Overview
Andrew B. Kratenstein is the New York co-lead of McDermott’s Litigation Practice Group. He provides legal counsel on complex commercial litigation, focusing on financial services, private equity, securities, mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, real estate, and beverage distribution disputes. Andrew represents national and multinational clients in a broad array of industries, including banking, private equity, real estate, hospitality, beverage distribution, sports, healthcare, life sciences, pharmaceuticals, and energy.
Andrew also leads the Litigation Training Committee and is active in the Firm’s pro bono program. Among other matters, he has won several appeals on behalf of abused, neglected, or abandoned immigrant children who have been denied the ability to apply for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status. Andrew has been honored by Sanctuary for Families with its Above and Beyond Pro Bono Award honoring members of the legal profession for their outstanding pro bono representation and advocacy on behalf of Sanctuary’s clients.
Andrew has guest lectured at Columbia Law School on best practices for electronic discovery, and he has served as faculty for the Practising Law Institute’s symposium on Best Practices for Complex Cases and for Thompson Reuters on recent developments in mergers and acquisitions litigation.
Before beginning his practice, Andrew served as a law clerk for the Honorable Richard W. Roberts of the US District Court for the District of Columbia. While in law school, Andrew served as an editor for the Harvard Journal on Legislation.
Results
- Won a jury trial and judgment in the amount of approximately $68 million for an aluminum manufacturer against a magnesium manufacturer who failed to meet its supply obligations, claiming force majeure and related defenses
- Won summary judgment on a financial institution’s claims seeking recovery on derivatives contracts collectively worth more than $450 million in two separate cases
- Won multiple post-asset acquisition working capital adjustment and earn-out arbitrations, including obtaining an approximately $74 million award plus arbitrator’s fees
- Defeated attempt to enjoin the reorganization of a mutual health insurance company based on claims that the proxy statement concerning the company’s reorganization was false and misleading
- Won summary judgment and affirmance on appeal on all claims brought against a healthcare provider by an insurer who alleged that the provider had fraudulently misrepresented billed charges and tortiously interfered with the insurer’s contracts with its patients by waiving those patients’ deductible and coinsurance obligations without obtaining evidence of financial hardship
- Won summary judgment and dismissal with prejudice of a shareholder class action against a real estate investment trust and certain of its directors and officers
- Represented the owner of a prominent New York City office building in a litigation brought by the owner of the largest Picasso in the United States, which hung in the building’s lobby; after defeating claim for a permanent injunction, successfully settled the case, which resulted in the Picasso being safely removed from the building, treated by professional conservators and moved to a New York City museum
- Won dismissal with prejudice after defeating motions for injunctive relief seeking to remove a real estate developer as the managing member of a commercial building
- Represented numerous beer brewers in various litigations and arbitrations, including: (i) obtaining dismissal with prejudice of a putative nationwide class action alleging that a brewer misrepresented on its labels and in its marketing that the beer was imported; (ii) prevailing in a fair market value arbitration; and (iii) obtaining dismissal of wrongful termination claims
- Successfully represented a Major League Baseball team in multiple matters, including successfully prosecuting and defending claims in bankruptcy court
Recognitions
- Law 360’s Weekly Verdict: Legal Lions & Lambs, named as a Legal Lion for obtaining summary judgment on behalf of a national trade association for pharmaceutical distributors, which invalidated portions of New York’s Opioid Stewardship Act as unconstitutional
- Legal 500, General Commercial Disputes, 2022-2025
Community
- New York City Bar Association
Credentials
Education
Harvard Law School, JD, cum laude, 1999
Cornell University, BA, Phi Beta Kappa, 1996
Admissions
New York
Courts / Agencies
US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
US District Court for the Eastern District of New York
US District Court for the Southern District of New York
US District Court for the Western District of New York
