Susan M. Euteneuer
Associate
Duane Morris LLP
111 South Calvert Street, Suite 2000
Baltimore, MD 21202-6114
USA
Phone: +1 410 949 2906
Fax: +1 410 949 2980
Email: smeuteneuer@duanemorris.com

Susan M. Euteneuer practices in the area of complex business and commercial civil litigation, appeals, regulatory compliance, and product safety. Ms. Euteneuer represents companies and individuals in a wide variety of cases in state and federal courts throughout Maryland and on a national basis. Calling on her extensive insurance background, Ms. Euteneuer has represented insurers, businesses, agents and producers, adjusters and individuals with their insurance and related issues, including coverage litigation, claims litigation, regulatory compliance, and mergers and acquisitions concerns. She has significant experience representing clients regarding banking, financing, employment, real estate and construction matters, including representing lenders in consumer litigation such as foreclosures, alleged improper lending practices and matters concerning refusals to extend credit. Ms. Euteneuer has counseled medical providers and other business owners facing government agency action, employment disputes, contract breaches and business torts. She has briefed and argued numerous appeals. Ms. Euteneuer has settled and resolved hundreds of matters through mutual agreement, often utilizing mediation, arbitration and other alternative dispute resolution mechanisms when possible to minimize costs and risks.

Prior to entering the practice of law, Ms. Euteneuer worked at St. Paul/Travelers Insurance Companies as a claims specialist in the special liabilities group. She analyzed thousands of insurance policies, managed coverage litigation, and supervised products liability disputes, environmental remediations, and other complex litigation on a national basis.

Ms. Euteneuer is a graduate of the University of Maryland School of Law and a magna cum laude graduate of The Catholic University of America. She spent a year studying at the University of Tübingen, Germany and a summer interning for British Parliament.

Areas of Practice

• Commercial Litigation
• Insurance Coverage and Risk Management
• Regulatory Compliance
• Products Liability and Safety
• Banking and Finance Litigation
• Real Estate and Construction Litigation
• Appellate Practice
• Alternative Dispute Resolution
• Employment

