) practice focuses primarily on mergers and acquisitions, emerging company and venture capital, and other complex commercial transactional work. Prior to joining the firm, Josh served as associate counsel for the Minnesota Vikings, where he was responsible for advising on a range of commercial matters, such as naming rights agreements, sponsorship agreements, licensing, media rights transactions, and investment opportunities targeting companies at the intersection of sports, media, and technology.
Christopher Hanlon (Dallas) focuses his practice on commercial litigation, representing companies, individuals, insurance companies, and corporate clients for a variety of transportation, contract, premises liability, personal injury, dram shop, construction defect, wrongful death, and property damage claims. Chris handles all phases of litigation in both state and federal court, from initial investigations to resolution.
Corey Hickman (Chicago) concentrates his practice in the area of general business and commercial litigation. Corey has substantial experience in a wide variety of professional liability matters, including the defense of retail and wholesale insurance agents and brokers in professional malpractice actions. Cozen O’Connor’s widespread geographic presence has allowed him to assist on professional liability cases in a number of state and federal jurisdictions, and develop a strong local knowledge of professional liability law and practice throughout the country.
Ingrid Hopkinson (Philadelphia) represents life insurance and annuity companies in various jurisdictions throughout the United States in connection with disputes arising out of the transfer of structured settlement payment rights. Ingrid’s experience includes assisting owners and issuers of structured settlement annuities in resolving attempted assignments of structured settlement payment rights, third-party garnishments, special needs trust issues, beneficiary issues, Medicaid and Medicare-related issues, tax issues, estate issues, guardianship issues, workers’ compensation matters, child support issues, fraud, interpleader matters, and general business and strategic advice.
Thomas Ingalls (Washington, D.C.) focuses his practice on complex litigation matters and investigations, including white collar criminal defense, cartel defense, civil antitrust litigation, premerger review, and internal investigations. He represents companies and individuals in both criminal and civil matters. Thomas also maintains an active pro bono practice and has appeared in federal, state, and administrative courts representing various pro bono clients.
Tiffany Jenca (Pittsburgh) helps employers of all sizes and in all industries manage their workforces. Tiffany helps employers develop risk-mitigation strategies to avoid disputes. When disputes become inevitable, she defends employers against claims in court and administrative proceedings. Tiffany works with clients to manage the entirety of the employment relationships, from drafting key onboarding documents and employment agreements, to providing mandatory training, to answering questions about issues under Title VII, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act, and the National Labor Relations Act, and other federal or state laws. For employers with unionized workers, Tiffany represents companies at the bargaining table, assists in administering collective bargaining agreements, and defends companies in arbitration and unfair labor practice proceedings.
Sandra Kelly’s (Philadelphia) practice focuses on a variety of commercial real estate transactions, including the acquisition, disposition, development, and financing of multi-family properties, industrial sites, office buildings, and other commercial properties. Sandy is also the co-founder of the Philadelphia Bar Association’s Large Firm Associate Committee, which was designed to unite large Philadelphia law firms and provide its members with a forum to collaborate and grow together in the legal profession.
Danielle Le Jeune (Atlanta) focuses her practice on civil litigation. She has experience defending clients nationwide in commercial litigation and insurance defense cases, including premises liability, trucking, dram shop, contracts, environmental, and property issues. She has represented commercial entities, insurance companies, franchisees, and business operators against various personal injury, wrongful death, property damage, and breach of contract claims. She has obtained indemnification or dismissal of franchisors or parent entities improperly named in civil actions. Danielle also handles insurance coverage matters for liability and property insurers. Further, she advises and represents clients on issues regarding licensing, compliance with local regulations and ordinances, and preservation and investigation following incidents that could potentially result in litigation.
Daniel Levin’s (New York City) practice focuses on all aspects of commercial real estate, with a particular emphasis on real estate finance and acquisitions, as well as dispositions of properties. He has represented nationally recognized banks, real estate investment trusts (REITs), real estate funds, and real estate developers. Dan has advised lenders and borrowers nationwide on all aspects of real estate finance, including construction loans, balance sheet loans, syndicated loan transactions, leasehold finance, mezzanine loans, and loan modifications in connection with distressed real estate.
