Louise M. Cherkis Louise M. Cherkis is a Senior Counsel at DeSimone, Aviles, Shorter & Oxamendi, LLP. Louise Cherkis has extensive experience representing corporations, municipalities and individuals in a broad spectrum of legal matters. Her areas of expertise include employment issues, insurance, intellectual property, professional liability, premises liability, mass tort, environmental, commercial, entertainment and securities-related claims. With more than two decades of experience, she litigates actions from the inception of the lawsuit through appeal and has worked on numerous complex cases for both plaintiffs and defendants. Ms. Cherkis has extensive experience as appellate counsel in the federal and state courts. More than 40

Ms. Cherkis also provides counsel in risk management representing insurance companies, self-insured corporations and individuals. She renders coverage opinions and litigates disputes involving policy exclusions, bad faith, lack of cooperation, classifications, late notice and other disclaimers.

In the area of employment law, she counsels clients in various critical areas, including the drafting and enforcement of employment agreements; the development of anti-discrimination and anti-harassment policies; and the creation of employee handbooks, manuals and guidelines.

Ms. Cherkis has represented clients in a number of high-profile cases as counsel for both plaintiffs and defendants.

• She successfully represented the Hicksville Union Free School District through its excess carrier in litigation involving multi-million dollar claims from more than 40 children alleging abuse by a school bus driver. The verdict was in favor of the school district, which was not found liable for any damages after the 10-month trial, the longest civil trial in Nassau County history.
• She was on the legal team representing 24 families who lost loved ones in the crash of American Airlines Flight 587, the second deadliest air disaster in U.S. history.
• She served on the legal team of coordinating counsel for plaintiffs in the Happyland Social Club fire that claimed 87 lives in the Bronx.
• She served on the legal defense team in multi-district federal litigation regarding products such as silicone breast implants, pharmaceuticals and medical apparatuses.
• She successfully achieved dismissal of cases on behalf of DHL Airways, Inc., Rite Aid Corporation, and Cigna Insurance in employment litigation.

Ms. Cherkis has extensive research and writing experience on a broad array of legal topics. She is a regional editor of the “Job Description” magazine of the Defense Research Institute’s Employment Law Division, having written such articles as “Hostile Work Environment Sexual Harassment: US Supreme Court Provides Guidance in Constructive Discharge Actions”(Winter 2004) and “Is Your Company Adequately Protected: A Guide to Employment Insurance” (Winter 2002). She has been a contributing writer for bar journal publications and legal treatises such as The Record of the Association of the Bar of The City of New York and Prentice-Hall’s Forms of Business Agreements and Resolutions and Corporate Acquisitions, Mergers and Divestiture. She also was legal editor for treatises such as Kluwer’s Manual on Employment Discrimination and Civil Rights Actions in the Federal Courts and Kluwer’s three-volume treatise Products Liability.