Practice Areas
Education
Bar and Court Admissions
Past Professional Experience

Catherine M. Colinvaux

Partner
Boston
950 Winter Street
Suite 1300
Waltham MA 02451
TEL: (781) 466-0704
FAX: (781) 466-0701
{ mail } ccolinvaux@zelle.com
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In nearly twenty years at Zelle Hofmann, Catherine has had the opportunity to litigate and resolve big problems from multiple perspectives, including both plaintiff and defense representation and subjects as diverse as reinsurance, telecommunications and historical property rights. Most recently, Catherine devoted eight years to 9/11 property insurance disputes, including serving as trial, appellate, and settlement counsel in the World Trade Center (Silverstein), number-of-occurrences insurance coverage litigation. Catherine also has nearly two decades experience serving as national counsel in multi-million dollar environmental, asbestos and product defect insurance disputes, currently including Chinese Drywall coverage and liability issues. In addition to trial and appeal, mediation, arbitration and appraisal, Catherine's advocacy experience includes press relations and direct involvement with regulatory authorities, elected officials, and Congressional staffs.

Tackling another of society's "big problems," Catherine was the firm's Diversity Coordinator from 2006-2009. Under her leadership, the firm introduced numerous innovative diversity programs (including our Zealous Women website), and established an overall framework for a vibrant diversity initiative.

Representative Matters

Chinese Drywall - Represent an insurer on a national basis with respect to first- and third-party insurance coverage and claim defense issues relating to alleged damage caused by the presence of defective drywall

Port Authority 9/11 Litigation - Lead counsel for major insurer in lawsuit and appraisal relating to multi-billion dollar insurance claims made by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey for property damage and business interruption caused by the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack

Allianz Insurance Company v. World Trade Center Properties LLC - Represent a major insurer in insurance coverage action, including two month jury trial, and related appraisal involving destruction of World Trade Center complex on 9/11 and claims in excess of $7 billion for property damage and time element losses

Fiber Optic Class Action Litigation - Represent plaintiff landowners in more than fifty coordinated class actions alleging trespass by multiple telecommunication company defendants on class members' property via the construction of nationwide fiber optic networks

Articles & Presentations

"Avoiding the MDL for Insurance Coverage Disputes," Insurance Law360, July 6, 2010, co-author

"The Assignment Clause in First-Party Property Insurance Policies: Are Postloss Assignments of Policy Proceeds Enforceable?," The Brief, Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Section, Winter 2010 issue, co-author

"We're all in it together!," Women Legal, December 2009-February 2010, co-author

"Practice Note: Protecting Decisions of the Arbitration Panel," Massachusetts Reinsurance Bar Association's Cover Notes, Winter 2009 issue, co-authored with Jubilee Menzies

"Experts and Ethics: Are the Rules Changing?," presentation to the ABA's Tort, Trial & Insurance Practice Section, 2005

"Y2K: A Litigator's Perspective," seminar presented to insurance claim adjusters group, speaker, 1999

"Coverage for Environmental Claims," Minnesota Institute for Legal Education, co-author, 1995

Professional Affiliations

Community Service

Noteworthy

Catherine was named one of the Top 50 Female Massachusetts Super Lawyers in 2004. She is also AV rated by Martindale-Hubbell and has been named a Massachusetts Super Lawyer from 2004-2009 (each year since inception).

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