Dana Meyers (San Diego) focuses her practice on subrogation. She has conducted more than 20 civil bench trials to verdict as sole chair in subrogation and consumer collection actions. She has litigated hundreds of state and federal cases throughout California from inception to settlement or trial, covering a broad range of legal issues including subrogation, construction defect, product liability, and consumer collections.
Farrell Miller (New York City) focuses his practice on insurance. He has experience litigating insurance coverage disputes involving general liability and excess liability policies. He has drafted insurance coverage opinions, coverage position letters, declaratory judgment pleadings, motions, and appeals. He also has experience in general civil litigation practice representing businesses and personal injury plaintiffs.
Karl Neumann’s (Seattle) practice focuses on representing and counseling clients in a wide range of litigation matters, including contract disputes, business torts, product liability, real property, construction, medical malpractice, medical device, liquor liability/dram shop, employment/independent contractor litigation, unfair business practices, consumer protection, wrongful death, personal injury, and premises liability. He regularly provides corporate guidance on issues regarding risk management, broker and independent contractor agreements, indemnification, fee disputes, and contract drafting, review, and negotiation. Karl handles all phases of litigation in both state and federal court, from initial investigations to trial, and also advocates for clients at the appellate level.
Michael O’Donnell (Philadelphia) concentrates his practice on subrogation and recovery for insurance carriers and commercial clients. He handles complex state and federal matters throughout the eastern United States. His practice focuses on a wide variety of property damage claims, including fires, floods, product defects, and construction issues, handling all aspects of litigation.
Adam Reid (Washington, D.C.) is a private client, trusts and estates attorney barred in Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and the District of Columbia. He advises wealthy families, business owners, and individuals on complex estate and tax planning strategies. Adam’s practice also encompasses all aspects of estate and trust administration, including counseling trustees, executors, and other fiduciaries on their roles and responsibilities.
Rafael Rivera (New York City) focuses his practice on matters involving directors and officers liability insurance coverage. He has experience handling all aspects of D&O claims management and coverage analysis in connection with securities class actions, including derivative actions, Delaware appraisal petitions, opioid-related claims, qui tam lawsuits involving the False Claims Act, antitrust and unfair competition claims, investigations and litigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Department of Justice (DOJ), and other complex litigation. In addition, he has represented D&O insurers in a number of high-exposure cases involving a wide variety of coverage terms and provisions.
Colleen Rush’s (Philadelphia) practice encompasses representing clients on a broad range of transactional matters, with an emphasis on mergers and acquisitions. Throughout her career, she has advised buyers, sellers, private equity firms, and major stockholders in the acquisition and sale of private and public companies, as well as in general corporate matters. Colleen also has significant experience guiding clients on corporate finance, entity formation, commercial contracts, and corporate governance issues.
Alexandra Schultz (West Palm Beach) regularly advises insurers on claims handling, policy interpretation, and avoiding extracontractual exposure. Alexandra focuses her practice on general liability, professional liability, auto liability, and other third-party coverage issues, as well as monitoring potential excess exposure claims and evaluating risk transfer issues. Her work also includes representation of insurers in first-party litigation in both state and federal courts.
Alexa Sebia (Philadelphia) focuses her practice on commercial litigation. She has broad experience, including handling contract disputes and real estate matters, premises liability, trucking and automobile cases, construction accidents, and negligent security cases. Alexa’s experience includes representing her clients at trial, frequently taking and defending depositions, and handling discovery motions, dispositive motions, and pre-trial motions.
Harper Seldin (Philadelphia) focuses his practice on business litigation, commercial disputes, and complex litigation. He has significant experience representing large public and privately held corporations in contract disputes in federal and state court. His substantial pro bono work includes civil rights litigation in federal court on behalf of transgender public school students. Harper is a former Buchholz Fellow for the Committee of Seventy, an independent and nonpartisan advocate for better government in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania. He serves on the boards of the Youth Sentencing & Reentry Project, a racial justice organization that works to keep children out of adult jails and prisons and to bring home people who were sentenced as children to life without parole, and of the Equality Forum, which coordinates LGBT History Month and other high-impact initiatives. His published legal scholarship focuses on child welfare.
