Attorneys

Steven Balson-Cohen has been practicing law for over thirty-five years. He is a trial attorney with experience handling both state and federal matters involving transportation litigation, premises liability, anti-fraud Civil Rico, professional liability, toxic torts, product liability, labor law, intellectual property and insurance coverage disputes. He has practiced in New York and other jurisdictions as pro hac vice trial counsel.

Steven has litigation experience in all phases of complex civil cases, appellate work and conducting Frye/Daubert hearings on the admissibility of expert evidence. He is listed on Wikipedia as “prominent” trial counsel in “Forensic Biomechanics.”

Additionally, Steve has extensive experience handling the representation of medical and other allied health care professionals before disciplinary committees along with criminal court representation in DWI and other serious criminal matters.

Jody C. Benard, Partner and New York Team Leader, Insurance Defense Practice Group, is a seasoned litigator and trial lawyer with a proven record of achieving excellent results in all types of cases. With extensive experience in litigation and trial, Jody has prosecuted and defended significant matters from both sides of the courtroom.

Before joining the Hickey Smith Dodd team, Jody was the founding and managing partner of a successful defense litigation firm. During this time, in addition to her handling all aspects of litigation, including trial, Jody directed the business operations of the firm and successfully managed a multitude of matters.

Jody has actively practiced in state and federal courts in both New York and New Jersey. With her diverse background, Jody brings a wide range of expertise to the firm including property damage, labor law, premises liability, personal injury, commercial litigation, products liability and insurance coverage. Additionally, Jody has experience in setting and maintaining policy for No Fault claims and litigation.

Jody also serves as Vice President of the Board of Trustees for the New York School for the Deaf.

Christopher (Chris) Caiazzo has been practicing law for over twenty-five years representing clients in all aspects of general liability, New York Labor Law, professional liability, medical device litigation and dental malpractice defense. He is highly experienced litigator who has successfully received multiple jury defense verdicts in New York courts.

Prior to joining Hickey Smith Dodd, Chris operated his own legal practice and was responsible for all phases of defense litigation from initial pleadings through discovery and trial. He supervised and managed all aspects of a diverse caseload including, but not limited to, premises liability, personal injury, general liability, labor law and property damage through and including trials and appeals.

Prior to that, over the course of his career Chris has worked for several well-known New York insurance defense firms, where he likewise was responsible for all phases of defense litigation from case inception through trial.

Chris has authored multiple articles including “Buying Your Peace,” “The Use of New York General Obligation Law 15-108 To Settle Out In A Multiple Defendant Litigation,” and “Understanding The Timely Notice Provisions of New York Insurance Law.” He is a member of the New York State Bar Association along with the Westchester County and Bronx County Bar Associations.

Since 1998, Robert Conti has been practicing civil litigation with an emphasis in complex multi-party bodily injury actions involving the New York State Labor Law protections for injured employees. His knowledge, skills and abilities include interrelated contract interpretation, indemnification agreements, insurance procurement clauses and insurance coverage issues.

Prior to joining Hickey Smith Dodd, Robert was senior associate and of counsel to the Westermann Sheehy law firm where he focused on construction litigation and appeals for commercial developers and owners. Prior to his association with the Westermann firm, he was senior associate in a general practice firm where he supervised a litigation team while counseling clients and litigation matters from inception through appeals, including but not limited to, general tort liability, federal civil rights, municipal law and Labor Law.

Christa D’Angelica brings more than seven years of experience representing clients in various stages of civil litigation to Hickey Smith Dodd. She has successfully defended municipalities in Federal US 1983 suits and wrongful death actions, as well as building owners, general contractors, and municipal agencies in New York Labor Law actions.

Before joining Hickey Smith Dodd, Christa worked as an associate for a New York law firm specializing in product liability and toxic tort litigation, premises liability claims, and a diverse array of defamation, employment law, municipal law, corporate law, contract law, environmental law, civil rights law, and tax foreclosure cases in New York and Connecticut state, appellate and federal courts.

