Insurance Coverage

Our team brings years of experience and extensive knowledge to counseling insurer and policyholder clients throughout the full spectrum of policy types and coverage issues. We analyze coverage questions, provide advice and guidance on insurance product availability and development, and counsel our clients about their contractual obligations and duties of good faith.

Our highly skilled team also handles all facets of coverage litigation from the initial filing, through summary judgment, trial and beyond. Clients across the country know that our firm’s appellate lawyers have earned a reputation for the quality of their work. Frequently, when other law firms and insurance carriers have suffered adverse judgments, they hire us to prosecute the appellate level.

We offer counsel to insurance providers and self-insured clients on a wide range of matters; here are a few examples of outcomes we achieved:

• In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, we defended insurers against multimillion-dollar first-party property damage claims brought by condominium complexes and other large policyholders. By bringing in multidisciplinary experts in such industries as engineering, construction and auditing, we were able to show that much of the asserted damages pre-existed or resulted from defective construction and were not covered losses.
• On an appeal to a Louisiana Court of Appeals, we obtained reversal of a judgment requiring an excess insurer to drop down due to the insolvency of the primary insurer.
• We have persuaded numerous courts to grant summary judgments to insurers on Commercial General Liability (CGL) policies and have defended the finding of no coverage on appeal.

We aim to be creative and strategic partners with the insurers to whom we provide coverage advice. When we aren’t representing them in litigation, we strive to be trusted partners and thought leaders who contribute to the success of their business.

Summary

We routinely provide advice to our policyholder and insurer clients regarding their obligations and exposures under management liability, professional liability, commercial general liability, property and casualty, environmental and toxic tort, premises and product liability, fiduciary liability and excess/umbrella liability policies. We have also counseled policyholder clients on the types of coverage available in the market as well as partnered with insurer clients to draft policy language. When litigation is necessary, we bring and defend declaratory judgment actions, arbitrate disputes between insurers and insureds and among carriers, and litigate critical issues on appeal.

Defining Strengths

Our core practice includes:

• Risk Transfer: We work with both our policyholder and insurer clients to address defense and indemnity tenders, priority of coverage, allocation, contractual indemnification, exhaustion, contribution, subrogation and additional insured coverages.
• Coverage Analysis and Advice: We counsel clients by analyzing coverage questions, providing policy interpretation, authoring coverage letters and opinions, and addressing time limit, policy limit and other settlement demands.
• Coverage Litigation: We represent clients in declaratory judgment actions, arbitrations, state and federal court litigation, and on appeal, in disputes involving coverage questions arising under insurance contracts.
• Product Development and Underwriting Advice: We collaborate with insurers and underwriters to give creative and strategic advice to aid in their insurance product development and to enable them to avoid unbargained for and unanticipated coverage obligations.
• Claim Management Counseling and Litigation: We advise clients on their claim management obligations including their obligations to evaluate, investigate, defend, settle, and handle claims; and we defend clients when they are accused of failing to fulfill those obligations.