Eric P. Tosca joined Kelly, Rode & Kelly, LLP as an associate in April 2017. The primary focus of Eric's practice in the firm is appeals and complex tort litigation. Eric has over thirty years experience in defense tort litigation handling a wide variety of trials and appeals including Labor Law, products liability, property defect, automobile liability, general liability and insurance coverage matters.
In the course of his career in defense litigation, Eric has defended cases from inception through trial and appeal. He joins the firm after a career with a major property and casualty insurance company where he served as regional appellate counsel and a senior trial attorney for the insurer's busy New York City staff counsel operation. He also served on national review committees and provided legal guidance for his Claim partners. He lectured on timely insurance defense related issues. Eric has also served as a supervising attorney over a team of attorneys in a panel defense litigation firm for leading New York State property and casualty carriers.
In addition to his admission to the New York State bar, Eric is admitted to practice law in the United States District Courts in New York's Eastern and Southern Districts. He has extensive appellate experience and has argued cases in the New York State Court of Appeals, the United States Second Circuit Court of Appeals, the New York State Appellate Division and Appellate Term. Eric graduated magna cum laude from St. John's University in 1981 with a double major in French and Government and Politics. He earned his law degree from St. John's University School of Law in 1985 and has been admitted to the New York State bar since 1986.
Eric taught paralegals as an adjunct instructor at St. John's University and as an instructor at New York Institute of Technology. He also instructed real estate courses at Queens College in the CLE program for salespersons and brokers.
As a co-author of an article in the New York Law Journal, Eric discussed the effect of the Supreme Court's decision in Arkansas Department of Health and Human Services v. Ahlborn on Medicaid reimbursement recovery in personal injury cases.