Domenick D’Angelica is Senior Counsel with Hickey Smith Dodd LLP and has been practicing law in New York for over thirty years. Having worked in the industry as an in-house counsel, law firm litigator and government, Domenick brings a wealth of knowledge and understanding to Hickey Smith.

Domenick has extensive experience defending personal injury lawsuits involving both personal and commercial lines, and also has experience in the areas of medical and professional malpractice. He has represented a wide range of business entities, including commercial property owners, property management groups, general and subcontractors in the construction industry, hospitals, manufacturers, and restaurants and bars, as well as individual property owners and drivers.

Ann DelCollo is the Managing Attorney for the Insurance Defense Practice Group of Hickey Smith Dodd. In her role as Managing Attorney, Ann is responsible for hiring, assigning cases and monitoring caseloads, and monitoring the individual performance of each attorney. Ann also sets strategic performance goals for the Practice Group that are designed to promote professional growth and job satisfaction for the attorneys while at the same time contributing to the growth and success of Hickey Smith Dodd LLP.

Ann is an insurance defense industry veteran. She has devoted her career to defending personal injury lawsuits in Philadelphia, and its surrounding counties. For the better part of the last 25 years, Ann has defended insurers as either an in-house counsel for two of the largest carriers in the county or in the law firm setting. Having worked in the industry as both an in-house counsel and law firm litigator, she brings a grounded and well-balanced understanding to the practice.

Ann has appeared in more than 500 trials or arbitrations on behalf of her insurance industry clients. She has extensive experience defending personal injury lawsuits involving both personal and commercial lines. Ann also has significant experience in the areas of business litigation, employee theft, class-action asbestos litigation and criminal defense.

Ann began her career in Philadelphia as an insurance defense attorney, defending medical malpractice, personal injury and asbestos lawsuits. From there she served as trial counsel for Allstate Insurance Company, and later, she served as senior trial counsel for Nationwide Insurance Company.

As Hickey Smith Dodd’s Legal Operations Partner, Christian Dodd is responsible for the design, development, implementation and execution of the firm’s unique legal services delivery model. He oversees the development, testing and maintenance of the firm’s proprietary legal workflows, checklists, automated document assembly templates and case assessment tool.  He also oversees the identification, collection and analysis of matter-specific data collected throughout the lifecycle of each firm matter.  This data is utilized for continuous process improvement and to provide actionable business insight to firm clients.

Prior to joining Hickey Smith Dodd, Christian practiced law in the large firm environment, most recently as a Partner with Akerman LLP, and prior to that with Winston & Strawn. His practice has focused on complex commercial and business litigation, intellectual property matters, and government investigations. Christian’s experience ranges from simple B2B contract disputes to consolidated multi-district class action litigation and bet-the-company litigation. He also has significant experience managing the e-discovery lifecycle in the context of both small- and large-scale litigation and government investigations. Christian draws upon his broad experience to devise strategies to improve efficiencies and reduce costs in litigation.

Robert J. Dunne has been practicing law for over twenty-two years. He is a trial attorney with experience handling matters involving insurance defense, personal injury claims, family and child custody disputes and immigration deportation proceedings. He has practiced in Connecticut and New York.

Prior to joining Hickey Smith Dodd, Rob worked for a small insurance defense firm representing clients insured with Lloyds of London, the Hartford and Omni Insurance Company. He was also in-house counsel with Safeco/ Liberty Mutual Insurance Company. Rob has appeared in 26 jury trials and 6 bench trials that went to verdict in his capacity as both a defense and plaintiff attorney. Multiple verdicts were returned as defense verdicts along with two being below the last offer made by the insurance company.

Rob has represented automobile operators, the insurance company in an uninsured/underinsured capacity and commercial property owners. He was tasked with providing insurance coverage opinions to his managing attorney and adjusters. Last year, Rob was appointed by the judicial branch to act as a court arbitrator and fact finder.

