Hoguet Newman Regal & Kenney, LLP

John Curley

John Curley focuses his practice on complex business disputes, including breach of contract litigation, shareholder disputes, trade secrets matters, insurance coverage, and cases involving allegations of civil securities fraud. His notable recent work includes M&A-related litigation, including earnout litigation and claims for breaches of representations and warranties, and business disputes in the e-commerce, real estate, agrochemical, financial services, and healthcare industries. Recently, John led a team that won summary judgment in a case where the plaintiff alleged that HNRK’s clients improperly terminated a distributorship agreement following an asset acquisition. The court dismissed the plaintiff’s claims and awarded summary judgment on counterclaims asserted by one of the defendants. John also regularly represents policyholders in coverage matters involving D&O and general liability insurance. Among other recent successes, he was part of the HNRK team that represented Syngenta in its successful effort to recover insurance coverage for a products liability class action related to one of Syngenta’s herbicides. He is also representing Syngenta in current litigation seeking coverage for hundreds of tort lawsuits alleging harm arising from exposure to a different herbicide, and he helped win a trial for Syngenta in a coverage claim against its primary insurer, Zurich American Insurance Company. Additionally, John advises companies and individuals on various insurance issues. Recent work includes representing a personnel staffing company and its captive reinsurer in litigation with an insurer related to alleged collateral requirements under a reinsurance agreement. He recently represented a construction company in litigation against its insurance broker. He also advises individuals with respect to insurance coverage questions, including on issues related to professional liability insurance. John has been recognized as a Litigation Trailblazer by The National Law Journal (2022), on Benchmark Litigation’s 40 & Under List, Future Star and Litigation Star List since 2021, and as a New York Metro Super Lawyer since 2017.

Helene Hechtkopf

Helene Hechtkopf focuses her practice on a wide range of litigation, in particular, commercial, employment, and construction. She has a long and impressive record of wins in matters at the intersection of transportation and employment law. She has defended employment cases under a variety of state and federal statutes, including Title VII, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Federal Railroad Safety Act, and the Federal Employers Liability Act. Her expertise spans race and gender discrimination, disability discrimination, and whistleblower laws. As a first-chair litigator, she has become an advocate of choice for New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority, North America’s largest transportation network, as well as other public entities facing discrimination and retaliation claims. Helene represented Metro-North in a precedent-setting case, holding that employees must have a good faith belief that they would encounter a hazardous situation to refuse to work under the federal whistleblower laws. Helene’s civil rights and discrimination defense experience also encompasses class actions: she is currently defending New York City Transit and the MTA in a long-running class action alleging that frequent elevator outages violate the ADA, and in another class action alleging that New York City Transit Authority’s Transit Adjudication Bureau violated the civil rights of individuals who are issued summonses for violation of the subway rules by collecting their tax refunds when they fail to pay their fines. Helene’s work extends well beyond transportation clients. For example, she defended the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in a federal lawsuit alleging disability discrimination. She also successfully led several confidential internal investigations for a state entity into employee allegations of sexual harassment by a coworker, gender discrimination, sexual orientation discrimination, and age discrimination. Helene has been recognized as a Rising Star (New York Law Journal), shortlisted for a Rising Star Award for Best in Litigation: General Commercial (Euromoney Legal Media Group), and named a Woman Worth Watching (Profiles in Leadership Journal). She has been named to Lawdragon’s Leading Corporate Employment Lawyers list in 2025, a New York Super Lawyer several times and has been recognized by Benchmark Litigation on the 40 & Under List since 2020, and as a Future Star.

Miriam Manber

Miriam is a litigator who handles commercial disputes on behalf of a diverse client base, ranging from individuals to public agencies and multinational corporations. With experience in state and federal courts, administrative proceedings, and arbitrations, she has won numerous favorable outcomes, including on dispositive motions, in jury and bench trials, and on appeal. Miriam was a member of the team that represented Syngenta last year in an arbitration seeking coverage for thousands of tort lawsuits alleging defects arising from exposure to an herbicide, and was on the trial team that secured a win for Syngenta over its primary insurer, Zurich American Insurance Company. In the last year, she has represented the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and its affiliate agencies in several high-profile matters, including in a multi-million dollar trial challenging the New York City Subway’s speed policy.