Representative Matters

• Enforced the rights of a large church to collect its arbitration award and prevent the re-arbitration of a construction dispute with a contractor. The arbitrator had concluded that the contractor’s work on a new church sanctuary was materially deficient and awarded damages to the church. The contractor counterclaimed, demanding more than one million dollars in damages from the termination of the contract plus attorneys' fees, and kept trying to re-litigate every issue. The federal district court affirmed the church’s award, and the federal appellate court upheld that decision.First Baptist Church of Glenarden v. New Market MetalCraft, Inc., 2010 WL 3037030 (D.Md. 2010), summarily aff’d, 442 Fed.Appx. 789, 2011 WL 3489602 (4th Cir. 2011).
• Assisted in representing a large life insurer in an interpleader action involving a dispute over whether the insured had changed his beneficiary. The federal court concluded that the insurer was a disinterested stakeholder to the proceedings and was entitled to an award of attorneys’ fees associated with the interpleader. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. v. Davis, 2011 WL 2148714 (D.Md. 2011).
• Defended a large manufacturer of recreational vehicles against litigation brought by a distributor whose agreement was terminated for violating the parties’ contract, first by removing the matter to federal court. The federal court granted the manufacturer’s motion to dismiss the court case and to compel arbitration. Barnes v. Ontario Drive and Gear Ltd., 2010 WL 311648 (D.Md. 2010).
• Defended a small health care services business against a claim appealed by an independent contractor whose employer was defunct and had allegedly not paid him as contracted. The court granted judgment for the business. The appellate court held that the plaintiff had failed to allege an employer-employee relationship with our client or that our client had made and then breached any agreement with plaintiff. Plaintiff was also denied his request to file yet another amended complaint. Mohiuddin v. Doctors Billing & Management Solutions, 196 Md.App. 439, 9 A.3d 859 (2010).
• Defended a personal lines large insurer in action brought by a decedent's family member, who was claiming the decedent was entitled to uninsured motorists benefits because the party responsible for a serious accident had low coverage limits. The highest state court agreed with the insurer that the plaintiff was not entitled to collect additional uninsured/underinsured benefits, because the decedent was not a "relative" of the insured as defined by the policy. Johnson v. Nationwide Mut. Ins. Co., 388 Md. 82, 878 A.2d 615 (2005).
• Represented a venture capital group in an action in which it sought immediate injunctive relief to enforce its right with respect to a two-million-dollar loan. Allegations included that the borrower had failed to account for how half of the loan was spent and had been secretly selling assets that were collateral for the loan.
• Defended an ATM service provider against a competitor's claim for tortious interference with contract. The competitor ultimately settled and dismissed all of its claims.
• Obtained dismissal of a lawsuit brought against individual developers who had been sued outside their state on the basis that the plaintiff was trying to force the developers into litigation that would be more costly and inconvenient than permitted by law.
• Obtained an emergency injunction to prevent a commercial landlord from effectively shutting down a restaurant tenant by removing the restaurant's operating licenses from the premises, in violation of the parties' contract.
• Defended a national chain store against an employee's wrongful termination and discrimination case, resolving the matter early in the litigation process.
• Resolved multiple lawsuits against a small technology service provider struggling to reemerge after recession-driven restructuring by negotiating payment plans without incurring litigation costs.
• Assisted in the representation of the home-loan division of a major national bank in multiple residential foreclosure matters involving defaults on complex construction loans.
• Advised a telecommunications company about its rights and obligations and assisted in determining whether it was responsible or its insurer was for defending against a serious injury case where the injury had occurred before the client acquired a new entity but had litigation had not been initiated until after closing on the acquisition.
• Represented a national bank in investigating and quickly resolving smaller, local claims regarding personal loans.
• Represented multiple large insurance carriers in regulatory actions by the state insurance division, including nonrenewals and rate increases due to high claim frequency, establishing that the insurers' rating plans and notices to the state and the insureds complied with state law.
• Represented insurance producer in an action to determine whether the producer or the insurer owned certain insurance renewals.
• Defended a large insurance company in breach of contract/declaratory judgment action in claim for fire coverage, where insurer’s investigation concluded that the insured had committed arson to attempt to make a fraudulent claim.

Professional Activities

• J. Dudley Digges Chapter, American Inns of Court
• Mentor: Sandler Young Lawyers Roundtable
• Maryland Bar Association
  - Litigation and Environmental Law Sections
• American Bar Association
• Bar Association of Baltimore City

Admissions

• Maryland
• U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland
• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
• Supreme Court of the United States

Education

• University of Maryland School of Law, J.D., 2001
• Catholic University of America, B.A., magna cum laude, 1993

Experience

• Duane Morris LLP
  - Associate, 2008-present
• Hodes, Pessin & Katz, P.A.
  - Associate, 2001-2008
• St. Paul/Travelers Insurance Companies
  - Claims Specialist, 1993-2001

Honors and Awards

• Awarded Maryland Pro Bono Service Award, Young Lawyers' Section, 2003

Selected Publications

• Co-Author, "The Arbitrators Have Decided the Construction Dispute: What Do I Do Now?" The Construction Lawyer, Spring 2012
• "'Bad Science' in State Regulations May Come Under Federal Data Quality Scrutiny," Maryland Bar Bulletin, June 2005
• "Mediating Messes: A Blueprint for Mediating Environmental Disputes," Maryland Bar Bulletin, June 2004

Selected Speaking Engagements

• "Arbitration Isn't the End: The Status of ADR and Issues in Challenging and Confirming Awards," 33rd Annual Construction and Public Contracts Law Seminar, Charlottesville, Virginia, November 2, 2012
• "Condominium Insurance in Maryland: Impact of the Anderson Case", May 2008
• Impact and application of Maryland's laws regarding bad faith in insurance, various
• "Bullet Proofing Your Client When the Issue is Privilege," ABA Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Section, Phoenix, February 2005
• "Designated Business/Technology Case Management," Faculty, Judicial Institute, 2004