Fielding E. Huseth

Fielding’s primary practice areas are complex commercial litigation, insurance-related litigation, white-collar criminal defense, and appellate law. He also has notable experience in internal investigations, regulatory compliance, and other regulatory matters. His clients span insurance, banking, energy, and health care companies, among others. 

As a former enforcement attorney for the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS), Fielding assisted in running investigations of wide-ranging insurance and banking practices, including lender-placed insurance, mortgage lending, and monitorship compliance. In private practice in both New York and North Carolina, Fielding has successfully represented several individuals and businesses at all stages of litigation in state and federal court, as well as in government enforcement actions brought by the SEC, CFTC, FINRA, and U.S. Attorneys’ Offices. 

Representative Experience

Insurance-Related Litigation

• Currently lead counsel for insurer in property and casualty coverage case involving high-value bad-faith claim
• Argued and won insurer's motion to dismiss claims for breach of contract and aiding-and-abetting fraud based on the alleged acts of the insurer’s agents (2022-23)
• Argued and secured motion to dismiss a reinsurer’s application under the Federal Arbitration Act for the selection of an arbitration umpire (2022) 

• Co-led efforts to win preliminary injunction motion in the Western District of North Carolina to obtain several million in wrongfully withheld premium belonging to client-insurer (2020)
• Obtained favorable settlement in complex dispute involving self-funded ERISA healthcare plan

Commercial and Civil Litigation

• Currently representing former CEO of a large food service company in connection with federal securities litigation
• Currently representing two separate energy companies in major commercial disputes
• Wrote two winning briefs on novel conflicts-of-law issues involving North Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia law (2022)
• Wrote motion-to-dismiss brief resulting in dismissal of the tort and property claims brought against a major solar developer in New York state court (2018)

Amotion Proceedings (North Carolina)

• Worked alongside Valecia McDowell, who served as the Hearing Officer in a high-profile common-law amotion proceeding concerning whether good cause existed to remove a City of Monroe councilmember

White-Collar & Government Investigations

• Worked alongside trial team to secure the acquittal of a former CEO charged by the U.S. Department of Justice with participating in an alleged price-fixing and bid-rigging antitrust conspiracy (2021-22)
• Played an instrumental role in preparing a persuasive brief submitted to the SEC in response to a “Wells” call—i.e., the SEC staff’s formal notice of its intention to charge a violation of securities laws. As a result, the SEC declined to charge the client with several counts of municipal bond fraud (2017-2018)
• Assisted in successfully fending off charges from federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York against an individual with involvement in the notorious Fyre Festival (2017)

Appellate

• Led the research and writing of a petition for rehearing en banc, which the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals granted
• Co-wrote appellate briefs on novel cryptocurrency issue under North Carolina law

Notable

• Best Lawyers in America, Commercial Litigation "Ones to Watch," 2021-2025; Criminal Defense: White-Collar "Ones to Watch," 2022-2025
• Business North Carolina Legal Elite, Young Guns, 2024
• North Carolina Pro Bono Honor Society, 2018-2022

• Member, Commercial & Business Litigation Committee, American Bar Association

• Member, Law Committee for ARIAS-U.S. (Insurance and Reinsurance Organization)
• Member, Council of Appellate Lawyers
• Participating Attorney, North Carolina Appellate Pro Bono Program

News

Insights

Publications

• Co-author, "Challenging Prosecutors' Use Of Defendants' Jail Phone Calls," Law360, July 2024
• Co-author, “Insurance contours clarified: agency relationships in premium financing,” Reuters and Westlaw Today, April 2024
• Co-author, Challenging Prosecutorial Use of a Pretrial Detainee’s Electronic Communications,  University of Southern California Review of Law & Social Justice (Volume 33, Issue 1), March 2024
• Co-author, Litigation Involving Asset Protection Trusts: Practical and Legal Considerations, presented to the American Bar Association, 31^st Annual Real Property, Trusts & Estates National CLE Conference, Boston, Mass., May 2019
• Co-author, "Trump Supreme Court Pick, Brett Kavanaugh, Could Play Role in Reshaping Major Securities Fraud Enforcement Tool," MVA White Collar Defense, Investigations, and Regulatory Advice Blog, September 2018
• Co-author, "A Brief Survey: The Do's and Don't of Yellowstone Injunctions," The New York Law Journal, November 2017