Elliot Dear, J.D. — Fordham Law & Clifford Chance Pedigree

The record starts at Fordham University School of Law, where Elliot Dear earned his J.D. and served on the Fordham Law Review. The steps after it — structured finance at Clifford Chance, about twenty years of work in out-of-network physician billing, and the founding of Claims Assassins — each shaped how he now reviews and signs New York State IDR submissions.

Fordham University School of Law

Elliot Dear took his law degree at Fordham University School of Law in New York City. Law school is where a lawyer learns to read a record closely and argue from what it actually says, and that habit carries straight into dispute work, where a submission is only as strong as its documents.

The Fordham Law Review

At Fordham, Elliot Dear served on the Fordham Law Review. Law review work is editing and cite-checking at close range: every sentence tested against its source, every reference confirmed. It is slow, exacting work, and it is the same habit of checking that a well-built IDR file needs.

Clifford Chance, 2004 to 2008

From 2004 to 2008, Elliot Dear was an associate in structured finance at Clifford Chance LLP. The work was securitizations: CLOs, residential mortgage-backed securities and other asset-backed deals, each one built on heavy documentation. He was admitted to the New York bar in 2005, during those years, under registration #4329546, and he is in good standing.

About Twenty Years in Non-Par Billing

Elliot Dear has spent about twenty years working in out-of-network, or non-par, physician billing. That is where he learned to read an EOB line by line, to set the plan’s allowed amount beside the billed charge, and to tell which plans land where: fully insured New York coverage goes to New York State IDR, and self-funded coverage stays outside the state process.

Claims Assassins, 2018

In 2018, Elliot Dear founded Claims Assassins to bring attorney-signed Independent Dispute Resolution to out-of-network physicians: plastic and reconstructive surgeons, emergency physicians and oral and maxillofacial surgeons. Each submission is built from the EOB, the operative note and the billed charges, then reviewed and signed by him under his bar number. Deadlines are tracked, and after a determination the payment demand goes out.

How the Pieces Fit

The structured finance years taught document control. The billing years taught how plans pay. The law license puts a signature behind the file. The terms are plain: a 10% contingency on the improvement, no upfront fee, no contracts, no onboarding, and the office keeps its own billing. A physician can send one claim for a free review.