Nora A. Valenza-Frost

Nora Valenza-Frost represents insurers and reinsurers in complex commercial litigation and arbitrations, including complex insurance coverage disputes and reinsurance matters. She regularly represents and counsels insurers, cedents, and reinsurers on claims, coverage, regulatory, and contract wording issues across all lines of business. Nora has also represented insurance companies before the New York State Department of Financial Services.

In addition to her work in the insurance and reinsurance space, Nora handles a variety of complex commercial disputes on behalf of lenders, mortgage servicers, and other financial institutions involving a wide variety of tort, property, and contract issues.

During law school, she served as an intern to the Honorable Faith S. Hochberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.

Insurance/Reinsurance Coverage and Litigation

Nora is counsel to insurers and reinsurance in matters involving numerous lines of business, including commercial general liability, EPL, D&O, E&O, representations and warranties, professional liability, fidelity, cyber, property, business interruption, life and health, workers’ compensation, pollution, marine and inland marine, kidnap and ransom, and energy. Nora has experience with various insurance coverage issues, including claims-made and notice requirements, additional insured rights, other insurance clauses and priority of coverage, recoupment, consent-to-settle or voluntary payments provisions, fortuity, trigger, exhaustion, allocation, number of occurrences, subrogation, and follow form clauses. She also has experience with reinsurance issues such as follow-the-fortunes and follow-the-settlements, follow-the-form, underwriting and pricing, claims handling, utmost good faith, and various contract wording disputes.

She has handled a wide range of claims, including sexual/physical abuse, molestation, assault, construction defect, lead paint exposure, other types of alleged bodily injury, asbestos and toxic torts, third-party and first-party property damage, antitrust, pollution and other environmental damages, personal and advertising injury exposure, kidnapping, data breaches, employment practices violations, and breaches of purchase agreements.

Representative insurance matters include: 

• Nat'l Union Fire Ins. Co. of Pittsburgh v. Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn, No. 653575/2014 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. 2017), appeal dismissed, No. 2018-686 (N.Y. App. Div. 2019) (insurance coverage dispute involving underlying claims of sexual/physical abuse, granting motion for partial summary regarding pro rata allocation of defense and indemnity costs, number of occurrences, and exhaustion of multiple self-insured retentions).
• AIG Claims, Inc. v. Pier View Condo. Ass'n, Inc., No. 157730/2018 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. Apr. 15, 2019) (granting petition to quash non-party subpoena issued by plaintiff in underlying construction defect action seeking the production of documents pertaining to other insurance coverage, policies, and claims-related information).
• Cty. of Suffolk v. Lexington Ins. Co., No. 604661/2017 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. 2018) (obtaining summary judgment for second layer excess insurer in dispute involving E&O coverage provided by an excess liability policy on grounds that the underlying claim did not involve a “wrongful act” implicating the policy’s insuring agreement, lacked the requisite fortuity required by New York law, and was barred by the policy’s breach of contract exclusion).
• Defended and favorably settled multimillion-dollar pollution liability claim involving multiple pollution sites.
• Represented insurer in confidential arbitration involving representations and warranties policy in which buyer alleged breaches of a number of financial representations in a securities purchase agreement.
• Defended and favorably settled numerous declaratory judgment actions in which underlying claim involved alleged construction defects.
• Provided monitoring counsel.

Recent representative reinsurance matters include:

• Represented reinsurer in an arbitration involving the scope of a treaty’s contested claims provision, related clauses, and the duty of utmost good faith.
• Represented a stop-loss insurer/reinsurer in arbitration against a claims administrator and underwriter under an MGU agreement.
• Represented a reinsurer in arbitration concerning its denial of a multimillion-dollar medical malpractice loss ceded to it in a matter involving late notice and bad faith claims handling.

