Insurance Counseling, Policy Drafting, and Risk Assessment

Our main goal is to identify cost-effective ways in which to resolve complex claim situations, drawing on the decades of experience that the attorneys in our group possess. We frequently review insurer claims files for purposes of rendering legal opinions regarding coverage. Our attorneys have often been asked to either review or draft reservation of rights and declination of coverage correspondence on behalf of insurers.

In addition, the expertise of the firm in both occurrence and claims-made forms, coupled with our experience in trials of underlying claims and defending insurer positions in coverage litigation, has positioned the firm’s practice group to provide assistance to underwriters in drafting, revising and evaluating policy wording. The firm’s insurance expertise is broadly based, including general liability, hospital and physician professional liability, professional errors and omissions, directors and officers, employment practices liability, umbrella and excess coverage, all risk, and environmental impairment coverage. The firm’s marine group has extended the insurance practice group’s expertise to include ship-repairer’s legal liability, protection and indemnity, charterers’ liability and hull coverage.

The firm’s attorneys have provided counsel to insurers on occurrence and date of loss issues, claims made and notice of circumstance issues, the application of various exclusions, interpretation of property damage, limits of liability and aggregates, “other insurance” and allocation issues, late notice defenses, claims cooperation and control disputes, “bad faith” claims, products and completed operations coverage issues, and additional insured questions.

Most importantly, in providing counsel our attorneys focus not only on the legal issues but on the practical issues, working with underwriters to formulate coverage position strategies that are realistic and targeted to the goals of both protecting insurer exposures and preserving relationships with policyholders.

In light of our office’s extensive claims experience as both monitoring counsel and as front-line trial counsel in venues throughout the United States, we are capable of providing in-depth risk assessment of prospective and renewal accounts. This expertise has been applied to pre-underwriting reviews, including an analysis of an insured’s operations, quality control efforts, general defense strategy and assessment of individual claim and loss exposure and reviews of ground-up reserves. Such reviews also explore and examine past coverage disputes so that underwriters can appreciate the nature of the insured’s operations and identify in advance potential coverage issues before the policy incepts.

We have worked with clients on a variety of complex coverage issues including:

• Advising and drafting new product occurrence wording for London based insurer
• Advising and drafting E&O wording utilized by London market insurer for US risks
• Providing counseling with regard to provisions of international insurer’s excess casualty program
• Conducting pre-underwriting reviews of London insurers involved in Hospital Excess Liability, Architect E&O, Energy and US Casualty programs.
• Providing risk assessments on various areas of tort liability for international underwriters

For more information about how we can assist you, please contact any of our complex coverage attorneys.