Meredith Elkins

Practice Areas

Focusing on insurance coverage matters and commercial litigation, Meredith Elkins represents clients at every stage of disputes, including trials and appeals. Her practice is national in scope, with significant experience in state, federal, and appellate courts in Texas, New York, Delaware, and California.

An experienced and sophisticated trial lawyer, Meredith’s oral advocacy talents, writing skills, and ability to distill complicated legal issues into clear, comprehensible language give her a major advantage in persuading judges and juries and gaining the best possible outcomes for her clients.

Throughout her career, Meredith has secured several groundbreaking victories, including a substantial verdict in a jury trial against several insurers that denied coverage for financial services organization TIAA-CREF following class actions stemming from its software implementation effort. That verdict was affirmed by the Delaware Supreme Court on appeal. In the general liability context, Meredith secured three federal court decisions affirming Chubb’s duty to defend its policyholder CONMED Corp. in a series of toxic tort litigations.

Within Cohen Ziffer, Meredith serves as hiring partner. Since the firm’s launch in January 2021, the firm has tripled in size, with Meredith overseeing the recruiting and hiring process of all new attorneys. Notably, nearly half of the firm’s attorneys are female, and more than 30% are otherwise diverse.

Career

Meredith has been a critical member of the Cohen Ziffer team since the firm’s launch in January 2021. Earlier in her career, she practiced at McKool Smith.

Awards

Education

Work Highlights

Among other victories, Meredith secured a Delaware Superior Court win for Immunomedics Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Gilead Sciences, in a case involving insurance coverage following a securities class action lawsuit, when the court granted Immunomedics’ motion for summary judgment and denied Hudson Insurance Company’s cross-motion, confirming the claim was not barred by the policy’s “relatedness” provisions. Meredith was also part of an all-women team that secured a precedential ruling allowing a pandemic-related insurance coverage case brought by policyholder JDS Construction Group, LLC to move forward, and has achieved successes in other business interruption litigations that buck the national trends in such cases. She has also secured major forum and defense costs rulings for Walmart that bolster the retail giant’s right to coverage for more than $3 billion in defense and settlement costs associated with the opioid epidemic.

Expert in these Jurisdictions

Meredith is admitted to practice before the following courts:

• U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit

• U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit

• U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit

• U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York

• U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Texas

• U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas

• U.S. District Court, Southern District of Texas