Attorney Profiles

Janice Allende
Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Associate
phone	(954) 847-4920
fax	(954) 627-6640
email	jjallende@mdwcg.com

Janice currently devotes a significant amount of her practice to the defense of matters involving insurance coverage disputes. She has, however, represented a considerable number of architects, engineering firms; and geoenvironmental firms and has experience in litigating class actions sounding in mass tort and consumer fraud matters.

In 1994 Janice graduated from Rutgers University, New Brunswick with a Bachelor of Arts in English and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance. After college she traveled throughout Europe and Latin America as a Habitat for Humanity volunteer. In 1997 she attended Rutgers Law School, Newark as a night student while working full-time as a law clerk for an insurance defense firm in Livingston, New Jersey.

After earning her J.D. in 2001, Janice began her legal career as a judicial clerk for the Honorable Edward R. Schwartz at the Essex County Courthouse, Civil Division, focusing on commercial litigation, employment, construction, insurance coverage and land use cases.

Upon completion of her clerkship, Janice joined a boutique insurance coverage firm in New Jersey practicing insurance coverage and commercial litigation until she aligned herself with a New York-based international law firm practicing commercial litigation, complex construction and insurance coverage.

Janice joined the firm's Fort Lauderdale coverage group in 2008. She is admitted to practice in New Jersey, New York, and Florida.

Significant Representative Matters:

Successful settlement of a suit in which represented a soils and foundation specialty consulting firm regarding a claim alleging defective construction of a storm retention basin. The client's insurance company went into liquidation and defense and indemnification of the suit was diverted to the New York Liquidation Bureau, from whom successfully obtained indemnification, attorney's fees and costs, after a long and protracted hearing before a specially appointed magistrate.

Negotiated a settlement demand on behalf of client, a prominent architectural firm, down from $9.3 million to $1 million at AAA mediation with the use of engineering and architectural experts in connection with a suit alleging defective design and construction of a famous clothing designer's flagship store located on Madison Avenue, New York.

Year Joined Organization:: 2008

Areas of Practice:: Insurance Coverage; Complex Construction; Commercial Litigation

Bar Admissions:: New Jersey, 2001; New York, 2001; Florida, 2008

Education:: Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey School of Law - Newark, Newark, New Jersey, 2001
J.D.; Rutgers University, 1994
B.A.

Honors and Awards:: C. Willard Heckel Inn of Court, Barrister; Women's Rights Law Journal, Editor

Professional Associations and Memberships:: Florida Bar Association; Habitat for Humanity; New Jersey Bar Association; New York Bar Association

Languages:: Spanish; Italian