Bradley Nash

Bradley Nash, partner in the Insurance Recovery Litigation & Counseling Group at Hoguet Newman Regal & Kenney, advises policyholders in a range of coverage disputes involving commercial liability, errors and omissions, employment practices, computer fraud, product contamination, and other types of insurance policies. He has particular expertise representing policyholders seeking coverage under D&O policies for the defense of civil lawsuits and criminal prosecutions, an area in which he has secured a precedent-setting decision in New York state court. Brad serves as coverage counsel to a wide range of companies and organizations, including Southwest Airlines, Englewood Health, and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Recently, Brad has represented the Archdiocese of New York in coverage litigation arising from thousands of sexual abuse claims brought under New York’s Child Victims Act and Adult Survivors Act. Some of Brad’s notable victories include: successfully negotiating insurance coverage for the settlement of high-profile litigation against the Long Island Power Authority arising from fires on the Rockaway Peninsula during Superstorm Sandy; obtaining a preliminary injunction directing excess insurers for hedge fund Platinum Partners to advance $15 million in defense costs for a federal criminal prosecution; obtaining a preliminary injunction from the Northern District of California directing Clear Blue Specialty Insurance Company to advance defense costs to Ozy Media, Inc.’s CEO related to a high-profile criminal prosecution in the Eastern District of New York; and winning summary judgment on behalf of a romaine lettuce producer seeking coverage under a product contamination policy for losses arising from E. coli outbreaks. Brad is recognized as a top lawyer by Chambers for Insurance: Dispute Resolution for Policyholders since 2026 and as a top litigator by Benchmark Litigation since 2025. He also served on Law360’s 2023 Insurance Authority General Liability Editorial Board.

Siddartha Rao

Siddartha Rao is a commercial litigator who has represented clients ranging from small businesses and individuals to large corporations. His practice experience includes litigation in Federal and State trial and appellate courts, as well as arbitration forums such as AAA and JAMS. He has litigated issues including cryptocurrency disputes, Federal securities claims, intellectual property (copyright, trademark, trade secrets and unfair competition), business defamation and libel, business valuation, and commercial tort and contract claims. Siddartha’s nearly 20 years of practice experience includes a diverse range of matters covering cryptocurrency litigation raising issues of first impression concerning judgment computation, Copyright Act litigation for a famous radio and podcast host concerning the limits of Federal Copyright pre-emption, and Federal jury trial defense of a third-party defendant against claims arising out of an eight-figure COVID test kit contract. Siddartha seeks to distill complex business and financial risk issues into practical litigation advice, with an eye to resolving disputes without trial whenever possible. He was recognized as a New York Metro Rising Star by Super Lawyers from 2013-2022 and has been recognized as a New York Super Lawyer every year since 2023. He is also a member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum.

Dorothea Regal

As head of the Insurance Recovery Group at Hoguet Newman Regal & Kenney—the women-owned litigation boutique she co-founded 30 years ago—Dorothea W. Regal has obtained hundreds of millions of dollars for corporate policyholders from insurers. She has extensive litigation and arbitration experience in the U.S. and internationally, securing policyholder recoveries in complex, high-stakes coverage disputes involving environmental, asbestos, and products liability claims, including long-tail claims arising from decades-old injuries or exposures under old occurrence-based liability policies. She also handles D&O, E&O, and employment practices liability claims as well as property insurance and business interruption coverage. Among her notable matters, Dorothea and her team won a groundbreaking trial court ruling for Syngenta in New Jersey state court in a $170 million insurance coverage dispute over nationwide class-action product liability claims alleging property damage from decades of commercial use of the company’s herbicide, and in another case won a trial for Syngenta in the Delaware Superior Court establishing the primary insurer’s coverage obligation over thousands of personal injury claims allegedly arising from exposure to another product and secured a precedential decision from the Delaware Supreme Court upholding the trial court’s two summary judgment rulings in favor of Syngenta on the issue of whether a threat of a claim constituted a claim under Delaware law. Dorothea has been named the Insurance and Reinsurance Lawyer of the Year by Euromoney (2021); a Distinguished Leader by the New York Law Journal (2021); a Notable Diverse Leader in Law and a Notable Woman Business Owner by Crain’s New York Business (2022 and 2021, respectively); and an Elite Boutique Trailblazer by The National Law Journal (2018). She has also been recognized by Chambers for Insurance: Dispute Resolution for Policyholders since 2023 and as a top litigator by Benchmark Litigation since 2018.

Steven Silverberg

Steven M. Silverberg is a seasoned litigator and first-chair trial attorney with a focus on matters in federal courts. He routinely litigates employment actions and complex commercial and business disputes on behalf of clients in the media, hospitality, healthcare, and financial services industries, as well as municipal entities, transportation authorities, and law enforcement agencies. Steve has a breadth of experience handling high-value and high-profile impact litigation and frequently represents prominent public figures and institutions, including public sector clients, in cases that receive national media attention. He zealously executes litigation strategies that simultaneously achieve positive results in the courtroom and favorably portray his clients in the press. At the same time, Steve appreciates the importance of negotiated resolutions where possible and has settled more than 200 matters in advance of trial. A leading voice on civil rights and Fourth Amendment litigation, Steve has defended public officials in hundreds of federal cases involving wrongful arrest, excessive force, overturned conviction, and other high-stakes claims—often where government policies and practices themselves are on trial. His experience, along with bylines in the New York Law Journal and Bloomberg Law and his teaching at Rutgers University, has established him as a trusted authority on litigation and strategy in this field.