Korri Abrams Frampton serves as Senior Counsel for Hickey Smith Dodd and brings over twenty years of legal experience to the firm. Skilled in torts, arbitration, trial practice, and legal writing, she also has substantial experience in all aspects of defense litigation. Korri received her Juris Doctorate from Syracuse University, graduating Magna Cum Laude, and served as the editor of the Survey of New York Law for the Syracuse Law Review. Prior to attending law school, Korri was a New York State, Licensed Insurance Broker, (Property & Casualty and Life, Accident & Health), which equips her with the unique ability to combine legal expertise with extensive knowledge of the insurance industry and regulations, and provide a broad business perspective on a myriad of issues.

Michael Fritz is an Associate with substantial experience representing companies and individuals in no-fault, bodily injury and UM/SUM actions.

Prior to joining Hickey Smith Dodd, Michael served as in-house counsel at an insurance carrier where he managed and trained a team of attorneys while being directly responsible for all reporting and managing court and arbitration calendars. As a principal attorney, he successfully managed a fraud declaratory judgment program and successfully argued fraudulent and staged cases in both arbitration and litigation. He also successfully represented the carrier in numerous policy violation and medical necessity cases.

Prior to embarking on a legal career, Michael founded and served as President of a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit credit-counseling organization that was licensed by the New York Department of Financial Services and registered with the United Stated Trustee’s Office. This organization was dedicated to educating and assisting consumers and families with their finances.

Joseph Green is an experienced trial lawyer who has successfully handled over 100 civil jury trials to verdict. Mr. Green has personally managed, developed, and overseen recent cases involving catastrophic injury, ERISA, discrimination claims, and False Claim Act claims as well as general commercial and real estate disputes.

Before joining Hickey Smith Dodd, Mr. Green served a senior litigation counsel to a firm providing general counsel services to highly skilled building, construction, and heavy equipment operators and represented municipal related entities at trial.  Prior to that, Mr. Green was a Senior Associate at a “New York Top 100” litigation firm where he was responsible for first chair representation of the firm’s clients.

Mark Grodberg has been a commercial defense litigator for over 17 years.  Mark represents defendants in matters concerning premises liability, motor vehicle, general negligence and New York State Labor Law actions. He handles every aspect of the litigation process, including answering the summons and complaint, organizing and implementing the discovery process, investigation, and depositions, and coordinating medical examinations.

Given his experience, Mark knows how to get to the crux of the matter quickly and works to towards the efficient and prompt resolution of the case through motion practice or settlement. When a matter cannot be resolved amicably, Mark will not hesitate to take the matter to trial where he enjoys a considerable amount of success.

Mark has served as the primary trial attorney or outside trial attorney for a number of insurance defense firms located in New York.

Brian D. Hahn, Senior Counsel with Hickey Smith Dodd, brings more than 15 years of experience representing and working for several insurance companies and their policyholders in a variety of matters including products liability, premises liability, commercial transportation defense, construction liability, and insurance coverage disputes. Brian’s legal experience encompasses all levels of trial practice in federal and state courts of Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin. In addition, Brian has managed and directed outside counsel throughout the country and has counseled insurance adjusters regarding issues relative to adjusting bodily injury and insurance coverage claims in order to identify, mitigate and prevent litigation risk and avoid bad faith or extra-contractual judgments.

As Senior Counsel for Hickey Smith Dodd, Jean Hamer brings more than fifteen years of experience as a litigation and advocacy attorney, with proven expertise in legal representation, research and litigation. Jean’s diverse background includes representing clients on various matters with a particular focus in insurance related matters, including civil litigation, mediation, arbitration, drafting and arguing dispositive motions, and performing extensive legal research.

Jean earned her Juris Doctorate in 2001 from Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law, and began her legal career as a judicial law clerk with the Connecticut Superior Court.  In private practice, she has handled personal injury defense, debt consolidation and debtor’s rights; as well as providing per diem services for local and national law firms. During this period, she gained extensive knowledge conducting research and writing complex briefs, and attending court proceedings, including arguing motions at short calendar, pre-trial conferences, and court ordered arbitrations.

