Clifton S. Elgarten, resident in the DC office and frequent visitor to the New York office, received his BA, magna cum laude, in 1975 from the City College of New York and his JD, summa cum laude, from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University, in 1979. After graduating from law school, he was law clerk to the Honorable Louis H. Pollak, United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and later to the Honorable William J. Brennan, Associate Justice, United States Supreme Court. He is a member of the bars of the State of New York and the District of Columbia.

Cliff's primary concentration is commercial disputes. He has an active trial practice, before arbitrators, judges and juries. He has tried cases involving, among other things, breach of contract and fraud, terminations, competitive bidding, teaming agreements, and insurance.

In the realm of insurance coverage, he has litigated issues concerning late notice, allocation, the duty to defend, and bad faith in both products liability and environmental contamination contexts. He is a member of the AIDA Reinsurance and Insurance Arbitration Society (ARIAS-US). Chambers USA has listed Cliff as a Leader of the D.C. bar, recommended in insurance.

In recent years, he has divided his time between appeals, arbitrations and trial court work, including the representation of bankruptcy estates seeking recovery for financial frauds leading to bankruptcy. In 2008, he concluded a representation of the Enron Creditors Recovery Corp., obtaining recoveries in excess of $1.6 billion from financial institutions that were alleged to have contributed to Enron's collapse.

Education
City College of New York, B.A., 1975 - magna cum laude
Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, J.D., 1979 - summa cum laude

Affiliations

Admitted to practice: District of Columbia, New York, U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, and U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas

Publications
"The Future Claims Representative in Prepackaged Asbestos Bankruptcies: Conflicts of Interest, Strange Alliances, and Unfamiliar Duties for Burdened Bankruptcy Courts," New York University Annual Survey of American Law, Vol. 62, No. 2 (August 7, 2006). Co-Authors: Mark D. Plevin, Clifton S. Elgarten and Leslie A. Davis.