Biography
Denise A. Rubin is an accomplished appellate and complex briefing litigator with a track record of more than 35 years of success for her clients.
Ms. Rubin gained broad experience litigating New York Labor Law (construction accident) matters when she served as the primary briefing attorney for plaintiffs’ liaison counsel, representing more than 11,000 first responders and construction workers suffering toxic exposure injuries following the debris removal and clean up of the WTC site following the 9/11 terrorist attacks in lower Manhattan. In that capacity, she appeared frequently before the US District Court for the Southern District of New York in the In re: World Trade Center Disaster Site litigations and briefed and argued multiple appeals to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in litigating the Ground Zero matters for more than ten years.
The Ground Zero litigations were described by presiding District Court Judge Alvin Hellerstein as: “the most complex case in the history of American mass tort litigation.” See, Hellerstein, et al., Managerial Judging: The 9/11 Responders’ Tort Litigation, 98 Cornell Law Review, Issue 1, November 2012; see also Groner, W., Teicholz, T., 9/12: The Epic Battle of the Ground Zero Responders, Potomac Books, 2019.
In addition to her work on Ground Zero and other Labor Law matters, Ms. Rubin has litigated pharmaceutical and medical device products liability claims and professional liability matters, and served as the Principal Court Attorney to a New York State Supreme Court Justice in New York County. She has lectured as a program panelist on pharmaceutical products liability (diet drug litigation), environmental law, appellate practice and moderated a panel on attorney ethics for the New York City Bar Association, where she sits on the Professional Responsibility Committee.
Ms. Rubin is admitted to practice in New York and is a member of the Bars of the United States District Courts for the Southern, Eastern and Northern Districts of New York, the United States Courts of Appeals for the Second, Third and Sixth Circuits and the United States Supreme Court. She is also certified as a commercial mediator.
Education
Fordham University School of Law – New York, New York
J.D. – 1990
New York University
B.S. – 1983
Bar Admission
- New York, 1991
- U.S. District Court Southern District of New York, 1991
- U.S. District Court Eastern District of New York, 1991
- U.S. District Court Northern District of New York, 1991
- U.S. Court of Appeals 2nd Circuit, 1991
- U.S. Supreme Court, 1997
- U.S. Court of Appeals 3rd Circuit, 2003
- U.S. Court of Appeals 6th Circuit, 2012
Published Works
- Does Early Breast Cancer Diagnosis Affect Cure, Survival?, MEDICAL-LEGAL ASPECTS OF CANCER LITIGATION, Leader Pub., NY, Vol. I, No. 1, p.1, Feb., 1995
Honors
- New York Metro SuperLawyers® 2012 – 2023
- New York Metro SuperLawyers® Best Women Attorneys in New York, 2014 – 2023
Classes & Seminars
- Moderator: How Your Small Firm or Solo Practice Can Minimize Ethics Complaints and Negative Outcomes; NYC Bar, 2017
- Panelist: 41st Annual Conference on Environmental Law; ABA, 2012
- Panelist: Mealey’s Diet Drug Litigation Seminar, 2004
- Panelist: “Appeals from the Inside Out,” NYCLA, 1997
- Panelist: “Roadblocks To A Successful Appeal And How To Overcome Them,” NYCLA, 1995
- Gillers, S., and Rubin, D. A., Ethical Obligations and Disclosure, CLE Course, 1999
Professional Associations
- New York City Bar Association, Committee on Professional Responsibility
