Melissa Quintana

• Represented a publicly traded higher education client in multiple weeklong mass arbitration trials concerning consumers throughout the country regarding contract, consumer protection, and fraud-based claims.
• Representing a major chemical company in mass toxic tort action.
• Obtained summary judgment in federal putative policyholder business interruption (BI) class action which resulted in the first written decision in the industry where an insurer prevailed on a COVID BI claim.
• Obtained dismissal for publicly traded client in a negligence action arising from shooting at a hospital.
• Obtained removal in insurance taxes and fees putative class action.
• Represented national insurance carrier in declaratory judgment action in federal court.
• Participated in an international internal investigation, audit, and resulting settlement negotiations abroad.
• Advised corporate, manufacturing, and commercial clients on questions related to legal and operational restrictions during the coronavirus pandemic.
• Pro bono counsel to Angolan and Cuban citizens appealing their asylum cases at the Eleventh Circuit.

Melissa Quintana is an associate with Alston & Bird’s Litigation & Trial Practice Group. She represents clients in complex commercial litigation, with experience in consumer class actions, higher education, insurance, and the industrial and manufacturing sector in arbitration, state, and federal court.  Melissa has experience drafting substantive trial motions and appellate briefs, and has defended clients against civil litigation and investigations.

Melissa earned her J.D. from New York University, where she was a Dean’s Scholar and served as executive editor of the New York University Journal of Legislation & Public Policy and co-president of the NYU Latinx Law Students Association. During law school, Melissa served as conference chair for the National Latina/o Law Student Association. Melissa also externed for the Hon. Judge Lohier of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and for the Civil Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.

Melissa attended Columbia University, where she earned her undergraduate degree in political science as a Kluge Scholar. She served as a law clerk at an immigration law firm and as an intern for the U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means and at the U.S. Department of State.

Languages

• Spanish
• French

Bar Admissions

• Georgia

Education

• New York University (J.D., 2019)
• Columbia University (B.A., 2016)