Jared S. Henig, Senior Counsel with Hickey Smith Dodd LLP, has been practicing law in New York City since 2005. Since that time, Jared has worked at multiple large and small insurance defense firms defending the interests of both commercial and personal lines insureds.

Jared brings to the Hickey Smith Dodd team an in-depth knowledge of the insurance defense industry and his diverse experience defending lawsuits stemming from motor vehicle and premises accidents (including but not limited to slip/trip and fall, property damage, subrogation, assault, negligent security, products liability, elevator, dram shop/liquor liability, etc.) This diverse experience also includes significant work on legal matters involving construction related accidents/New York Labor Law.

Jared handles complex legal matters with confidence and efficiency and provides results that consistently exceed clients’ expectations. Having successfully represented many clients in a wide variety of matters from inception through resolution, Jared has a proven record of achieving excellent results in all types of cases.

As Hickey Smith Dodd’s Managing Partner, David Hickey is responsible for monitoring and evaluating the design and implementation of the firm’s established processes, procedures, protocols, and workflows to drive continuous firm improvement. David has leveraged technology to design and implement process-based solutions to create efficiencies and reduce both systematic and assystematic risks. David has successfully managed complex legal matters in the US, South East Asia, South Asia and the UK for 25 years. Prior to joining Hickey Smith Dodd, David was an equity partner with Winston & Strawn, LLP, a litigator with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, a prosecutor with the United States Air Force and a Special Assistant United States Attorney. He has first chair trial experience and has advised numerous clients in connection with “bet the company” and other crisis related situations. He has represented clients across a variety of industries.

With more than 25 years of experience as a litigator, primarily in the area of insurance defense, Renee Himmel brings tremendous expertise to Hickey Smith Dodd clients in the areas of automobile liability and premises liability. Her other areas of experience include general liability, construction defense, medical malpractice, real estate, foreclosure, and immigration.

Before joining Hickey Smith Dodd, Renee managed her own private practice. In addition, she previously served as a litigation associate with a New York-based law firm, which specializes in insurance defense, handling matters from inception to resolution, including trial.

Byron has worked in the insurance industry in various capacities for more than 25 years. This includes, but is not limited to, claims handling and litigation of commercial and personal liability claims, P.I.P., worker’s compensation, employment and subrogation litigation. Byron handled and managed these cases from initial intake through jury or bench trial or administration hearings.

Byron has worked on a wide variety of both sophisticated and routine legal matters, including litigation management, coverage opinions, compliance, developing litigation strategy and budgets, vetting along with retaining and managing external counsel. He has also engaged in dispute resolution, mediation and settlement of cases and claims while developing strong working relations with internal management.

Byron’s experience has afforded him opportunities of drafting, reviewing, negotiating and counseling business managers on a broad range of commercial transactions, including contracts, non-disclosure or confidentiality agreements and consulting agreements.

Kalliopi P. Kousis is a Senior Counsel with Hickey Smith Dodd LLP, and has been practicing law for eighteen years. Her practice has been focused on various areas of construction, insurance and business related matters and litigation. Kalliopi has successfully led several complex, multiparty construction defect (construction accident), general and transportation claims on behalf of insurance carriers, transportation companies and corporations in state and federal courts in New Jersey and New York.

Through her wide-ranging experience, Kalliopi has developed an expertise in crafting litigation strategies, and advising clients of the potential risks and possible outcomes for each course of action. Kalliopi provides a step-by-step approach and possible alternatives, helping clients determine the best path to achieve their goal and successful outcome.

Anna brings nearly a decade of business and legal experience to the firm, including title insurance defense, civil litigation, foreclosure defense, contract disputes, probate, trusts and estate planning, real estate litigation, and family law. In addition to assisting with the representation of the firm’s clients, Anna is instrumental in the development and testing of templates and checklists for pleadings, motions, discovery and other legal documents.

