PHILADELPHIA, September 7, 2023 — Cozen O’Connor is pleased to announce the promotion of seven members to shareholders: Wendy Enerson, Melissa Grossman, Susan Grueneberg, Suzanne Radcliff, Laura Reinhart, John Sullivan, and Cheryl Upham.
“Throughout their careers, each of these attorneys has demonstrated remarkable professionalism, leadership, and dedication to the firm and to our clients,” said Michael J. Heller, president and chief executive officer of Cozen O’Connor. “We could not be more proud of what they have accomplished so far and look forward to watching their careers continue to develop and prosper.”
Wendy Enerson's practice encompasses a broad range of complex litigation matters, including insurance and consumer class action defense, and in particular, cases arising under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, shareholder disputes, securities violations and general business litigation. She is an experienced litigator who has handled cases in state and federal courts across the United States.
Melissa Grossman, co-vice chair of the firm’s Private Client, Trusts and Estates practice, focuses her practice on sophisticated estate and tax planning for high net worth individuals and families. Her practice includes the preparation of wills and trusts, defective grantor trusts, grantor retained annuity trusts, residence trusts, and dynasty trusts, advising clients with respect to insurance planning, generation-skipping planning, and structuring family limited partnerships and limited liability companies.
Susan Grueneberg advises clients on franchise and distribution law issues, including compliance with federal and state franchise and business opportunity laws. Clients are primarily franchisors with some large area developers, sub-franchisors, and multi-unit franchisees. Her clients range from startup franchisors to Fortune 500 companies. Susan is certified as a Franchise & Distribution Law Specialist by the California Board of Legal Specialization.
Suzanne Radcliff is the office managing partner of the firm’s Dallas office. She works closely with her clients to maximize their recovery on insurance subrogation matters. She represents her clients in a variety of matters - from simple negligence to construction defect cases and complex energy losses, and routinely handles depositions, hearings and mediations. Suzanne also has an established equine law practice and has successfully resolved cases involving fraud in the sale of a horse and veterinary malpractice.
Laura Reinhart litigates cases in multiple state and federal courts across the country, including trying matters in notoriously difficult jurisdictions for corporate defendants. She has more than 20 years of experience in complex litigation, focused in the heavily regulated rail and the long-term care industries. She was a member of several trial teams obtaining defense verdicts in FELA litigation.
John Sullivan practices in the firm's Commercial Litigation Department and has over two decades of experience handling a wide variety of complex litigation. He defends companies in securities, corporate governance, class action, antitrust, product liability, mass tort, and other business litigation. John regularly represents global companies in the life sciences, banking, consumer products, venture capital, fund management, and real estate industries.
Cheryl Upham is vice chair of the firm’s Tax practice and concentrates her practice in the area of state and local tax law, including corporate and personal income, net worth/franchise, sales/use, real estate, payroll, and realty transfer taxes issues. Cheryl has extensive experience before various state and local courts and administrative appeal boards on both audit defense and refund issues, with particular experience dealing with personal income tax issues for high-net worth individuals including, domicile and residency issues and taxation of income from pass-through entities.