Maaren A. Shah is a partner in the New York office. She is Co-Chair of the firm’s Insurance Practice and Co-Chair of the firm’s Art Litigation and Disputes Practice. She has extensive experience handling complex commercial disputes, with a focus on the financial services, energy, insurance, and art sectors. As a seasoned trial lawyer, she has represented clients in trials and appeals in many state and federal trial and appellate courts, as well as in arbitration hearings. She frequently represents companies and investment funds in high-stakes, high-dollar disputes, and often advises her clients on pre-litigation risk mitigation and on litigation-driven investment and business strategies. She has been lead counsel in several insurance-related jury trials, securing very favorable results for her insurer clients including a unanimous defense jury verdict. She also leads the firm’s premier art litigation practice representing clients in art-related disputes involving issues such as copyright/fair use, provenance and authenticity, art forgery, art contracts and transactions, and art financing.
She has been recognized as a “Next Generation Partner” for General Commercial Disputes by Legal 500 (2022), honored as an MVP in Insurance by Law360 (2022) and by The Best Lawyers in America for Art Law (2020, 2021), selected to the Lawdragon 500 as a Leading Litigator in Complex Commercial Litigation, including Art (2023), Lawdragon 500 Global Litigation Lawyers Guide (2021) and Lawdragon 500 Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyers Guide (2020, 2021, 2022), and twice recognized as a “Litigator of the Week” by The American Lawyer (2019 and 2022). She has also been recognized as a “Rising Star” by the New York Law Journal (2016) and a “Rising Star” in Energy by Law360 (2018), and has been named by Benchmark Litigation as a Future Star (2023) and listed repeatedly on Benchmark Litigation's “Under 40 Hot List” (2016, 2018, 2019). She graduated with distinction from Stanford Law School and clerked for the Honorable Robert D. Sack on the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. She also presently serves as a visiting faculty member and a member of the Board of Visitors at Stanford Law School.
- Elliott Management Corporation
- Sixth Street Partners
- Golub Capital
- Vista Equity Partners
- Och-Ziff Capital Management
- AIG (American International Group)
- Lexington Insurance Company
- American Home Assurance Company
- Hess Corporation
- Mercuria Energy Trading S.A.
- FirstEnergy Generation LLC
- Oxy USA, Inc.
- Access Industries
- The Andy Warhol Foundation
- Morgan Art Foundation
- Phillips Auctioneers
- Gagosian Gallery
- Knoedler Gallery
- Petzel Gallery
- Elite World Model Management
- Kendall Jenner
- Obtained full defense victory for AIG affiliates in a jury trial in Delaware Superior Court in a seven-figure dispute where jury found that AIG’s policyholder had committed fraud, acted in bad faith, and breached policy provisions, resulting in a take-nothing verdict.
- Represents AIG affiliates in various litigations concerning the availability of business interruption insurance coverage resulting from COVID-19 business closures and obtained full defense victory for AIG affiliate in landmark case concerning such coverage in a healthcare setting.
- Represents Hess Corporation in litigation with Marathon Oil Company concerning federal regulatory and contractual decommissioning obligations for several former oil and gas producing assets in the Gulf of Mexico.
- Represented Hess Corporation in Fifth Circuit appeal concerning $250 million dispute with Schlumberger Technology Corporation concerning non-performing subsurface safety valve equipment.
- Represented private equity and credit funds including Sixth Street Partners and Golub Capital in litigation and related arbitrations challenging the proposed merger between Neuberger Bergman’s Dyal Capital Partners division and Owl Rock Capital.
- Represented Elliott Management Corporation’s NML Capital Ltd. against the Republic of Argentina relating to Argentina’s decade-old default on sovereign debt.
- Obtained landmark ruling in favor of RMBS investor, Sceptre LLC, following a federal bench trial on an issue of first impression in New York regarding whether an RMBS indenture can be reformed nine years after execution to correct for a scrivener’s error that reversed the priority of two classes of notes.
- Represents Morgan Art Foundation against the Estate of Robert Indiana and others in a lawsuit concerning the foundation’s rights in and protection of the late artist Robert Indiana’s artworks and artistic legacy.
- Represents The Andy Warhol Foundation in copyright infringement lawsuit concerning whether Warhol made fair use of a photograph of the late recording artist known as “Prince” in connection with his 1984 series of 16 paintings and drawings of Prince.
- Represented Knoedler Gallery, one of the most prominent art galleries in the world, in lawsuits arising from $60 million in sales of forged artwork previously believed to be by Abstract Expressionist artists such as Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Robert Motherwell, and Willem de Kooning, until those cases were brought to successful resolution.
- Represents Phillips Auctioneers in a variety of matters and obtained landmark victory for Phillips Auctioneers in the S.D.NY. and Second Circuit concerning effect of force majeure clause following pandemic-related auction postponements.