Prior to joining Hickey Smith Dodd, Anna held the position of AVP/Claims Counsel for Fidelity National Financial where she managed the claims administration process from the initial notification through litigation and resolution, including formulating litigation strategies and managing outside counsel. Prior to joining Fidelity, Anna worked in private practice, representing individuals and organizations in all aspects of litigation in numerous substantive areas of law. In addition to her legal experience, Anna has also worked in the IT industry as a project manager for a global software implementation project where she acted as a liaison between the software development team and the security/legal department.

Michael has been practicing law for over twenty-five years representing commercial defendants, insurance policy holders, employers and insurance carriers through pre-suit, litigation, trial and post-trial matters. His practice includes defending clients against claims high profile injury actions, wrongful death, motorcycle accidents, premises liability, construction defect, construction accidents, mold claims, bad faith, and uninsured motorist disputes. In addition to the litigated cases, Michael in concert with claims professionals have investigated pre-litigation claims which have resulted in resolving these matters prior to suit.

Prior to joining Hickey Smith Dodd, Michael litigated as in-house counsel for Farmers Insurance Group in Los Angeles focusing on commercial automobile and commercial premises liability cases defending trucking companies, tow truck companies, ambulances, commercial property owners and landlords.

Michael has also been senior house counsel for Nationwide Insurance Company and its subsidiaries in defending against construction accidents, wrongful death, and traumatic brain injuries for policy holders and commercial defendants to settlement and verdict.

Michael was a member of S.I.U. (Special Investigations Unit) during his employment at Safeco Insurance Company while also handling general liability and premises liability cases. Additionally, he started and was the head of the Construction Defect Litigation Department. He further coordinated and developed the claims/legal meetings for further cooperation in resolving litigated files.

While with an AV rated law firm in Glendale, California, Michael litigated catastrophic injury, wrongful death, and product liability cases for large nationwide insurance carrier.

Vincent D. Monzo is a member of the firm’s insurance defense group and litigates matter throughout New Jersey and Pennsylvania with almost 20 years of litigation experience. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Monzo worked for several firms located in and around Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He has been involved in litigating hundreds of cases involving premises liability, commercial trucking accidents, commercial collections, products liability, medical malpractice, construction defect, and insurance coverage matters.

Natalie is a Florida Supreme Court Certified Circuit Civil Mediator and Florida Qualified Arbitrator. She has practiced throughout the state of Florida in civil litigation matters arising from premises liability, trucking transportation, property damage, automobile negligence, and products liability.

Before joining Hickey Smith Dodd, Natalie served as an attorney for two Florida-based insurance defense law firms where she handled matters in the areas of auto negligence, wrongful death, nursing home litigation, resorts and leisure liability, retail liability, premises liability, products liability, ADA claims, governmental liability/sovereign immunity, premises and automobile insurance defense, and property damage.

During law school, Natalie interned in-house with Minor League baseball headquartered in St. Petersburg, FL, worked for well-known tv personality Judge Judy, and clerked for a judge in the Sixth Judicial Circuit Court of Florida.

Timothy J. Pike has been a commercial and insurance defense litigator for over 30 years. Tim has represented clients in the defense of personal injury, property damage and declaratory relief cases through all aspects of litigation, including through mediation, trial and appeals.

During his career, Tim has been lead counsel for over one hundred cases in which he has represented the client through verdict by trial. Timothy has represented insurance carriers, construction companies, manufacturers, distributors, property owners, general contractors, engineering companies, retail stores and grocery stores.

Tim also has experience acting as both a mediator and arbitrator in several cases.

Joel Ray brings more than 20 years of experience in insurance defense and complex commercial litigation to the clients of Hickey Smith Dodd, including the areas of premises liability defense, personal injury defense, and medical malpractice.

Having worked for both small and mid-sized defense firms as well as in roles such as a small claims court arbitrator, Joe provides knowledge and expertise in a wide range of practice areas. As in-house counsel for a New York City land developer, Joel practiced law in the areas of landlord-tenant law, commercial litigation, hotel violations, building trademarks, patents and appeals, trademark prosecution and litigation, and evictions.