Adam Shapiro (Philadelphia) has extensive experience conducting external investigations relating to sexual and gender-based harassment, violence, and child abuse at academic and other child-serving institutions. In addition to conducting investigations into historical allegations of abuse, Adam conducts reviews relating to sexual misconduct and protected class discrimination and harassment pursuant to Title IX and other state and federal laws and institutional policies. He also assists educational institutions in meeting their federal compliance obligations and responding to regulatory enforcement matters brought by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights and Clery Compliance Division. Adam maintains an active investigative practice in other areas, navigating clients through government investigations relating to financial misconduct.
Julia Simonet’s (Houston) practice involves all aspects of complex litigation, including advising and counseling clients in contractual disputes, real property, construction matters, wrongful death, personal injury, and premises liability. Julia represents a diverse set of clients including commercial entities, trucking companies, hotels, restaurants, landowners, and telecommunications companies. Julia also has experience in regulation and litigation for utility and energy-related clients, and has represented clients in state and federal court, as well as in administrative proceedings before the Public Utility Commission.
Bobbi Britton Tucker (Pittsburgh) devotes her practice to representing employers in a wide variety of employment and labor-related matters, and defending employers’ interests before state and federal courts, administrative agencies, and labor arbitrators. Having worked for 10 years as a professional in the field of human resources, Bobbi is able to uniquely understand clients’ needs and issues, and provide both a practical and legal approach to employee and labor relations. Bobbi also regularly counsels employers and trains managers on a variety of personnel-related issues, including anti-discrimination, hiring, evaluating and disciplining/discharging employees, performance coaching and counseling, conducting effective complaint investigations, diversity and inclusion, implicit bias, drafting employee handbooks and employment agreements, non-compete and non-solicitation agreements, and wage and hour compliance.
Rachel Welford (Washington, D.C.) concentrates her practice on aviation regulatory matters, with a particular focus on advising clients on aviation security law and policy involving United States government agencies, including the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). She represents airlines, aviation security vendors, and other regulated entities before TSA and CBP on administrative investigations and civil enforcement actions. As part of her broader aviation practice, Rachel counsels airlines and major aviation companies on the increasingly complex safety and economic regulatory measures promulgated by domestic and international regulatory bodies, including strategies for compliance with laws implemented by the Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Benjamin Wilkoff (Philadelphia) focuses his practice on business litigation and complex commercial litigation in both federal and state court on behalf of multinational companies in various industries. He has significant experience litigating matters from initiation through trial in a wide range of matters including contractual disputes, premises liability, product liability, catastrophic casualty claims, construction defects, dram shop matters, insurance defense, personal injury, employment matters, breach of contract matters, TCPA (Telephone Consumer Protections Act) cases, and international litigation. He previously investigated fraud cases on behalf of life insurers, and sought to have STOLI policies declared void ab initio. Ben also works on long-term care and nursing home cases.
Eli Wolfe’s (Philadelphia) practice focuses primarily on mergers and acquisitions and emerging business/venture capital transactions from formation through exit. He advises public and private companies in a wide variety of industries on corporate matters including formation, securities law compliance, and general corporate governance. He also negotiates drafting and negotiating complex commercial contracts (including in the areas of licensing, contract manufacturing agreements, distribution agreements, customer/vendor agreements, loan agreements, stockholder agreements, employment agreements, and consulting agreements).
Kelly Zerillo (New York City) assists domestic and international high net worth individuals and families in the preservation and transfer of wealth by creating estate plans that provide for and protect her clients’ loved ones and secures their wealth for future generations. Kelly advises clients on all aspects of wealth transfer, including drafting sophisticated estate planning documents, estate administration, charitable giving, gift tax planning, asset protection and business succession planning. Kelly also represents fiduciaries in their administration of complex estates and trusts, including amending and decanting existing irrevocable trusts, advising fiduciaries on the distribution of assets and settling accounts of individual and corporate trustees.