Joe Clasen is a partner in our Stamford and New York offices and is the immediate past chair of the firm's Business Litigation Section. He is known for his ability to help clients develop litigation strategies that meet both their case-specific and business objectives.
Mr. Clasen has extensive experience in litigating a wide variety of complex business disputes in state and federal trial and appellate courts, as well as in arbitrations. Mr. Clasen's cases have involved general commercial contractual disputes as well as fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, business torts, unfair trade practices, mergers and acquisitions, eminent domain, intellectual property, and products liability. His representation of managed care clients focuses on significant commercial disputes involving provider fraud and abuse, class actions, drug coverage, insured class actions, and commercial contract disputes.
Mr. Clasen also has extensive experience in representing secured and unsecured creditors in bankruptcy cases involving fraudulent conveyance claims, preference claims, plan confirmation disputes, and relief from stay, as well as general claim disputes.
Professional Associations
- Association of the Bar of the City of New York
- Connecticut Bar Association
- Federal Bar Association
- Nassau County Bar Association
Honors and Awards
- AV® Preeminent™ Peer Review Rated in Martindale-Hubbell™ in the areas of Complex and Multi-District Litigation, Creditors, and Bankruptcy (Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review Ratings is a trademark. AV Preeminent is a certification mark of Reed Elsevier Properties, Inc.)
- Listed in Connecticut Super Lawyers® in the area of Business Litigation since 2006 (Super Lawyers is a registered trademark of Key Professional Media, Inc.)
- Listed as a Future Star in Connecticut in Benchmark Litigation for 2012
- Ranked in Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business in the state of Connecticut in the area of Litigation: General Commercial for 2009
Experience
- Currently representing client asserting malpratice against major accounting firm resulting in a multi-million dollar tax liability owed to the State of Connecticut.
- Currently defending Fortune 100 company against preference claims brought by various debtors in bankruptcy. For one such preference claim, we will able to persuade the debtor's counsel that the payments, while made within ninety days of the bankruptcy petition, were payments in the ordinary course of business. This resulted in the debtor settling the multi-million dollar claim for less than one-percent of the amount of the preference.
- Representation of HIP Health Plan of New York in private realtor qui tam action brought by several hospitals alleging that managed care insurers violated New York's health care reform law by failing to pay the state the appropriate surcharge amount on payments made to hospitals for member services. Defendants moved to dismiss the complaint in its entirety based on plaintiff's failure to adequately plead a false claims act claim and a violation of the surcharge statute. Motion to dismiss was granted.
- Arbitrated multimillion-dollar disputes between Medicare Advantage Organizations (MAOs) and their subcontractors relating to federal regulatory and reimbursement issues.
- Representation of health insurer in an arbitration against a vendor that had been retained to use proprietary software to uncover overpayments to providers. The software vendor claimed that health insurer unlawfully terminated the contract and owed a seven-figure fee to the vendor. Robinson & Cole obtained a favorable decision from the arbitration panel that included a substantial net cash award in health insurer's favor.
- Representation of health insurer in an action in New York Supreme Court in which four plaintiff Professional Employer Organizations (PEOs) and individual class members seek a temporary restraining order to prevent health insurer from terminating coverage. Health insurer terminated coverage because the plaintiff PEOs improperly marketed and resold health insurer's products without approval. PEOs claim they received coverage through health insurer as small businesses and are entitled to maintain that coverage and provide it to their clients' employees.
- Represented plaintiff in action against United States subsidiary of Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corp. for breach of agreement to finance equipment leases negotiated by plaintiff. After two weeks of trial, defendants increased their settlement offer by a factor of 14 and the matter settled.
Appellate
- Won decision in an eminent domain proceeding versus the State of New York upholding the largest condemnation award in New York history, totaling $125 million. Robinson & Cole also represented the client, a real estate investment trust in the New York City metropolitan area, in an appeal before the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, Second Department, of the State of New York, which issued a unanimous Decision and Order in affirming the judgment of the Court of Claims in June 2010. The Appellate Division ordered the state to pay original award plus interest, bringing total award to approximately $160 million. Gyrodyne Company of America v. State of New York, 89 A.d. 3d 988 (2011).
News
12.16.11, Benchmark Litigation 2012 Recognizes Six Robinson & Cole Attorneys
12.01.11, Unanimous ruling by Appellate Panel in Eminent Domain Case
7.21.10, Court of Claims Adds $100 Million for Eminent Domain Taking
(Also at Stamford, Connecticut Office)