Kenneth Lapatine has 40 years of wide-ranging trial experience, having prosecuted and defended hundreds of sophisticated and complex commercial litigations to advantageous and successful conclusions in diverse fields in state and federal trial and appellate courts throughout the United States. Kenneth has defended some of the leading financial institutions and their officers and directors in class actions and derivative suits arising out of, among others, the securities laws, RICO and federal and state anti-fraud provisions. Kenneth's clients include major financial service companies, reinsurance and insurance carriers, insurance pool managers, as well as companies in the real estate and hospitality industry. Kenneth serves as an arbitrator for both the American Arbitration Association and The American Stock Exchange, Inc. He has also participated in international insurance arbitrations.
Areas of Concentration
ˇ Securities litigation
ˇ Class actions
ˇ Antitrust
ˇ Broker/dealer litigation
ˇ Federal and state civil litigation
ˇ Appellate practice
ˇ Insurance coverage litigation
ˇ Unfair competition
ˇ Real estate
ˇ Environmental
Significant Representations
ˇ Representation of one of China's largest pharmaceutical companies, a state owned enterprise, in a series of multidistrict class actions in the United States alleging price fixing of Vitamin C.
ˇ Currently representing a leading title insurer in a series of 75 antitrust class actions commenced in jurisdictions throughout the United States involving pricing of title insurance.
ˇ Currently representing a leading waste management company against claims of monopolization.
ˇ Representation of a non-public hospitality REIT in resolution of consolidated Securities class action involving claims of approximately $1 billion arising out of alleged accounting misstatements contained in three separate offerings of its shares.
ˇ Obtained dismissal of class action complaint asserted against a large institutional trustee and its parent corporation arising out of its creation of a family of proprietary mutual funds in which trust proceeds were invested.
ˇ Appointed and acted as Claimant's Representative for an insurance and financial services company to monitor the implementation and administration of 650,000 claims through an Alternative Dispute Resolution Process, as well as participated in the training of more than 500 arbitrators who presided over more than 50,000 appeals taken from the resolution of such claims in ADR.
ˇ Successfully defended more than 50 separate security fraud actions for a company seeking damages of several hundred million dollars, which was ultimately consolidated before the United States District court for the Southern District of New York.
ˇ Successfully tried and obtained a reversal of the determination of the Board of Patent Appeals & Interferences with respect to the patent ability of locking mechanisms used on a line of products, which decision was affirmed by the United States Federal Circuit Court of Appeals.
ˇ Obtained a $45 million recovery for a compensation Reinsurance Pool from a pool participant who had refused to pay its allocable share of losses.
ˇ Obtained a property damages settlement valued at approximately $50 million on behalf of building and owners from a major utility as a result of a steam pipe explosion which contaminated buildings with asbestos throughout Gramercy Park.
ˇ Represented a company and defeated claims by a ship owner seeking to recover for the loss of several ships after establishing at trial that the insurance policies had been procured by fraud.
Professional & Community Involvement
ˇ Panel of Arbitrators, American Arbitration Association; American Stock Exchange
ˇ Member, Federal Bar Council
ˇ Member, American Bar Foundation (New York Fellow)
Awards & Recognition
ˇ Selected by Super Lawyers magazine, 2006-2009
Noteworthy Experience
ˇ Kenneth founded and manages ADR Strategies, a division of Greenberg Traurig Consulting, Inc., which has extensive experience in the design, implementation and administration of ADR programs. ADR Strategies experience allows it to provide a comprehensive approach to an ADR program, encompassing strategies for claim review techniques, systems design, training, customer communications and program administration. Kenneth's experience includes responsibility for having handled the largest ADR program ever conducted in the United States, which successfully resolved more than 650,000 claims in approximately 3 1/2 years. ADR Strategies has earned the highest compliment - the trust and confidence of the company, numerous regulators, the Federal Court and the claimants.
Clerkship
ˇ Law clerk, the Justices of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Third Department, 1968 to 1969
Articles, Publications, & Lectures
Lectures
ˇ Presentation Sponsor, Lexis/Nexis China: 2nd Annual Conference on Dispute Avoidance and Resolution, Shanghai, August 30-31, 2007
ˇ Panelist, Seminar on How to Resolve International Commercial Disputes, Beijing, March 22, 2007
ˇ Lecturer, Asia Pacific Dispute Resolution Summit, Singapore, June 29, 2006
ˇ Lecturer, ALI-ABA, Fiduciary Class Actions: Will You Be Ready for Federal Court, San Francisco, CA, July 21-22, 2005
ˇ Lecturer, ALI-ABA, Fiduciary Class Actions: Claims and Defenses, New Orleans, Louisiana, February 10-11, 2005
ˇ Lecturer, American Bar Association, The Role of ADR in the Resolution of Mass Claims, San Antonio, Texas, March 20-22, 2003
ˇ Lecturer, CPR Institute, Current Issues in Applying ADR to Mass Claims, New York, January 31, 2002
ˇ Lecturer, PLI, Securities and Common Law Fraud: The Partnership Under Siege, New York, November 1991