Shivani Poddar, Partner

Shivani Poddar is a partner in the Litigation Department and co-chair of the firm’s Insurance, Reinsurance & Dispute Resolution Group. A Chambers USA-ranked and Legal 500-recommended litigator, Shivani handles high-stakes, cutting-edge matters across insurance coverage, complex commercial disputes and employment law.

Shivani guides clients through every phase of a dispute, always anchored to their business goals and risk mitigation. That discipline often pays off before a complaint is ever filed, with favorable resolutions reached early. In the event a case cannot be resolved early on, she takes matters all the way to verdict when the case demands it.

Her practice is multi-jurisdictional and trial-tested. Clients notice the difference in her approach, noting “Shivani is extremely knowledgeable, adept at explaining issues in a clear and concise manner, and willing to discuss all aspects necessary to understand the matter.”

Insurance, Reinsurance & Dispute Resolution

Recognized by Chambers USA and Legal 500 for her insurance work, Shivani evaluates claims, drafts coverage opinions and litigates and arbitrates across the full range of lines — commercial general liability, commercial property, directors and officers, financial lines, errors and omissions, employment practices, fiduciary, pollution and homeowners. She represents global insurers in complex coverage litigation, arbitration and mediation, including contribution and indemnification claims and priority-of-coverage disputes between carriers.

She is lead counsel to a global insurer in a series of closely watched coverage disputes arising from nationwide litigation against social media companies, alleged to have designed products that addict minors — a rapidly evolving, nationally significant area of insurance law raising novel questions of policy interpretation. She represents a carrier in a coverage action, related to Mattel’s recalled Rock ‘n Play sleeper. She successfully defended a major insurer on appeal before the Appellate Division, First Department, under a contaminated-products policy tied to the Sabra hummus recall.  

Complex Commercial Litigation

Shivani brings an insider's perspective to investor and commercial disputes. As an active angel investor in start-ups, she understands firsthand the risks of backing private and public companies — and sophisticated investors, developers, lenders and businesses regularly call on her when high-value transactions go wrong. Her work spans investor and financial services disputes, bankruptcy litigation and real estate.

Shivani’s representations include representing 95 investors (individuals and institutions), who invested over $100 million into now-defunct hedge funds, in an action against the funds’ auditors and administrator, asserting claims for breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty and negligence; representing the offshore liquidator of the largest Madoff feeder fund to recover billions paid out to investors; defending an investment advisor against fraud claims arising from investments in collateralized debt obligations; defending a Canadian hedge fund against breach of contract claims asserted by its placement agent; defending a home healthcare agency in a partnership dispute related to valuation. Shivani also secured a complete win for the managing member of a joint venture formed to develop a luxury residential project in Miami, after hard-fought litigation and a three-day bench trial.

Shivani frequently handles complex bankruptcy litigation matters as well, including representing Ample Hills Creamery, a New York-area chain of retail ice cream stores, in a Section 363 sale in the earliest days of the COVID-19 crisis; the largest ad hoc group of defendants-appellees in decade-long litigation over fraudulent conveyance claims arising from a $2 billion leveraged recapitalization; the bankruptcy trustee in a fraudulent transfer action, stemming from one of the largest leveraged buy-out transactions on record; and a mortgage originator in an adversary proceeding, stemming from the Lehman bankruptcy, related to breach of warranties in the sale of mortgage loans.

Employment Litigation

Shivani defends employers in individual, class and collective actions under federal and state wage-and-hour laws — including the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) and the New York Labor Law (“NYLL”) — as well as claims of discrimination, harassment, retaliation, wrongful termination and breach of contract. She often litigates issues of minimum wage, overtime, spread of hours, the 13/24-hour rule for home health care aides, tip credits and tip misappropriation, misclassification, unlawful deductions, exemptions, off-the-clock and on-the-clock time, lunch breaks, the fluctuating workweek and joint-employer liability.

Shivani successfully litigated a New York state-court class action against addiction treatment facilities alleging unlawful time-shaving and rounding practices under the New York Labor Law, along with pay-frequency claims; won a full dismissal for a New York City nursing and rehabilitation center in a purported class action alleging FLSA overtime violations, obtaining the dismissal on a pre-answer motion converted to summary judgment; and obtained early dismissal of individual and class wage-and-hour claims under the NYLL and FLSA for employers in the real estate, healthcare and hospitality industries.

She also helps clients get ahead of risk. This includes preventative audits, best-practice programs, responses to Department of Labor and other agency inquiries, compliance reviews and the drafting employment policies, handbooks and agreements. She has advised an international luxury cosmetics and skincare brand and a fintech company on employment contracts, policies and claims. Her other clients span healthcare (hospitals, home health care agencies, nursing and rehabilitation centers), consumer products, hospitality and real estate.

The American Arbitration Association (“AAA”) recently invited Shivani to join its roster of employment arbitrators — a distinction typically reserved for lawyers with decades of practice.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Leadership

Shivani is a driving force for diversity and inclusion at Herrick and across the profession. She has taken leadership roles in numerous initiatives to broaden diversity in the law, including the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD) — a coalition of more than 400 corporate chief legal officers and law firm managing partners committed to building a truly diverse U.S. legal profession. That work has been widely recognized: she was named to Crain's New York Business Notable Diverse Leaders in Law for 2022 and honored by Profiles in Diversity Journal as a Woman Worth Watching® and a Diverse Lawyer Making a Difference.