Coffey Modica hires Ritter and D’Avanzo as partners

White Plains, NY Coffey Modica LLP expanded its practice with the addition of two new partners based out of the firm’s headquarters.

Jodi Ritter brings 25 years of experience in handling insurance defense litigation matters to her role as partner. Over the course of her career, Ritter has overseen complex claims and litigation strategies including excess and primary general commercial liability, motor vehicle, premises, negligent security, trucking and transportation, labor law and construction, products, and more.

Prior to her position at Coffey Modica, Ritter commanded the development and launch of the Sompo Global Risk Solutions program at Gallagher Bassett Services. She grew the practice from dormancy to strength with over 150 adjusters, more than 10,000 claims and over 2,500 insureds. She also served as a partner, team leader and trial attorney at Wilson Elser, an insurance defense firm, for more than a decade.

Earlier in her career, as both a special narcotics prosecutor/assistant district attorney at the office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor in New York, and as assistant district attorney at King County District Attorney’s office in Brooklyn, Ritter maintained a 100% conviction rate.

Maria D’Avanzo joins Coffey Modica as a partner in the firm’s excess trial team. D’Avanzo has years of litigation experience representing Fortune 500 companies, as well as a unique legal perspective honed as a former C-Suite executive in real estate, data privacy and investigations, cyber and compliance. 

Before joining Coffey Modica, D’Avanzo was chief evangelist officer at Traliant, a private equity-back human resources, compliance and ethics, and privacy e-learning provider; and prior to that, she served in a leadership role with the global real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield as chief ethics & compliance officer and chief privacy officer. In this role, D’Avanzo spearheaded the inception of a global ethics and compliance program, as well as a global data privacy program focused on General Data Protection Regulation and the California Consumer Privacy Act.

She is a recognized leader in ethics and compliance and a speaker on Department of Justice changes, investigations, whistleblower programs, culture, compliance, data privacy, and ESG.

“We are pleased to welcome Jodi Ritter and Maria J. D’Avanzo to the Coffey Modica team. Both bring a variety of experiences handling complex client matters, resolving them with great satisfaction, that will bring increased value to the counsel our firm is able to provide,” said founding partner Michael  Coffey.

Founded in 2021, Coffey Modica is one of America’s fastest growing defense litigation practices, operating eight (8) offices, including in New York City, White Plains, Buffalo and Commack, Long Island, and Jersey City, NJ, Darien, CT and King of Prussia, PA.