London Fischer LLP is deeply involved in representing the construction community. Our clients include real estate property owners and developers, contractors and subcontractors, architects and engineers and their insurers. We have strong working relationships with the building trade unions in New York State and throughout the country, and we maintain good relations with the various governmental agencies that oversee the construction industry.

Our practice includes construction and real estate accident cases. We are experienced in the nuance of the applicable statutory and case law including third party claims over and the Labor Law, as well as the Insurance Law and the New York City Administrative Code. We have established law in New York on reducing the responsibility of premises owners.

The New York State Labor Law exposes property owners and contractors to significant exposure, but our familiarity with that law permits us to regularly obtain dismissals of Labor Law cases against contractors. We have established cutting edge law favorable to the construction community in dismissing Labor Law cases on the Routine Maintenance doctrine and on general supervision theories. Sometimes construction accident cases must go to a jury verdict, and in those instances, we regularly win before juries.

A large part of our practice involves the representation of property owners and contractors in catastrophe and serious fire cases throughout New York State and the Country. We are currently handling many of the disaster cases which you may have read about including the Roosevelt Island tramway accident, the NBC building fire, the Canal Street building slippage into the IRT subway, the switch gear fire which shut down a major Manhattan skyscraper for six days, and the Macy’s day parade “Cat-in-the-Hat” case. These cases are to name a few of the major catastrophe and fire cases we regularly handle. A recent disaster case where we were able to extract our client by summary judgment was upheld by the Appellate Division.

Our construction practice includes construction claims. We handle delay and extra cases for contractors and owners, such as subrogation actions for insurers and sureties. Our successful appeal for General Electric is the leading New York Appellate decision validating and refining the no damage for delay clause.

We negotiate and draft real estate contracts and construction contracts. We are fully familiar with the New York State Lien Law and typically use many of the sections of the Lien Law unknown to others to our client’s advantage. Attached is a decision we won utilizing the verified statement/constructive trust provisions of the Lien Law to force a settlement on behalf of our client.

Many construction cases require the use of forensic experts. Our long standing commitment to the construction industry has educated us to the best experts for each of the specialties which may arise in a construction claim. We not only have the ability to retain the finest experts but the skill and judgment to know when they are needed.

Defense Practice

London Fischer LLP maintains an active insurance defense practice. We specialize in the defense of professional liability, products liability, toxic and environmental liability, employment practices liability, general liability and insurance and reinsurance coverage cases.

Our professional liability practice includes defense of directors and officers of corporations and public and municipal entities. We defended the directors and officers of the United States Swimming Association in the Jessica Foschi case, which you may have noted was widely reported in the news media and concerned a young swimmer from Long Island sanctioned by U.S. Swimming for allegedly using steroids. On the municipal liability side, Jim Fischer wrote the winning brief in the case of Spallone v. U.S., which resulted in a United States Supreme Court decision exonerating former Mayor Hank Spallone of Yonkers in a public housing dispute. Attached is an article reporting on a case we handled for the Mayor of Port Chester arising out of a topless bar which had refused to comply with local zoning ordinances.

We have represented, on behalf of insurers indirectly for the specific disciplines, many of the finest architects, attorneys and accountants. The insurers for whom we act as E&O panel counsel include DPIC, Cigna, Reliance and CNA.

We handle products liability cases for a number of manufacturers and insurers. Among the manufacturers we represent are Colgate-Palmolive, General Electric, and Union Carbide Corporation. These products liability cases range from appliances to electric motors to industrial machinery to pharmaceuticals. We were actively involved in defense of the breast implant litigation on behalf of X.L. Insurance Company.

Our environmental and toxic practice has involved many asbestos and silicone cases. A successful and unusual asbestos case we won on behalf of NBC, Rockefeller Center and McCann Construction is enclosed as Exhibit "9". Our deep involvement in the toxic and environmental cases has been recognized in several Business Insurance articles. Read the May 30 article. Read the January 22 article.

Our general liability practice is very heavily oriented in the construction and real estate field. It also includes representation of many manufacturers of industrial and consumer products.

Litigation Practice

The theme which underlies all our litigation philosophy is speed. The more quickly a case is pushed, the lower the litigation expense and the better the results. Our goal is to maintain a realistic balance between legal expense and case result. Of prime concern is the avoidance of litigation expense without a pragmatic case justification. We have found that the tight control of an attorney’s litigation tactic is a great factor in moderating legal expense. It is also a great factor in achieving consistently superior litigation outcomes.

Immediately upon receipt of an assignment, the file is reviewed by the appropriate partner. The real issues in the case are identified and a resolution strategy is developed. A first report analyzing the foregoing issues is sent to the client within thirty (30) days.

On cases identified as having a probability of being tried to a conclusion, we encourage the use of alternative dispute resolution methods. It has been the firm’s experience that mediation is more effective than arbitration. We have found non-binding mediation to be an effective cost alternative to courtroom trials. There are several mediation firms which have impressed us over the years and it has been our experience that the success of a mediation is often times the result of a skilled mediator which we are in a position to recommend. Attached is an article concerning alternative dispute resolution methods on which our firm was quoted.

We appreciate your taking the time to review our credentials and we do look forward to speaking with you about the possibility of our firm representing your interests in the future.