Daniel Mateo

Daniel Mateo is an experienced litigation and business disputes attorney whose work spans many industries, including pharmaceuticals and other life sciences companies, financial services, telecommunications, oil and gas, software and consumer products.

Clients turn to Mr. Mateo for representation on matters ranging from complex breach of contract disputes, commercial real estate and leasing disputes, consumer class action claims, trademark disputes and non-compete litigation.

With nearly 25 years of litigation and arbitration experience, Mr. Mateo is a skilled and confident advocate. He recognizes that successful outcomes require a strategy that is informed by the nature of the dispute, the amount in controversy, the client's objectives and risk tolerance, the adversary, and the venue. When trying a case is part of the strategy, Mr. Mateo has both first- and second-chair trial experience.

As a native Spanish speaker of Puerto Rican descent, an active and engaged member of the Hispanic National Bar Association, and a past president of the Hispanic Bar Association of New Jersey, Mr. Mateo regularly mentors young lawyers and strongly supports bar association diversity and inclusion initiatives.

Mr. Mateo has substantial experience practicing in New Jersey state and federal courts. He has been an active member of the New Jersey State Bar Association and has served on a number of committees focused on increasing diversity within the State Bar. 

Admitted in Florida and New Jersey only.

Representative Experience

General Business Litigation and Arbitration

• Representing a foreign manufacturer and its U.S. subsidiary in a breach of contract action resulting from the failed sale of manufacturing facility located in China; obtained precedential dismissal of the foreign parent company for lack of personal jurisdiction
• Representing U.S. and international entities in an American Arbitration Association (AAA) arbitration alleging breach of a purchase and sale agreement
• Represented an information technology (IT) outsourcing and consulting company in pre-arbitration negotiations resulting from alleged breach of a series of complex software development agreements
• Represented a major oil and gas company in the termination of large distributor for selling misbranded gasoline in violation of franchise agreement
• Second-chaired a two-week jury trial in New Jersey State Court for a client facing defamation and related claims in connection with a background check
• Second-chaired a 10-day jury trial in New Jersey federal court for a consumer products company facing claims of trademark infringement

Class Action Litigation

• Represented a car rental company in a putative nationwide class action concerning administrative and other fees charged to customers
• Represented a Fortune 500 manufacturer of heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems in a putative nationwide class action alleging manufacturing defects and breach of warranty
• Secured a complete dismissal of two putative nationwide class actions seeking reimbursement damages for allegedly defective consumer product following a product recall

Pharmaceutical Commercial Litigation

• Secured a summary judgment on liability for a client who claimed a breach of a development, manufacturing and supply agreement for over-the-counter cold and allergy medications
• Served as lead defense counsel for a New Jersey-based pharmaceutical company faced with five separate American Arbitration Association (AAA) arbitration hearings in Chicago, involving an $8 million dispute with a business partner under a product development and supply agreement
• Second-chaired a Paragraph IV patent infringement trial before in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware brought against a foreign pharmaceutical company and its U.S. subsidiary under the Hatch-Waxman Act
• Defended the Consumer Products division of a branded pharmaceutical company against an action brought by a competitor, which sought to prevent the client from hiring a senior research scientist for its oral healthcare department based on claims of "inevitable disclosure" of confidential information and/or trade secrets

Commercial Real Estate Litigation

• Regularly represent and counsel major, multinational corporations in connection with commercial leasing and real estate disputes, often relating to their national and international headquarters
• First-chaired a weeklong bench trial concerning an alleged breach of an agreement to purchase a ground lease interest in a New Jersey commercial property
• Represented a multinational telecommunications company in a dispute with its commercial landlord concerning a wrongful lease termination

E-Discovery Practice

• Designed and implemented preservation, collection and production programs for paper and electronic discovery involving millions of pages
• Selected Enterprise Software Initiative (ESI) vendors, negotiated scope of work agreements and supervised their processing and production of documents
• Counseled companies on the preparation and design of document-retention policies and implementation of litigation holds