Overview
Dorothea W. Regal is one of Hoguet Newman Regal & Kenney’s founding partners and is a Co-Managing Partner of the firm. She is a seasoned litigator with decades of experience litigating and providing strategic guidance on complex high-stakes business disputes in state and federal courts and in international and local arbitration forums. She has won numerous summary judgments and appeals for domestic and international clients.
She concentrates her practice on securing and maximizing insurance recovery for policyholders, including corporations and other businesses. In her insurance practice, she has successfully helped policyholders recover hundreds of millions of dollars under a variety of types of insurance policies. She has extensive experience in the highly specialized field of insurance coverage for current claims under old, expired pre-1986 occurrence policies, including environmental pollution claims and latent injury claims regarding past exposure to toxic materials.
She has successfully represented and counseled commercial and industrial policyholders in connection with insurance coverage for environmental and asbestos liability claims, products liability coverage, directors and officers (D&O) coverage, errors and omissions (E&O) coverage, employment practices liability (EPLI) coverage, property damage, and business interruption coverage.
Dorothea is a Fellow of the American College of Coverage Counsel, the preeminent, invitation-only association of seasoned insurance coverage counsel. She is a co-author of the New York section of the prestigious Chambers and Partners’ Insurance and Reinsurance Global Practice Guide for 2025 and for 2024. She also serves as Co-Chair of the Business Interruption Subcommittee of the American Bar Association’s Section of Litigation Insurance Coverage Litigation Committee. She has been a frequent presenter on insurance law issues at bar association meetings and other professional forums.
In addition to her insurance recovery practice, Dorothea has extensive experience in other complex commercial matters, including international business disputes, employment litigation and letter-of-credit matters. She has authored several publications on letters of credit and has lectured on that topic for the Practicing Law Institute and the New York County Lawyers’ Association.
Prior to founding HNRK, Dorothea was a corporate and litigation associate at White & Case, LLP.
Recognition
- Recognized by Chambers USA for Insurance: Dispute Resolution – Policyholder (New York,2025, 2024, 2023)
- Benchmark Litigation’s National Practice Area Star, Insurance, 2025
- Benchmark Litigation’s Litigation Star, 2019-2025
- Euromoney’s Insurance Lawyer of the Year, 2021
- Named a Distinguished Leader by the New York Law Journal, 2021
- Received Crain’s New York Business’s Notable Women Business Owners award, 2021
- Named an Elite Boutique Trailblazer by The National Law Journal, 2018
- New York Metro Super Lawyers - Insurance Coverage, Employment Litigation and Business Litigation (2014-2023)
- Crain’s New York Business’ 2022 Notable Diverse Leaders List
Leadership
- Founding partner of Hoguet Newman Regal & Kenney
- Co-Managing Partner of Hoguet Newman Regal & Kenney
- Fellow, American College of Coverage Counsel
- Co-Chair, Business Interruption Subcommittee, ABA Section of Litigation Insurance Coverage Litigation Committee
Experience
Experience
- Served as lead litigation counsel for a major manufacturer of agricultural products in its successful effort to enforce insurance coverage for $170 million in losses under pre-1986 legacy policies in connection with a nationwide products liability class action related to one of the policyholder’s herbicides.
- Successfully led the team that secured a trial win for Syngenta Crop Protection, LLC against its insurer for coverage, including defense costs, for thousands of personal injury product liability claims alleging that exposure to Syngenta’s paraquat products caused Parkinson’s disease. Zurich American Ins. Co. v. Syngenta Crop Protection, LLC (Del. Super. Ct.).
- Served as lead counsel for a major manufacturer of agricultural products in a Swiss arbitration to enforce insurance coverage from its insurers for U.S. class action liability claims concerning the policyholder’s seeds marketing in China.
- Successfully represented an industrial transformer recycling company in recovery for property damage and business interruption loss in connection with destruction of its recycling plant due to fire and storm.
- Represented a major nearby property owner in connection with its insurance claims arising out of the September 11, 2001, destruction of the World Trade Center in New York City.
- Participated in major environmental insurance coverage litigation on behalf of worldwide chemical and pharmaceutical company for Superfund liabilities at multiple sites across the country against liability insurers in the United States and abroad, under pre-1986 occurrence policies.
- Successfully represented employers in litigation alleging discrimination, harassment, or retaliation in state and federal courts and administrative agencies and counseled individual clients on employment-related matters such as separations and new employment contracts.
- Successfully handled many letter-of-credit cases and counseled clients in this highly specialized area, representing banks, including bank-to-bank issues, or their customers or beneficiaries.
News
News & Insights
Practice Areas
Education
Vassar College (A.B. 1968)
Brooklyn Law School (J.D. 1978)
- magna cum laude
- Editor-in-Chief, Brooklyn Law Review