Peter J. Biging

Peter J. Biging is an accomplished trial and appellate attorney with more than 30 years of experience as a litigator in the state and federal courts of New York. As co-chair of the firm’s nationwide Management and Professional Liability practice group, Peter counsels and defends directors and officers against claims alleging fraud, negligence, and breach of fiduciary duties, and a variety of professionals against claims based on alleged errors and omissions (E&O) in the performance of their professional services. He also regularly litigates labor and employment practices liability claims, commercial disputes, and municipal liability claims premised on alleged civil rights and constitutional violations.

Peter’s D&O work involves the defense of both for-profit and not-for-profit companies and their executives, and E&O work includes defending insurance agents and brokers, securities brokers, lawyers, and a wide range of other miscellaneous professionals. Peter is regularly called upon to handle complex, high-stakes commercial litigation and claims involving allegations of gross negligence, fraud and malfeasance, harassment and discrimination, as well as litigation of non-solicitation/non-compete disputes.

A recognized thought leader in the area of D&O and D&O risks and litigation, Peter is the immediate past chair of the American Bar Association Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Section (TIPS) Professional Liability Insurance Committee (PLIC). He continues to be active in the ABA, including serving as chair of the Media, Privacy and Advertising Law Committee, and in other roles within the Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section. He is also a former chair of the Professional Liability Defense Federation (PLDF) Insurance Agent/Broker Claims and D&O/Trustee E&O Claims Defense Committees. He has also been a member of the PLDF Board of Directors since 2018 and currently serves as secretary. For his work in these areas, Peter has been repeatedly honored on the New York Metro Super Lawyers directory in regards to professional liability defense, is rated AV Preeminent in Martindale Hubbell, and was recently selected as one of America’s Top 100 Bet-the-Company Litigators.

Representative Matters

• Directors and Officers (D&O) and Errors and Omissions (E&O) Liability
• Dismissal following trial of claims against an insurance broker for allegedly failing to procure insurance for a residential building despite receiving specific instructions to do so and an application, leaving owner uninsured for severe personal injury claims
• Dismissal of fraud, Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) claims, and other claims asserted in a suit alleging a scheme to defraud involving complicated fraudulent financing of real estate ventures, resulting in actual damages alleged to exceed $40 million
• Dismissal of claims against insurance broker for alleged failure to advise in connection with purchase of coverage for art gallery after it sustained substantial losses as a result of agreeing to indemnify purchaser of famous artist's work if it's provenance was successfully challenged (affirmed on appeal to Appellate Division, First Department)

• Insurance and Reinsurance Coverage
• Summary judgment award voiding over $200 million in reinsurance due to the fraudulent concealment of a cedent’s insolvency (affirmed by the Appellate Division, First Department and the New York Court of Appeals)
• Decision (noted on the cover of the New York Law Journal) finding that it was the duty of an insurer to defend breach of fiduciary duty claims made against a law firm on the part of a legal malpractice insurer, despite the fact that only fraudulent conduct was specifically alleged 

• Legal Malpractice
• Dismissal (and affirmance by the NY Appellate Division, First Department) of legal malpractice claims against a law firm for allegedly making a disastrous “tactical” decision contrary to the client’s wishes
• Dismissal of legal malpractice action against New Jersey based lawyer brought in New York state court on grounds of lack of personal jurisdiction, notwithstanding evidence of work periodically performed in New York, including litigating in New York state and federal courts; once severed from larger case alleging conspiracy to defraud, never further pursued
• Minimal dollar value settlement of $15 million claim alleging malpractice in the handling of maritime arbitration, after deposition of plaintiff's renowned ethics expert establishes he was himself practicing law in New York without a license
• No contribution settlement of alleged Judiciary Law Section 487 claim in alleged multi-million fraud involving alleged misuse of the courts to pursue and conceal same, following filing of motion to dismiss 
• Successful argument of appeal to Second Circuit of case involving dismissal of claims against lawyer for alleged participation in international fraud scheme for failure to name the proper corporate party with standing, even after proper party was identified and plaintiff's counsel sought permission to amend, for failure to do so in keeping with Court's instructions regarding final amendments to Complaint, despite District Court acknowledging that the dismissal was quite likely to result in a fraud going unpunished 

• Municipalities and Public Entities
• Dismissal of the First Amendment claims of a high school art teacher disciplined for a classroom speech soliciting student participation in a planned art school involving nude models (affirmed by the Second Circuit)
• Dismissal of a First Amendment claim arising from disciplining of an elementary school student for writing a story about murder and sex involving other students (affirmed by the Second Circuit)
• Dismissal of claims against a social services agency for violation of due process in connection with the removal of children from foster parents (affirmed by the Second Circuit)
• Dismissal of a Section 1983 claim for regulatory taking and defamation in connection with a town's issuance of notices of hearings for engaging in regulated activity on wetlands without a permit
• Dismissal of wrongful death claims (affirmed by the NY Appellate Division, Second Department) against a municipality for allegedly failing to protect two young women who had been walking on railroad tracks from an oncoming train because a police officer who had allegedly directed them into harm’s way had not assumed a “special duty” to protect them 

• Commercial/Miscellaneous
• Dismissal of libel claims, both affirmed in precedent-setting decisions by the NY Appellate Division, First Department, based on a psychiatric evaluation report to an insurer as protected opinion, and based on a court-ordered report on the mental status of a criminal defendant by a social worker as protected by quasijudicial proceeding immunity
• Decision upholding the standing of a parent corporation to assert RICO claims for injuries to diminution in value of stock caused by racketeering activity directed at a subsidiary