Clifford B. Hendler is a partner in the firm's Insurance/Reinsurance Group and concentrates on civil litigation and dispute resolution.
As national counsel for several insurance companies, Cliff and other insurance team members have litigated high stakes coverage cases in over 35 states on issues ranging from environmental claims to asbestos, implants, hearing loss, "repetitive stress," pharmaceuticals, sexual abuse, and products incorporated into building. In addition to litigating such cases, Cliff has also orchestrated the successful negotiation of amicable global resolutions of high profile disputes involving literally dozens of insurance companies and underlying case policyholder liabilities into the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Cliff's work in the dispute resolution area extends beyond the insurance field. Cliff has been named to mediate cases for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, to mediate cases for the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, and to arbitrate cases for the District of Columbia Bar's Attorney's Fee Arbitration Board. For example, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia appointed Cliff to try to mediate to resolution a 20 year long dispute over whether thousands of hours of taped conversations recorded by former President Richard Nixon would be released to the public. Cliff built effective working relationships with the counsel involved and achieved a mutually acceptable settlement among representatives of the Nixon family, Public Citizen, the National Archives, and a University of Wisconsin Professor of History.
Cliff's pro bono experience includes the Clark v. Library of Congress case which he tried for the A.C.L.U. on the issue of First Amendment limitations on federal investigations of lawful political activities by government employees and won in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.
From 1978 to 1979, Cliff served as a law clerk to the Honorable Ben Duniway on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco. He has been named one of the top lawyers in the insurance field by Chambers USA. Cliff has also been recognized by multiple editions of The Best Lawyers in America, the International Who's Who of Business Lawyers, and Super Lawyers in the area of insurance law.
Affiliations
Admitted to practice: District of Columbia, California
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