Maurice J. Recchia is a trial lawyer and civil litigator who has tried approximately 100 civil cases to verdict in the trial courts of New York City and in the counties of the lower Hudson Valley. He practices in the areas of motor vehicle liability, premises liability, and construction law. Throughout his career, Maurice has represented both defendants and plaintiffs in a variety of tort litigation and trials.

Maurice is an advocate for greater use of plain English in the law. In 2012, the New York Law Journal published his article “Replace ‘Prudent’ with ‘Careful’ ” in which he argued for a change to the New York Pattern Jury Instruction negligence charge to make it easier for jurors to understand. In 2016, he published three articles on tort litigation topics in the New York Law Journal. Maurice continues to write and comment on developments in the law when he can find the time.

Daniel has over 20 years of state and federal court experience representing defendants, plaintiffs and insurance carriers through litigation and trial. His civil practice includes defending clients against claims of wrongful death, general liability, premises liability, bad faith, construction defect, toxic torts, elder abuse, real property, quiet title actions, malicious prosecution, declaratory relief actions and insurance coverage disputes. In addition to his California practice, Daniel has also litigated cases in New Hampshire and Florida.

Prior to joining Hickey Smith Dodd, Daniel litigated for a large AV-rated law firm in Ventura County, California focusing on defending human service providers and non-profit entities to verdict in wrongful death, products liability, premises liability and general negligence actions.

Additionally, Daniel’s insurance coverage practice extends to counseling large insurance carriers in several jurisdictions concerning a variety of issues.

Damian M. Sammons serves as Senior Counsel for Hickey Smith Dodd LLP. His practice focuses on toxic torts, including asbestos and talc defense litigation, product liability, construction design defects, and commercial and general liability matters. He also works on behalf of charter schools throughout Pennsylvania.

Damian began his career as an Assistant District Attorney in the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office where he handled cases from inception to verdict in various divisions of the office. Following his career as a prosecutor, Damian worked as a criminal defense attorney practicing in the state and federal courts of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, cross-examining witnesses and experts and winning multiple verdicts on behalf of clients in both trial and appellate courts.

Prior to joining Hickey Smith Dodd, Damian worked at a regional law firm in the Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York tri-state area where, in addition to general liability matters, his practice focused on the defense of manufacturers and suppliers of various products alleged to have contained asbestos.

One of Damian’s key strengths is his ability to create visual productions for presentation to clients and today’s media-focused jurors. His use of technology to visually express his client’s defense during trial has impacted juries who ultimately found in favor of his clients.

Damian achieved his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Texas at Austin in Plan II Honors-English and his Juris Doctor from Rutgers Law School. He worked as the Managing Notes and Comments Editor for the Rutgers Race and the Law Review and as a teaching assistant for appellate advocacy.

In addition to his legal work, Damian is an Admissions Liaison Officer for the United States Air Force Academy, a Shriner and a Past Master and Representative to the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania Free and Accepted Masons. In his spare time, he is also a student of the Japanese art of Kendo.

Martha Vasquez has more than 13 years of litigation experience and has handled more than 200 trials and arbitrations. For nearly a decade, Martha has focused her litigation practice primarily on insurance defense work on behalf of several insurance carriers. She has extensive experience handling insurance defense cases from inception to conclusion.

She handles all phases of insurance defense litigation in the areas of general liability, premises liability, auto accidents, trucking and transportation, construction accidents, restaurant liability, excess insurance monitoring, insurance coverage and subrogation claims in both New Jersey and New York.

Martha is a former Assistant District Attorney with the Bronx County District Attorney’s Office and a former Assistant Attorney General with the New York State Attorney General’s Office.  She has prosecuted a wide variety of criminal matters, including cases concerning organized crime and conspiracies, cases concerning narcotics schemes, and cases concerning insurance fraud.