We understand that our clients’ insurance policies are among their most valuable assets and play a critical role in organizational risk management and resilience. An organization’s ability to successfully recover and remain resilient in the face of traditional and novel forms and permutations of risk is paramount. Recognizing this, our leading Insurance Recovery and Risk Management practice is dedicated to achieving a single overarching objective: to provide our clients with optimum financial recovery and organizational resilience against the backdrop of an ever-changing and increasingly challenging and complex risk landscape. We do this through the aggressive pursuit of insurance recovery for myriad types of losses and liabilities, the negotiation and placement of cutting-edge insurance programs, and risk transfer in mergers and acquisition transactions and other contractual settings.
Maximizing Insurance Recovery
Our practice has over 25 years of experience that is dedicated to maximizing policyholder clients’ recoveries in complex and challenging claims settings. Our attorneys have successfully represented Fortune 50 companies, midsize and small privately held businesses in maximizing their insurance assets and recovering hundreds of millions. We have successfully negotiated with and litigated against virtually all major insurance companies. We have secured coverage victories at the trial and appellate levels, as well as in domestic and international arbitrations and, where necessary, we have secured on our clients’ behalf landmark rulings on insurance coverage issues that have shaped the legal landscape.
Our attorneys have assisted clients across industry sectors in connection with a broad spectrum of insurance issues and claims under almost every kind of business insurance policy, including Cybersecurity, Privacy and Data Protection (Cyber), Management Liability, Directors & Officers (D&O), Errors and Omissions (E&O), Technology E&O, Commercial General Liability (CGL), Commercial Property, Business Interruption, Professional Liability, Employment Practices Liability, Fidelity, Fiduciary, Crime, Political Risk, Environmental, Terrorism, and many other types of insurance policies.
Our attorneys have assisted the following clients, among hundreds of others, in maximizing insurance recoveries and proactively managing risk:
- The world’s largest global telecommunications company
- The world’s fourth largest media conglomerate
- The world’s largest private operator of health care facilities
- The world’s second-largest food and beverage company
- The world’s third-largest producer of aluminum
- The world’s fourth-largest chemical company
- A multibillion-dollar freight transportation and logistics company
- The largest third-party payment processor for issuing banks in North America
- A multibillion-dollar freight and logistics solutions provider
- One of the five largest U.S. banks
- Multinational financial services corporations
- Multinational private equity firms
- Fortune 500 retailers
- Multinational electric utility company
- The second-largest electricity generator in New Zealand
- Cloud-based technology companies
- World-class private universities
- One of the largest U.S. electronic security companies
- A nonprofit organization operating over 400 radio networks radio stations throughout the United States
Proactive Risk Management
In addition to aggressively helping clients to successfully pursue disputed insurance claims, our attorneys proactively counsel our clients on complex underwriting and risk management issues. We are committed to best positioning our clients to maximize insurance recovery and remain risk resilient before claims materialize and have unique and unparalleled experience in the drafting and negotiation of Cybersecurity, Privacy and Data Protection and Management Liability insurance.
Cybersecurity, Privacy and Data Protection Insurance
Amidst a seemingly endless stream of data breaches and other serious privacy, cybersecurity and data protection-related incidents—and a remarkable proliferation and expansion of privacy laws and heightened regulatory scrutiny—many of our clients have found it prudent to purchase Privacy, Cybersecurity and Data Protection (Cyber) insurance, which can play a vital role in an organization’s overall strategy to address, mitigate and maximize protection against cybersecurity and data privacy-related risk.
Our attorneys have assisted clients in successfully pursuing coverage for data breaches and cybercrime, including serving as lead insurance recovery counsel in connection with one of the largest data breaches to date.
In addition to aggressively pursuing insurance recoveries in disputed claims settings, we assist clients in proactively placing cutting-edge Cyber insurance policies. Cyber insurance can be extremely valuable, but selecting the right insurance policy presents significant challenge. There is a diverse and growing array of insurance policies in the marketplace, each with its own insurer-drafted terms and conditions, which vary dramatically from insurer to insurer—and even between policies underwritten by the same insurer. In addition, the specific needs of different industry sectors, and different companies within those sectors, are far-reaching and diverse.
Although placing coverage in this dynamic space presents challenges, it also presents substantial opportunity. These types of insurance policies are highly negotiable and the terms of the insurer’s off-the-shelf policy form can usually be significantly enhanced and customized to respond to the insured’s particular circumstances. Frequently, very significant enhancements can be achieved for no increase in premium.
When negotiating insurance policies, our attorneys bring the perspective of litigators and dispute resolution professionals. Because we have handled disputed claims under these types of policies, including in connection with one of the largest data breach events to date, we have the experience that allows us to identify potential claims issues before those issues crystalize in a claims setting. Our unique familiarity with cyber insurance policies and the cybersecurity and data privacy legal landscape, together with the unique perspective that we offer as insurance coverage litigators, allows us to best position our clients to achieve market-leading cyber insurance placements.
Management Liability Insurance.
Never before have companies and their senior management been faced with so many diverse organizational risks and challenges, including unprecedented risk relating to cybercrime, broad and sweeping new data privacy-related laws and regulations, and all manner of seen and unforeseen events. Against this backdrop, proactive risk management for the protection of the C-Suite, General Counsel, and Boards of Directors is top of mind and has taken on new importance.
We understand that having the right Management Liability, Directors’ and Officers’ Liability, Professional Liability/Errors and Omissions, Crime and Fidelity insurance, among other relevant insurance, is absolutely essential.
As with cyber insurance, there is a broad array of insurance products in the marketplace to cover management liability-related risk. In addition to aggressively pursuing coverage in disputed claims circumstances, including in connection with some of the most well-publicized securities litigation, our attorneys have assisted companies in negotiating and placing best-in-class Management Liability insurance programs, including Excess Side- A Difference in Conditions D&O coverage.
Mergers & Acquisitions and Contractual Risk Transfer
Our attorneys have significant experience in performing insurance due diligence in connection with corporate M&A transactions, including by analyzing a target company’s insurance programs, and in placing Representation & Warranty insurance.
We relatedly assist clients with drafting insurance and indemnity provisions.
Insurance Thought Leadership
Our attorneys have published hundreds of articles in professional journals and academic law reviews on many insurance-related issues from the policyholder’s perspective.
Our practice leader Roberta Anderson Sutton’s insights and commentary on insurance issues are regularly sought by leading industry publications, such as Law360 and Advisen, and have been published in national mainstream publications, such as The New York Times and The Washington Post. Ms. Sutton frequently lectures on a variety of insurance coverage and litigation practice issues, including those related to cybersecurity, privacy and management liability, for The Risk and Insurance Management Society (RIMS), the American Bar Association (ABA), and numerous other professional organizations and local bar associations.