The Insurance Coverage Group at Proskauer Rose LLP represents policyholders in coverage disputes with their insurance companies and advises clients on insurance issues. We have recovered well in excess of $2 billion for our clients through settlements and jury verdicts. Chambers and Partners, a worldwide publishing company that researches and ranks lawyers and law firms, recently recognized Proskauer's Insurance Coverage Group as a leader in its practice area, stating in Chambers USA, "Proskauer Rose is the best of the best when it comes to representing policyholders in disputes." Chambers also recognized John Gross as being singled out by clients and competitors alike as "'a premier insurance litigator who has a great, long-standing reputation and knows everyone in the industry. He is a civil trial specialist who reaps rich rewards for the clients from his insurance coverage claims successes."
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Our lawyers have advised a wide range of public and privately owned corporations and sports and other entities, including Amerada Hess, Bear Stearns, Bovis Lendlease Holdings, Bristol-Myers Squibb, British Petroleum, Brunswick, Home Depot, International Paper, JPMorgan Chase, Keystone Shipping, Lucent, Omnicom, PepsiCo, Philadelphia Eagles, Philip Morris Companies and PPL Corporation in connection with virtually all kinds of insurance products, including commercial general liability (products and environmental), fiduciary liability, directors and officers liability, fidelity, property insurance and marine insurance policies. We provide our clients with counseling and assistance on a nationwide basis and represent them in actions throughout the United States, before state and federal courts as well as arbitration panels.
Representative Matters:
- On May 23, 2007, former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer and Insurance Superintendent Eric R. Dinallo announced the global settlement of all insurance coverage litigation relating to the destruction of the World Trade Center. The insurers as a group committed to pay $4.55 billion with respect to the losses. Proskauer represented Silverstein Properties, owner of the Twin Towers, throughout this dispute, which turned on the issue of whether the destruction of the Twin Towers was a single occurrence or two occurrences, a multibillion-dollar coverage difference. With Proskauer's assistance, Silverstein convinced a federal jury to rule in its favor following trial in a verdict upheld by the Second Circuit, which found that certain insurance companies were potentially liable for twice their policy limits because the World Trade Center was destroyed by separate airplanes striking each of the two towers. It then became necessary to determine the total amount of the loss and whether when that loss was allocated between the two occurrences it equaled or exceeded $7.3 billion (double the single-policy limit of $3.65 billion). Appraisers were charged with this task and the parties agreed that the appraisal would be conducted in a trial-like format and that the appraisal panel would consider and decide issues in phases. Between January 2006 and May 2007, when the parties reached an agreement in principle to resolve all of the World Trade Center insurance litigation, the panel conducted separate hearings or trials on five separate sub-issues over 60 hearing days. In addition, the parties negotiated and resolved one set of issues on their own and other issues were separately mediated in this highly complex and closely tracked coverage dispute.
- We represent a leading Australian construction company in the analysis of insurance coverage related to illness claims made by rescue and clean-up workers following the collapse of the World Trade Center buildings on September 11 as well.
- We represent two of Wall Street's leading investment banks regarding coverage and recovery issues related to high-profile settlement agreements made with the SEC, the New York State Attorney General and other entities.
- We represent JPMorgan Chase & Co. in connection with recovery of payments it made to settle litigation involving its professional services to Worldcom, Enron, and others.
- We obtained a major victory for our client Omnicom Group Inc., whose subsidiary, Instinct Productions, was sued by Blackground Records, the label and promoter for R&B star Aaliyah, who died on August 25, 2001, when her plane crashed in the Bahamas after the production of her "Rock da Boat" video. We were involved in coverage disputes arising out of the wrongful suits filed against Omnicom Group and Instinct, the production company for the video, by the estates of the eight passengers on the flight.
Proskauer's Insurance Coverage Group evaluates coverage under insurance policies and litigates coverage claims involving a wide variety of underlying claims, including those stemming from admiralty, ERISA, environmental, employment discrimination, intellectual property, product liability, securities, unfair competition and white-collar criminal laws. Recently, for example, we represented policyholders in connection with insurance coverage claims arising from:
- damages sustained as a result of an illegal kickback and bribery scheme perpetrated by former employees and outside vendors
- faulty construction
- environmental liability at over 200 manufacturing sites throughout the country
- bodily injury and wrongful death
- losses arising from the alleged unseaworthiness of a vessel
- patent, infringement and unfair competition
- personal injury and advertising injury
- product liability
- property damage and business interruption
- asbestos liability
- directors' and officers' misconduct
- bankruptcy
- disability of performers
Fiduciary Policy Coverage
We regularly advise on insurance issues under fiduciary liability insurance policies. Much of this advice is provided by our ERISA Group. Our insurance coverage practice includes review and evaluation of fiduciary liability insurance coverage; coverage assessment in connection with fiduciary liability claims; advice concerning claim handling; prosecution and negotiation of insurance claims; and litigation under fiduciary liability coverage. Among the matters we have litigated under fiduciary liability policies are:
- a claim on behalf of the National Hockey League in a lawsuit filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York for coverage of a lawsuit brought by retired players arising from investment of retirement funds proceeds
- claims and arbitration on behalf of Collins & Aikman Group (f/k/a Wickes Companies, Inc.) against AIG for coverage arising from significant claimed liabilities under ERISA
- a major case, Sokolowski v. Aetna Life & Casualty Co., in which we successfully represented a pension plan and its trustees against their fiduciary responsibility insurer, establishing that the insurer was obligated to pay defense costs and to reimburse the plan for attorney fees that had been awarded against the plan in two suits against the plan and its trustees. The court held that the insurer had been obligated to defend the cases, which sought recovery of benefits, because the claims were made against the trustees in their personal capacities as well as the plan itself, and that the award of attorney fees was not in the nature of punitive damages but only compensatory, and thus within the scope of the insurance coverage
We bring particular value to bear in fiduciary insurance coverage claims in two additional ways: First, issues in fiduciary policy claims (including, for example, whether liability being sought is individual as opposed to liability of a plan) are directly related to concepts that originated in the D&O policy arena, where the firm has very significant experience. For example, we have handled major D&O coverage litigations on behalf of PepsiCo, JPMorgan Chase, and AHERF (Allegheny Health Education and Research Foundation) in the largest not-for-profit bankruptcy in U.S. history, among others.
Second, technical experience is often invaluable in a fiduciary coverage claim. For such know-how, we turn to our ERISA lawyers, who work in one of the best ERISA practices in the nation. We would be pleased to provide a summary of that practice area.
A Full-Service Firm
The lawyers in Proskauer's Insurance Coverage Group rely on the full resources of the firm's more than 770 lawyers in its ten offices: New York City, Los Angeles, Washington, Boston, Boca Raton, New Orleans, Newark, Paris, São Paulo and London. Our lawyers provide a full range of legal services on corporate, securities, employment, finance, litigation, intellectual property, domestic and international tax, bankruptcy, environmental, real estate, and trusts and estates matters. Our clients include leading U.S. and foreign corporations, financial institutions, trade associations, medium-sized and start-up businesses, partnerships and individuals.
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