Insurance Litigation

From evaluating potential claims to pursuing coverage litigation, insurance recovery issues affect companies and individuals of all sizes and disciplines.  We handle our clients’ insurance claims arising under a broad range of policies, including general liability, first-party property, business interruption, builders’ risk, directors’ and officers’ liability, fiduciary liability, employment practices, and errors and omissions policies.  We also litigate matters involving insurance, bad faith, and unfair insurance practices.  We have recovered tens of millions of dollars for our clients from some of the largest and well-known insurance companies around the world, including AIG, ACE, Traveler’s and Lloyd’s of London.   

We are not only litigators, but creative business advisers who develop ideas not only to help clients win arguments, but to avoid them in the first place. In addition to helping our clients recover from their insurers after a loss, we also provide comprehensive counseling throughout the life cycle of their business, including analyzing our clients’ insurance programs to improve the scope of coverage.  This includes guiding clients in the purchase and renewal of coverage, revising policy language, interfacing with brokers, negotiating with insurers and development of risk transfer strategies involving contractual indemnity and additional insured agreements.
 

Representative Matters

• Kleen Energy Systems, LLC v. ACE American Ins. Co. et al. (Conn. Superior Ct.); – and – O&G Indus. Inc. et al. v. ACE American Ins. Co., et al. (Conn. Superior Ct.) – successfully represented insurance policyholder Kleen Energy, a 620 megawatt dual-fuel electric generating facility located in Middletown, Connecticut in connection with major losses suffered as a result of a catastrophic explosion at its power facility in 2010.  Successfully recovered for Kleen Energy in insurance coverage litigation seeking to recover over $50 million in business interruption losses under its builder’s risk property insurance policy for which 11 domestic and foreign insurers (including several Lloyd’s of London syndicates) had a market share. 
• Farmer-Paellmann v. New York Life Ins. Co., No. 02 CV 1862 (S.D.N.Y.) – represented insurance company and others in this, and several other, putative class actions arising out of claims involving American slavery and related practices. 
• In re Assicurazioni Generali S.p.A., MDL No. 1374, M 21-89 (S.D.N.Y.) – represented foreign insurance company in this, and other, putative class actions and other lawsuits concerning insurance claims arising from World War II-era confiscations and post war nationalizations and in proceedings before an international commission established for such claims. 
• In re Royal Group Technologies Securities Litig., No. 04 Civ. 9809 (HB) (S.D.N.Y.) - represented former CEO of Canadian building materials company against securities law and other claims in putative U.S. class action, and in connection with securing D&O insurance coverage.