- Represented art gallery David Benrimon Fine Art in lawsuit involving racketeering and fraud claims concerning the artworks le Gueridon by Pablo Picasso and Composition avec Profil de Femme by Fernand Leger.
- Represented artist Derek Fordjour in contract dispute with former art dealer that implicated NY public policy concerning predatory practices toward artists.
- Represents art financing fund in litigation concerning a financing deal for the purchase and sale of artworks by artists including Keith Haring and Willem DeKooning.
- Represented Elite World S.A. and Men Women N.Y. Model Management Inc. in litigation with Elite N.Y. Model Management concerning unlawful competition and solicitation of models and model managers.
- Represents Elite World S.A. and supermodel Kendall Jenner in litigation with Italian fashion brand concerning a modeling contract.
- Represented the extraordinary commissioner of Italian diary company Parmalat SpA in litigation against Citibank and Bank of America for fraud and aiding and abetting breach of fiduciary duty, including in a six-month jury trial to verdict in the New Jersey state court and through resulting appeals to the New Jersey Supreme Court.
- Represented UMB Bank as indenture trustee for more than $1.25 billion in notes issued by Caesars Entertainment Operating Corp. (CEOC) in its action seeking appointment of a receiver over CEOC and the return of significant assets and value siphoned out of CEOC by management.
- Represented FirstEnergy Generation in confidential arbitrations and related federal litigation concerning several long-term coal transportation contracts with three national railroads.
- Represented Mercuria Energy Trading in disputes involving post-closing purchase price adjustments to oil-and-gas assets, employee competition and mobility, and trade secrets, and obtained complete dismissal for Mercuria of lawsuit alleging failure to redeem $32 million of former employee’s carried interest.
- Represented Oxy USA, Inc. in arbitration and subsequent appeal in its dispute with SandRidge Exploration and Production relating to natural gas treatment contract and plant construction contract.
- Antitrust & Competition
- Appellate Practice
- Art Litigation
- Employment Litigation & Counseling
- Energy Sector Disputes
- Investment Fund Litigation
- Lender Liability & Other Banking Financial Institution Litigation
- Litigation Representing Plaintiffs
- Structured Finance & Derivatives Litigation
- Distressed Investment Litigation
- Hedge Fund Litigation
- Sovereign Wealth Fund Litigation
- International Arbitration
- Insurance & Reinsurance Litigation
- Stanford Law School
(J.D., with distinction, 2007) - University of Pennsylvania
(B.A., magna cum laude, with honors, Economics; Spanish, 2003)
- The State Bar of New York
- United States Appeals Court:
- Second Circuit
- Fifth Circuit
- United States District Court:
- Southern District of New York
- Eastern District of New York
- French
- Spanish
- Italian
- Law Clerk to the Honorable Robert D. Sack:
- United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, 2009-2010
- Recognized by Benchmark Litigation as a Future Stars, 2023
- Named a Law360 MVP in Insurance, 2022
- Recognized as “Next Generation Partner” for General Commercial Disputes by Legal 500 (2022)
- Honored as “Litigator of the Week” by The American Lawyer (2022)
- Selected to Lawdragon 500 as Leading Litigator in Complex Commercial Litigation, inc. Art (2023)
- Selected to Lawdragon 500 Global Litigation Lawyers guide (2021)
- Selected to Lawdragon 500 Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyers guide (2020-2022)
- Selected to The Best Lawyers in America, in Art Law (2020-2021)
- Honored as “Litigator of the Week” by The American Lawyer (2019)
- Selected as a 2018 “Rising Star” in Energy by Law360
- Named to Benchmark Litigation's “Under 40 Hot List.” (2016, 2018, 2019)
- Selected as a “2016 Rising Star” by the New York Law Journal
- Mentioned, Another Stacked Batch of Litigator of the Week Runners-Up and Shout Outs, The American Lawyer (2022)
- Luke Nikas and Maaren A. Shah, Art Law Chapter, Business and Commercial Litigation in Federal Courts, 5th Edition (2021).
- Luke Nikas and Maaren A Shah, Mediation and Arbitration of International Art Disputes, The Art Law Review, 1st Edition (2020).
- Luke Nikas and Maaren Shah, To Give and To Receive: A Handbook on Collection Gifts and Donations for Museums and Donors, 2nd Edition, § 24 Copyright Does Not Transfer with the Gift (2020).
- Firm Memorandum, Appropriation Art: An International Divide (Oct. 2019).
- Firm Memorandum, Rentmeester v. Nike: Copyright Protection for Photography (Jan. 2019).
- Interpreting In Pari Delicto In the Wake of Kirschner v. KPMG, Am. Bankr. Inst. J., Vol. XXIX, No. 2 (Mar. 2010).
- Deepening Insolvency Theory: It Should Be Upheld, Special to The National Law Journal (July 9, 2007).
- Sink or Swim? A Case for Salvaging Deepening Insolvency Theory, 7 J. Bus. & Sec. L. 163 (2007).