Success Stories

“Our client and another party were both alleged to have polluted the groundwater at an industrial facility surrounded by hundreds of residences with private drinking-water wells.  We filed litigation against multiple carriers seeking the insurance necessary to defend...

“When our client’s $30M construction project, 75% complete, was destroyed by arson, they turned to us to secure their builders’ risk coverage necessary to rebuild.  Problem: neither the contractor nor the security company could establish adherence to the protective...

“One morning, at 5:30 a.m., I received a phone call from a frantic client: ‘Our plant just exploded, and I need the best OSHA lawyer in America within the next 45 minutes.’  Within two hours, we retained that lawyer 3000 miles away, and for the next several years...

“Full coverage: A U.S. subsidiary of a $90 billion petrochemical company was sued by a window manufacturer in a putative class action alleging defects in insulating glass sealants used in $4 billion worth of windows over a 20-year period.  We twice defeated class...

“Our client, a landlord, was sued by a tenant for alleged exposure to lead paint in the rented unit.  Problem: every applicable policy had a lead paint exclusion.  We demonstrated that the lead paint exclusion, which crept into the policy years before, had not been...

“We defended a U.S. sealant manufacturer against a $2.1 million litigation in Quebec, Canada.  The mobbed-up plaintiff – who referred to me affectionately (?) as “Mr. Hollywood” – claimed our client was responsible for the failure of 17,000 insulating glass units the...

“Our client was sued in a small midwestern town where the plaintiff was the largest employer, with one judge in town for the last 25 years.  Subway was the only fine-dining option available.  The plaintiff manufactured housing components with our client’s materials. ...

“On September 10, 2001, I landed in New York City for a mediation with an insurance company in which we needed to secure coverage for about $12M in construction products litigations filed against our client in California, Wisconsin, and New York.  The case also...

“A roofing contractor in Chicago blamed our client, a construction product manufacturer, for supposedly causing his roofs to become mushy, leaky, and sticky.  One million dollars of icky roofs.  During our inspection of one of the roofs, the homeowner called 9-1-1. ...

“At the time, it was the largest bankruptcy ever in California.  We represented the creditors’ committee in the pursuit of environmental coverage against 16 insurance carriers.  The case involved underground storage tanks and bunkers in multiple locations in central...

“$10 million workplace chemical exposure lawsuit against 30 defendants.  Everyone settled.  Not us.  We were the last defendant standing on the eve of trial, and plaintiff’s counsel berated us: ‘You are the worst negotiator I’ve ever met.’  Next day, she dismissed the...

“Our client’s customer, a substantial construction products concern in California, owed our client about $1.5M.  The customer refused to pay, saying the products sold by my client didn’t work, and threatened to file a $10M litigation in California.  We said, “we’ll...

“Like most jurisdictions, California grants the insured the right to select its own independent counsel, at the insurer’s expense (at panel rates), to defend an underlying case when the insurer’s reservation letter creates a conflict for appointed counsel.  In our...

“The insurance company had repeatedly denied indemnity coverage for a massive construction-defect litigation.  “No property damage” . . . same old, same old.  On the eve of trial and running out of options, we filed a coverage lawsuit in an unanticipated jurisdiction...

“Our construction-industry client was sued as a result of an accident in which a construction worker lost his life.  The insurance company denied coverage based on a subsidence exclusion in the policy.  We first obtained a defense for our client under another party’s...

“On stage, this world-famous performance artist has an act that thrills some and nauseates others. At deposition, he comes across as a highly articulate professional.  “On stage, it’s all an act,” he testified.  For us, it was not an act when we won him full insurance...

“We prosecuted and successfully resolved a $100 million contract claim on behalf of a Spanish pharmaceutical company against a California supplier of blood plasma in an International Chamber of Commerce arbitration venued in London, governed by California and Dutch...

“We disposed of a claim by a major university involving alleged defects in all of its many swimming pools.  Our client paid nothing to settle the claim.  We used technical evidence to persuade the university and other impacted parties that our client’s product did not...

“In a massive putative class action claiming $1.5 billion, the plaintiff neglected to plead the basis for jurisdiction.  Knowing this would easily be addressed by amending the complaint with nothing gained, we kept silent.  The judge noticed a year later and dismissed...

“Due to its size, our settlement of a multimillion-dollar proceeding against multiple federal regulators required the approval of the President of the United States (then George H.W. Bush) and the Secretary of the Treasury.  Our client was the parent company of a...

“I sat in the front row of the courtroom, listening to the argument in the case on calendar just before ours (one in which we represented a Fortune 500 company in the prosecution of a trademark infringement action).  The criminal defendant standing before the judge...

“The insurance company denied coverage of attorneys’ fees in an employment practices claim against a public utility based on an exclusion in the policy.  We fought back, pointing out that two missing commas rendered the exclusion ambiguous.  The insurance company...

“A landlord was sued by pedestrians who had been brutally attacked by a pit bull being walked by the landlord’s tenant.  The landlord had never even seen the pit bull and was unaware of its existence.  The insurance company denied coverage because the attack took...

“In a one-sentence denial, a consortium of insurance companies rejected coverage, based on purportedly late notice, of a claim asserted against our client, an HOA.  The insurance program was convoluted to say the least.  We picked it apart over a weekend,...

“We went to the top of an insurance company to resolve a travel insurance claim for a client who suffered an illness episode during an insured trip.  The insurance company had twice denied coverage because our client, the insured, had not had an overnight hospital...

“Our client suffered an extreme accident while traveling, breaking his neck and back.  Thankfully, he is on the mend.  The seemingly reputable and well-regarded travel insurance company engaged in delay after delay, leaving our client and his family to their own...

"Our client was on safari for a professional endeavor when his pulmonary condition flared at high elevation.  He prudently returned home for medical treatment.  His insurer denied coverage because he had not sought medical treatment before returning home.  The...

“When you own a Stradivarius violin worth well more than $10M, it had better be properly insured.  Our client lends such a violin to great artists for major performances, and often the violin is in the hands of the artists or performing arts organizations. ...