Edward K. Lenci handles complex business and commercial litigations, arbitrations and appeals. His extensive experience encompasses a variety of areas, including banking, computers, intellectual property, insurance, reinsurance, environmental and securities. His successes include a victory before the U.S. Supreme Court. Reinsurance Disputes
Mr. Lenci’s experience in the area of reinsurance dispute resolution is extensive and highly regarded. He has “scored a hat trick” by winning the rare remedy of rescission of a reinsurance contract on three separate occasions – once in a jury trial, once in an arbitration, and once from the bench. He has also collected millions of dollars from reinsurers located in Central and South America and Europe.

Mr. Lenci’s representative reinsurance successes include:

• Amerisure Mutual Insurance Company, et al. v. GLOBAL Reinsurance Corporation of America, 927 N.E.2d 740 (Ill. App. 2010) (won vacatur of an arbitral award, and reversal of the trial court, by proving the arbitrators exceeded their authority and committed a “gross error of law”) (this victory was the lead story in the Chicago Daily Law Journal on March 16, 2010).
• Mutual Marine Offices, Inc., et al. v. Banco de Seguros del Estado, 344 F.3d 255 (2d Cir. 2003) (persuaded the federal Circuit Court of Appeals that a South American bank waived sovereign immunity).
• Gerling Global Reinsurance Corporation – U.S. Branch v. ACE Property & Casualty Insurance Co., 2002 U.S. App. Lexis 15571 (2d Cir. 2002) (convinced the federal Circuit Court of Appeals that a reinsurer was not required to arbitrate its rescission claim because the arbitration clause agreement did not encompass such a claim).
• Curiale v. AIG Multi-Line Syndicate, Inc., et al., 640 N.Y.S.2d 18 (N.Y. App. 1996) (convinced a New York state appellate court that a reinsurer was entitled to rescission).
• Liquidation of The Home Insurance Company (persuaded a New Hampshire tribunal that The Home was not the reinsurer of the firm’s client, thus paving the way for collection of payment in full from its true reinsurer). 
• National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh, Pa v. Clearwater Insurance Company, 2007 WL 2106098, S.D.N.Y. July 21, 2007 (No. 04-CV-5032) (convinced a federal district court that the doctrine of “follow the fortunes” did not require the reinsurer to cover ECO).
• GLOBAL Reinsurance Corporation – U.S. Branch v. Sompo Japan Insurance, Inc., 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 37969 (S.D.N.Y. 2005) (persuaded an arbitration panel, and then a federal district court, that a reinsurer must post a $7.5 million LOC in favor of its cedent on the latter’s annual statement).
• Gerling Global Reinsurance Corporation — U.S. Branch v. ACE Property & Casualty Company (S.D.N.Y. 2003) (won the first jury verdict in the United States rescinding a reinsurance agreement).

Mr. Lenci is a co-chair of the Insurance and Reinsurance Committee of the New York State Bar Association’s International Section, was co-chair the HarrisMartin Reinsurance Summit in September 2011 in Philadelphia, and is a charter member of the editorial board of Reinsurance, a publication of HarrisMartin.


Business Litigation, Arbitration and Appeals
Mr. Lenci’s representative cases in this area include the following:

• He is defending a Fortune 500 company, which provided business process outsourcing services to a lender, in a class action lawsuit that alleges that the client and the lender were involved in a scheme to defraud borrowers.
• He successfully pursued multimillion dollar claims under CERCLA and an indemnity agreement on behalf of a Chilean corporation and its U.S. subsidiary after five industrial sites they acquired from a Fortune 100 company in the 1990s became the subject of environmental actions and investigations by federal and state authorities.
• In a bankruptcy case, he secured an order that stayed the New York adversary proceeding in favor of arbitration before JAMS in Los Angeles.

Mr. Lenci is well-known for his appellate work, particularly that concerning the arbitration of disputes. In addition to the reinsurance cases cited above, his victories, one in the U.S. Supreme Court, include the following:

• Fensterstock v. Affiliated Computer Services, Inc., 131 S.Ct. 2989 (S.Ct. 2011) (persuaded the Supreme Court to vacate a decision of the federal Court of Appeals that had held that a class arbitration waiver in a promissory note was unconscionable) (this victory was a front-page story in The New York Law Journal on June 14, 2011).
• Intertec Contracting, A/S, et al. v. Turner Steiner International S.A., et al., 779 N.Y.S. 2d 14 (N.Y.App. 2004) (won reversal of the trial court’s decision that had dismissed a construction delay claim on the grounds of forum non conveniens) (this victory was the “Decision of the Day” in The New York Law Journal on March 22, 2004).
• Intertec Contracting, A/S, et al. v. Turner Steiner East Asia Ltd., et al., 2001 U.S. App. Lexis 4156 (2d Cir. 2001) (persuaded the federal Circuit Court of Appeals that an arbitration clause in a construction contract requiring arbitration in Sri Lanka was not incorporated by reference into the parties’ subcontract).

