Clifton S. Elgarten, resident in the D.C. 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 practice is diverse and includes appeals, arbitrations, and trial court work. Over the course of his career, appellate advocacy has been a primary practice area, covering the gamut of cases and appellate issues in the U.S. Supreme Court, many federal circuits, and in various state appellate courts, particularly in New York. He frequently advises as well on issues of constitutional law and appellate practice. He is listed as a Washington Super Lawyer for Appellate Litigation.
His trial work involves practice before arbitrators, judges and juries, on topics ranging from breach of contract and fraud, terminations, non-competition agreements, competitive bidding, teaming agreements, insurance and, in the international arena, expropriations and treaty violations. He has represented bankruptcy estates and, in 2008 concluded a representation of the Enron Creditors Recovery Corp., obtaining recoveries in excess of $1.6 billion from banks that were alleged to have contributed to Enron's collapse. In addition to domestic commercial arbitration cases, he has brought to final hearing cases involving Israel, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Egypt, including several investor-state cases.
In the realm of insurance coverage, he has litigated issues concerning late notice, allocation, the duty to defend, and bad faith, arising in cases involving products liability and environmental contamination. He has successfully handled appeals on a range of insurance and reinsurance topics in both state and federal courts, arising from products liability, environmental contamination, and construction accidents.
Finally, Cliff has long been deeply involved in the pursuit of claims on behalf of victims of international terrorism, both in federal court proceedings and before the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission.
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
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