Mortgage-Related, Consumer Finance, Title Insurance, and General Commercial Litigation and Dispute Resolution

Nora represents financial institutions, lenders, mortgage services, and other commercial entities in complex litigation. Recent representative commercial matters include:

• Saxon Mortg. Servs., Inc. v. Wright, No. 707856/2017 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. July 22, 2019) (granting lender’s motion for summary judgment to secure the cancellation and discharge of record of an erroneous satisfaction of mortgage, declaring the subject mortgages valid and subsisting liens on the subject premises, and striking answer interposed by borrower).
• Saxon Mortg. Servs., Inc. v. Trovato, No. 610603/2017 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. July 30, 2018) (obtaining declaratory relief discharging erroneous satisfaction of mortgage and declaring the operative CEMA and mortgages valid and subsisting liens and encumbrances on the subject property).
• Lindow v. Royal Realty Assocs., LLC, No. 8588/2014 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. 2018) (in quiet title dispute, obtaining dismissal of fraud and unjust enrichment claims brought against insured by plaintiff seeking to unwind a foreclosure judgment and alleging the misappropriation of real property).
• SMI Home Mortg. v. Solano, No. 0381270/2009 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. 2017) (obtaining judgment in favor of a mortgage servicer declaring an erroneous satisfaction of mortgage null and void, directing the city register to cancel and discharge said satisfaction of mortgage, and declaring the CEMA/mortgages valid and subsisting liens and encumbrances on the subject property).
• Jean-Baptiste v. Saxon Mortg. Servs., Inc., No. CAE13-04688 (Md. Cir. Ct. July 16, 2015) (obtaining dismissal of lawsuit against servicer/lender alleging violations of TILA, Maryland's Consumer Protection Act, and RESPA and asserting claims of rescission, conversion, wrongful foreclosure, and breach of fiduciary duty).
• Craig v. Saxon Mortg. Servs., Inc., No. 2:13-cv-04526, 2015 WL 171234 (E.D.N.Y. Jan. 13, 2015) (obtaining dismissal of complaint alleging fraud, unjust enrichment, violations of the FDCPA and TILA, and other claims against lender/mortgage servicer).
• Mayor & City Council of Baltimore v. Saxon Mortg. Inc., No. 23651-14 (D. Md. 2015) (obtaining dismissal of action against lender alleging certain violations related to abandoned property and seeking fines/violations).
• SMI Home Mortg. v. Coyne, No. 17838/2009 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. 2014); SMI Home Mortg. v. Downs, No. 18262/2009 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. 2014); SMI Home Mortg. v. Goodman, No. 23786/2009 (N.Y. Sup. Ct.); SMI Home Mortg. v. Sakla, No. 005220/2009 (N.Y. Sup. Ct.); SMI Home Mortg. v. Hakanjin, No. 10870/2009 (N.Y. Sup. Ct.) (obtaining discharge of erroneous satisfaction of mortgage and declaring the CEMAs valid and subsisting liens on the subject premises, taking priority over other liens).
• Deramo v. Laffey, No. 15061/2011 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. 2014) (mortgage servicer not liable in action to determine adverse claims to property under New York Real Property Actions and Proceedings Law).

• The Best Lawyers in America: Ones to Watch, Insurance Law (2021–2024)
• New York Metro Rising Stars, Super Lawyers Magazine (2018–2023)

• American Bar Association
• Maritime Law Association of the United States
• New York State Bar Association

• "N.Y. Ins. Law § 3420(d)(2): Issues and Considerations," Carlton Fields (March 10, 2022)
• "Missing/Lost Policy Situations: Issues and Considerations," Carlton Fields (March 3, 2022)
• "Developments in Reviver Statute Legislation – How Much is the Door Open," Carlton Fields (November 12, 2020)

• Associate, Locke Lord LLP (s/b/m Edwards Wildman Palmer LLP), New York, NY (2012–2015)
• Associate, Nicoletti Hornig & Sweeney, New York, NY (2010–2012)
• Legal Assistant, Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP, New York, NY (2005–2007)