Intellectual Property and Restrictive Covenants
Mr. Lenci has litigated a variety of disputes involving intellectual property rights and restrictive covenants. His successes in this area include:

• Oona Tropeano Expressions, Inc. v. Studio Chevalier, Ltd., et al., 04 CV 8887 (S.D.N.Y. 2007). Mr. Lenci won dismissal of a copyright infringement claim that a U.S. designer brought against a Canadian custom printing company. He followed up this victory by recouping most of the attorneys’ fees his client expended.
• Dr. Ernest Rossi, et al. v. Irvington Publishers, 04 CV 7191 (S.D.N.Y.). Mr. Lenci represented Dr. Ernest Rossi, the collaborator of the late Dr. Milton H. Erickson, a pioneer in the field of medical hypnotherapy. As a result of Mr. Lenci’s efforts, Dr. Erickson’s classic works are once again available to the field.
• The Health Consultants Group v. Dailey, 2004 U.S. Dist. Lexis 23718 (S.D.N.Y. 2004). Mr. Lenci tried a case in federal court resulting in the issuance of an injunction against a former employee of a Connecticut-based health insurance broker, enforcing the terms of a restrictive covenant. Mr. Lenci’s skillful cross-examination of the former employee resulted in the trial judge’s observations that his testimony was “contradictory,” “evasive,” and “confused, tortured and generally less than credible.”
• Successfully defended a well-known financial-services entrepreneur in a federal lawsuit brought by his former employer, a large financial institution, which sought to enjoin the use of its alleged trade secrets and intellectual property and enforce a restrictive covenant.

Mr. Lenci joined Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP in September 2007. Previously he was a partner of Wilker & Lenci, LLP, a well-regarded New York City boutique firm. Before that, he was a partner in the New York office of a large international firm.

He began his legal career at Hamada & Matsumoto (now Mori, Hamada & Matsumoto) in Tokyo, where he worked closely with the Honorable Kunio Hamada, future Justice of the Supreme Court of Japan. Mr. Lenci is a charter member of the editorial board of Reinsurance, a publication of HarrisMartin. He has authored a number of articles, including:

• “Judicial Scrutiny of Arbitral Awards in the U.S.,” New York State Bar Association International Section, October 2010.
• “Lessons of the Recent Decisions Vacating Arbitral Awards,” Reinsurance, October 2010.
• “Getting Security in Arbitration, Even From a Foreign State,” The Brief (a publication of the American Bar Association), Winter 2003.
• “Take Heart: Arbitrability Has Its Limits,” Mealey’s Litigation Report: Reinsurance, October 17, 2002.
• Co-author, “For Whom Bellefonte Tolls,” Mealey’s Litigation Report: Reinsurance, May 29, 1998.
• Co-author, “Utmost Good Faith and Rescission,” Reinsurance Law & Practice, Practising Law Institute, 1997.

Mr. Lenci was a co-chair and organizer of the HarrisMartin Reinsurance Summit in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in September 2011. A selection of Mr. Lenci’s other presentations includes:

• Moderator, “View from the Bench: Federal Magistrates Share Their Views on Overturning Arbitration Decisions, Umpire and Arbitrator Disqualification, Loss Allocation and Consolidation, and Agreements to Maintain Confidentiality,” American Conference Institute’s Advanced Forum on Reinsurance Disputes in Litigation and Arbitration, New York City, April 2012.
• “Panel Authority and Panelist Impartiality,” American Conference Institute’s Advanced Forum on Reinsurance Disputes in Litigation and Arbitration, New York City, April 2012.
• “Judicial Scrutiny of Arbitral Awards in the U.S.” New York State Bar Association meeting, Sydney, Australia, October 2010.
• “The ‘American Rule’ at Risk: Reliastar Life Insurance Company of New York v. EMC National Life Co.,” Hinshaw’s 2009 Insurance Services Symposium, Chicago, Illinois, October 2009.

Mr. Lenci’s commitment to pro bono work dates to his days at Columbia University School of Law, when he interned at Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts in New York City. Since then, he has represented a number of artists and not-for-profit organizations involved in the arts. He is an advisor to the Mimes & Mummers, a Fordham University theatrical group with which he had performed in his student days, and he spearheaded a highly successful campaign to raise funds to renovate the group’s historic theater. Mr. Lenci has used his appellate skills in the public service as a Special Assistant District Attorney in New York City.

He lives in Greenwich, Connecticut, with his wife, artist Monica Lenci. He is active in community affairs.