Suzanne C. Midlige

Practice Areas

Commercial Litigation

Insurance and Reinsurance

Professional Liability and Directors & Officers

Career

Suzanne Cocco Midlige is the Managing Partner and a founding member of Coughlin Midlige & Garland LLP. She is also a member of the Firm's Insurance and Reinsurance Services Group.

Prior to election to managing partner, Suzanne served as the practice group leader for the Insurance and Reinsurance Services Group from 2004 to 2012. Suzanne's practice focuses on the representation of domestic and international insurers and reinsurers in litigated and non-litigated matters. She has extensive experience representing multi-national companies involved in transnational disputes. Suzanne has years of experience representing the interests of insurers and reinsurers in disputes relating to financial institutions, director and officer disputes, asbestos, pollution, health hazards, and the recent opioid litigation. Suzanne has acted for multinational reinsurers in a series of corporate malfeasance claims and failed tax strategy claims, as well as coordinating counsel for a multinational reinsurer in relation to subprime and credit exposures. She has significant experience with asbestos coverage disputes, including the area of asbestos bankruptcy litigation. Significant cases include acting as counsel to 50 multinational insurers in a complex insurance and antitrust dispute involving US and Australian asbestos claims, as well as counsel to European insurers in asbestos coverage litigation filed in the US and London. Suzanne works closely with insurers in relation to the development and implementation of models to allocate losses across complex insurance programmes, and in evaluating future loss projections and developing burn rate analyses.

Suzanne served as a judicial clerk to Hon. William G Bassler, Judge of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey.

Professional Memberships

Member, International Association of Defense Counsel

Fellow, American College of Coverage and Extracontractual Counsel

Fellow, Litigation Counsel of America

Member, Association for Professional Insurance Women (APIW)

Member, Professional Liability Underwriting Society (PLUS)

Member, ARIAS

Member, New Jersey Bar Association

Member, International Bar Association

Member, American Bar Association

Co-Chair, London Subcommittee of the Insurance Coverage Litigation Committee (Litigation Section)

Founding member Coughlin Midlige & Garland's Women's Initiative Group

Publications

Author, “Navigating the Wave of Water Contamination Claims: Analysis of City of New York v. Amerada Hess Corp. and Its Implications for Other Water Contamination Claims,” Environmental Claims Journal, 22: 1,17-26. (2010)

Author, “Neue Welle von Produkthaftpflichtklagen wegen ‘Chinese Drywall ’ in den USA?” PHi, Nr. 1/2010. (2010)

Author, “US Supreme Court and Democrat Lawmakers Breath New Life Into Product Liability Claims,” Financier Worldwide Magazine (June 2009)

Author, “Auction Rate Securities Overview & Emerging Issues,” White Paper (July 2008)