Patricia A. Lee maintains
a broad, complex litigation practice, with a
particular focus in health care and
construction litigation.
With
over 12 years experience as a litigator, Ms.
Lee has handled both civil and criminal
matters venued in federal, state, and
municipal trial courts, including trying
several cases to verdict; has represented
clients in arbitration, mediation, or
administrative disputes; and has been
involved with numerous appeals from trial
court orders and jury verdicts.Ms. Lee is a dedicated advocate for
her clients and devotes herself to their
causes and cases with passion and ingenuity.
A substantial portion of
Ms. Lee’s practice is committed to
representing health insurance companies.Such matters include the defense of
ERISA class actions brought by subscribers,
providers, and medical associations.In addition, Ms. Lee has been
involved with the defense of challenges to
individual coverage and policy decisions.Besides defense work, Ms. Lee has
represented insurers in actions seeking
relief against health care providers,
including recovery of overpayments.
Ms. Lee also has
experience handling complex litigations
arising out construction projects, including
delay and defective workmanship claims,
architectural and engineering liability,
fraud claims, and builder’s risk insurance
coverage disputes.
Ms. Lee joined Connell
Foley in 2003 and was promoted to partner in
2010.She
completed the IADC Trial Academy in 2007.Following law school, Ms. Lee served
as Law Clerk to the Honorable R. Benjamin
Cohen in the Chancery Division – General
Equity Part of the New Jersey Superior
Court, Essex County.
Association of New
Jersey Chiropractors, et al. v. Aetna:defense of a national
putative class action brought by
individual health care providers and
chiropractic associations asserting
ERISA and RICO challenges to Aetna’s
fraud investigation unit; pursuit of
counterclaims to recover overpayments to
the plaintiff providers.Many of plaintiffs’ claims,
including all RICO claims and the
individual claims of several providers,
were successfully dismissed by way of
initial motions.
•
In re Aetna UCR
Litigation, MDL 2020:defense of a
national, multi-district putative class
action brought by subscribers,
providers, and medical associations
alleging ERISA, RICO and Sherman Act
violations relating to the use of
certain databases to determine usual and
customary rates for out-of-network
services.
•
New Jersey Dental
Association v. Aetna:defense of an
associational action seeking to enjoin
the inclusion of provisions in network
agreements setting maximum fees to be
charged for services that, because of
deductibles, frequency limitations,
benefit maximums, and plan exclusions,
do not result in a payment from the
insurer.Dismissal was granted based upon
defense motions.
•
DeVito v.
Aetna:defense of a
subscriber putative class action
challenging
coverage policies for eating disorder
treatments; brought under ERISA
and state parity laws.The matter resulted in a
favorable and groundbreaking settlement
for a limited class of New Jersey insureds.
•
Additional matters:
-
Defended a health care provider in an
unfair competition action alleging
violations
of health care regulations and
interference with a restrictive covenant
agreement.
-
Served as amicus
in regulatory appeals relating to the
New Jersey Individual Health Coverage
Program Act;
-
Defended a wrongful
death action brought against numerous
health care providers, pharmacies and
hospitals relating to overutilization of
prescription medications;
-
Prosecuted an
overpayment recovery from an
anesthesiology group that received
double payments both from the insurer
and from a hospital system with
capitated rates for anesthesiology
services;
-
Defended a
provider pain specialist’s request for
payments under a network agreement and
pursued overpayment counterclaims based
upon overbilling, overutilization,
unbundling, and upcoding;
-
Defended an order to
show cause for emergent nursing care
coverage; and
-
Sought emergent relief
against an ambulance transportation
provider, enjoiningit from balance billing subscribers
following a defective termination of a
network services agreement.
Represented a
large
shopping center
developer
in a substantial multi-party
dispute involving defective workmanship,
professional negligence, insurance
coverage and delay claims.
•
Defended a wind
engineering company in a property damage
action involving a snow and ice study
performed for a new building at
BaruchCollege in New York City.
•
Represented
a horizontal directional drilling
contractor in a substantial multi-party
arbitration action involving affirmative
delay and change order damages as well
as defective workmanship claims.
•
Defended an
engineering
firm in two complex
professional
malpractice actions arising from the
design and construction of a major
wastewater treatment facility.
•
Defended substantial personal injury
litigations involving alleged
architectural and engineering errors in
major
New Jersey
construction projects, including the
Tropicana parking garage collapse
•
Represented a
retail shopping chain in an order to
show cause seeking emergent C.O.
approval, as well as in resolving
outstanding construction disputes and
bonding issues.
•
Represented
a real estate owner-developer in
a partnership dispute involving breach
and fraud claims against a construction
contractor-partner; prevailed in an
appeal of an order compelling the
parties to arbitrate and won remand of
the matter for full discovery on the
breach and fraud claim.
Secured orders of
the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
granting cut through to reinsurance
policies for two airlines insured by the
bankrupt Legion Insurance Company.
•
Won a full acquittal
after a jury trial on air piracy
criminal charges arising from
allegations that the defendant had
released stink bombs on two overseas TWA
flights within days of one another (United
States
v. Botnick, E.D.N.Y.).
•
Tried to verdict a
white collar criminal defense matter
based upon allegations of mail and wire
fraud through a mortgage refinancing
scheme; bail pending appeal to the Third
Circuit granted (United States v. Ragbir,
D.N.J.).
•
Secured dismissal
of all claims against an engineering
company acting in its capacity as
municipal zoning officer, including
§1983 claims.
•
Handled a white collar
criminal jury trial involving
allegations that the defendant, a former
political figure, committed fraud
against his hospital system employer (United States
v. Botnick, D.N.J.).
•
Prosecuted claims of a
property owner alleging constitutional
due process and equal protection
violations caused by a blight
designation.
•
Won acquittal after a
bench trial on several counts of sexual
misconduct brought against an educator
in a multi-complainant case.
•
Successfully defended
a contamination action against an oil
tank removal contractor by establishing
commingled contamination sources, false
damages, and net expert opinions.
