Dennis J. Drasco, Attorney

DENNIS J. DRASCO is a Certified Civil Trial Attorney in New Jersey and is listed in The Best Lawyers in America, New Jersey Super Lawyers, Chambers USA - America's leading lawyers in Business and Who's Who in American Law. He is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, the International Academy of Trial Lawyers and the Litigation Counsel of America. He is a New Jersey Court Approved Mediator.
He is a member of the House of Delegates of the American Bar Association and former Chair of the ABA Section of Litigation, having served as Chair of the Section in 2004-2005. He was previously Vice-Chair and Chair-Elect. The Section of Litigation is the largest Section in the ABA with over 70,000 members.

He previously served as a member of its Council and as Co-Chair of the Condemnation, Land Use & Zoning and Construction Litigation Committees, where he wrote articles and served on several programs as a panelist, including programs entitled "ADR in Construction Litigation", "When the Banker Becomes Builder", and "Environmental Contamination on the Construction Site" and chapters in two books published by the ABA on Condemnation Practice.

He also delivered the summation in a mock trial entitled "Design/Build Construction Disputes" for the ABA Forum on the Construction Industry and the opening statement and summation in a mock trial/mediation sponsored by the American Bar Association Dispute Resolution Section. He participated in the ABA Section of Litigation videos "73 Ways to Win" (2001), "64 Ways to Improve Your Law Practice (And Life)" (2002) and "Ethical Issues: 40 Solutions for litigation" (2005).

 He is currently Chair of the Commission on The American Jury, having served as Co-Chair of the ABA American Jury Project in 2004-2005. He has been a member of the ABA Coalition For Justice and served as the Section of Litigation Liaison to the Standing Committee on Judicial Independence and the Commission on Public Financing of Judicial Campaigns. He has been Co-Chair of the Section of Litigation Coordinating Committee on Diversity, Task Force For The Minority Trial Lawyer, its Strategic Planning Committee, and Co-Chair of a NITA Program to teach legal services attorneys trial skills.
He also was a Division Director and Co-Director of Divisions before being elected to move into the Chairs of the Section. Additionally, he served as a speaker on programs entitled "Procurement Law and International Arbitration", "Are Trials Vanishing?" and "Federal Practice for State Court Practitioners" sponsored by the New Jersey State Bar Association. A past Member of the Editorial Board of New Jersey Lawyer, the magazine, he authored articles entitled "How to Get From the War Room to the Courtroom: The Basics for Civil Trial Preparation", 152 New Jersey Lawyer 32 (1993) and Construction Contracts: Arbitration as a Means of Dispute Resolution in New Jersey, 219 New Jersey Lawyer 22 (2003)

He is currently Immediate Past President of the Association of the Federal Bar of New Jersey. He has been a moderator and panelist on several New Jersey Federal Bar Judicial Conference Programs on Jury Innovation, Cross Examination, Federal Practices in New Jersey and September 11, 2001 Victim's Compensation Fund. In 2000, he received the Essex County Bar Association's Civil Trial Attorney Achievement Award and in 2006 received a "Professional Lawyer of the Year" award from the New Jersey Commission on Professionalism in the Law. In 2009, he received the Essex County Bar Association's Walter A. Lucas Special Merit Award.

He is an active Member of the ABA Forum on the Construction Industry, the New Jersey State Bar Construction and Public Contracts Law Section and the ABA TTIPS Life, Health and Disability Committee and has authored articles on ERISA litigation.

He recently authored an article for the Journal of Dispute Resolution entitled: "Public Access to Information in Civil Litigation v. Litigant's demand for privacy: Is the "Vanishing Trial" an avoidable consequence?" 2006 J. Disp. Resol.

He is currently Chair of the Essex County Bar Association's Judicial Selection Committee and past Chair of its Joint Medical-Legal Committee and Annual Conference.

He is a Master in the Seton Hall Law School Inn of Court and was elected a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation in 2002. He has served on many civic and charitable boards, including the United Way of North Essex and the Essex County Legal Service Foundation.

He is admitted to practice in New Jersey, New York, the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, the United States Tax Court, the Second and Third Circuit Court of Appeals, and the Supreme Court of the United States.

Dennis specializes in the trial of complex commercial, construction, condemnation, insurance, medical malpractice and legal malpractice cases in Federal and State Court in New York and New Jersey and the mediation and arbitration of those cases in ADR forums.

• Township of West Orange vs. 769 Associates 2000

• Shell Oil vs. Trailer & Truck Repair Co. 1987

• Pittston vs. Sedwick James 1997

• Pittston vs. Allianz 1995

• National Newark & Essex Bank vs. American Ins. Co. 1978

• Jersey City Redevelopment Agency vs. Tug and Barge Urban Renewal Corp. 1998

• Jersey City Redevelopment Agency vs. Costello 1991

• Halpern vs. Halpern 1999

• Guardian Life Insurance Co. vs. Weissman 2000

• Broadway Maintenance Corp. vs. Rutgers 1982