Attorney Profile

Practice Areas: Appellate Strategies; Construction; Health Care; Intellectual Property; Labor & Employment; Litigation; Products Liability, Toxic Tort and Mass Tort
Areas of Emphasis: Commercial Litigation; Trade Secrets, Restrictive Covenants and Unfair Competition; Employment Litigation; Health Care Litigation; Construction Litigation; Products Liability Litigation
Bar Admissions: New Jersey; United States District Courts for the District of New Jersey, Southern District of New York and Eastern District of New York; United States Courts of Appeals for the Third and Federal Circuits
Education: Seton Hall University School of Law, J.D., summa cum laude, 1993; University of Pennsylvania, B.A., 1990
Professional Activities: Member, Fenerbahçe USA; Member, University of Pennsylvania Morris County Secondary Schools Committee; Former Member, N.J. Supreme Court District XB Ethics Committee; Former V.P. and Board Member, Morris Habitat for Humanity; Law Clerk, Hon. Freda L. Wolfson, U.S. Magistrate Judge (now U.S. District Judge), U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, 1993-1994

Edwin F. Chociey, Jr.

Partner

Litigator Edwin F. Chociey, Jr. believes that preparation and attention to detail are essential components of effectively representing his clients. "I don’t assume anything about my cases," he says.

Ed focuses his practice on commercial litigation. He has developed a special emphasis on litigating trade secret, restrictive covenant and unfair competition matters. Among many other types of matters, he litigates hospital / health care issues, partnership disputes, computer software claims, trademark / copyright infringement matters and products liability cases. He is active as a construction litigator, representing owners, general contractors, subcontractors and suppliers in a variety of matters. He practices on the trial and appellate levels and in arbitration proceedings. His clients include York Claims Service, Inc., Johnson & Johnson, McKesson Corp., Siemens Corporation, Triad Consulting Engineers, Inc. and Unique Settings of New York.

Ed represented Cooper University Hospital and Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center in a highly public challenge to a human subject research study pursuant to which the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services granted certificates of need to certain hospitals, which lacked on-site cardiac surgery back-up, to perform elective angioplasty. The controversial practice of permitting elective angioplasties to be performed at such hospitals is the subject of a research study that contravenes American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology guidelines. The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that the Department had illegally adopted the regulations pursuant to which the certificates of need were granted, and were therefore invalid.

Ed successfully defended York Claims Service, Inc., an insurance claim adjusting firm, in an arbitration filed by an insurance company, which sought millions of dollars in damages. The insurer also sought declaratory relief requiring York to continue to service and to pay certain law firms to defend, without compensation from the insurer, all claims remaining after the insurer had terminated the parties’ claims service agreement. After a lengthy arbitration, the arbitrator ruled in York’s favor, denied all of the insurer’s claims and awarded damages to York on its counterclaim. As a result, Ed also obtained favorable results for York in three lawsuits in New York filed by the law firms, which had sought payment from York.

Ed’s representations also have included the following:

In an action by a competitor of York alleging that it had “raided” the competitor’s employees in three states, successfully defending York in the Chancery Division, after exhaustive accelerated discovery, on the competitor’s preliminary injunction application by obtaining denial of all requests for relief, as well as in the Appellate Division.
Successfully defending an automotive lift manufacturer in a design and warning defect product liability case brought by a mechanic, obtaining a no cause jury verdict at trial.
Successfully defending jewelers, who sought to open their own jewelry exchange, in simultaneous actions filed by their landlord in the Chancery Division for alleged violation of a non-competition covenant in their leases and in the Landlord / Tenant Part for eviction, by obtaining the denial of the landlord’s preliminary injunction application after extensive expedited discovery in the former and dismissal of all claims at trial in the latter.
In perhaps the first case in the country involving judicial review of a physician challenge to a hospital’s use of an exclusive agreement for medical oncology services, obtaining summary judgment in the Chancery Division, and the Appellate Division’s affirmance thereof, in favor of Northwest Covenant Medical Center (now known as Saint Clare’s Hospital), thereby establishing an important precedent in New Jersey’s exclusive contract jurisprudence.
Successfully defending Northwest Covenant in the Chancery, Law and Appellate Divisions in multiple lawsuits by anesthesiologists challenging the hospital’s use of an exclusive contract to provide anesthesia services.
On National Starch and Chemical Company’s behalf, obtaining summary judgment in the District Court, and the Third Circuit’s affirmance thereof, against an automotive seam filler compound’s seller, which claimed that National Starch had breached the parties’ technology purchase and consulting agreement by failing to use reasonable efforts to promote and market the compound after purchasing it.
Obtaining summary judgment in the District Court in McKesson Corp.’s favor in an antitrust action by a pharmacy claiming that McKesson and other pharmaceutical distributors had conspired to limit the credit extended to the pharmacy.
On the basis of the doctrine of comity, obtaining the Law Division’s dismissal, and the Appellate Division’s affirmance thereof, of an attorney malpractice action filed in New Jersey, in view of the law firm’s first-filed action in New York to recover unpaid fees from its former client.
Through the granting of a motion to dismiss by the District Court and affirmance by the Third Circuit, successfully defending a fertilizer manufacturer whose product had been used as an explosive by terrorists in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
Obtaining the dismissal with prejudice of multiple actions in lieu of prerogative writs filed by citizen groups, based on environmental and other grounds, in challenging a developer’s construction of a large retail and office project in Mercer County.
Obtaining a substantial judgment on defamation and tortious interference claims for a vascular surgeon wrongly denied hospital medical staff privileges.
Obtaining injunctive relief on behalf of Johnson & Johnson and Cordis Corporation against a competing medical device manufacturer and three sales representatives who had resigned from J&J / Cordis and joined the competitor in the same territories, located throughout the country, in which they had worked for J&J / Cordis, thereby upholding their non-compete and non-solicitation agreements.

Ed is the co-author, with former Riker Danzig partner Edward A. Zunz, of the Appellate Practice and Procedure volume of West Publishing's New Jersey Practice Series. He recently completed his term as a member of the New Jersey Supreme Court District XB Ethics Committee.

Law & Politics Magazine has named Ed a New Jersey "Super Lawyer" for Business Litigation.