Kelley Drye's Insurance Recovery practice group advises both businesses and individuals in securing coverage and resolving coverage claims with insurance providers. The practice group exclusively represents corporate and individual policyholders and is focused on providing cost-effective and creative ways to resolve disputes and secure the proceeds to which policyholders are entitled.
Led by John Heintz, regularly named a top insurance lawyer by Chambers USA, members of the team have worked at the forefront of nearly every major insurance coverage dispute over the last thirty years and have secured billions of dollars in insurance coverage for their clients by employing creative and ever-evolving strategies and techniques in litigation, alternate dispute resolution (ADR), and settlement. The group includes trial counsel who prevailed in the first asbestos non-products coverage case resolved favorably against the insurers after a full trial on the merits.
Kelley Drye's Insurance Recovery practice group:
- Resolves a vast range of insurance coverage claims, including, first and third-party property damage for its clients, Directors’ and Officers’ (D&O) liability, professional errors and omissions liability, environmental, employment, third-party mass tort, products liability, data loss, advertising and marketing injury, and residual value.
- Represents clients in multi-party insurance disputes in federal and state courts and ADR proceedings across the country.
- Counsels corporate and individual policyholders in securing insurance coverage.
- Advises corporate clients on insurance issues arising out of mergers and acquisitions.
- Devises solutions and develops complex solutions to claims confronting its clients, including those related to environmental hazards, acts of terrorism, and weather-related damage.
Representative Experience
Members of our team have:
- Represented a large vehicle leasing and finance company (the largest in the Southeastern United States) in a recent, six-week arbitration trial that involved a complex “residual value” insurance policy and resulted in a nine-figure mid-trial settlement – one of the largest known settlements of its kind.
- Won reversal by the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit of an award issued by an arbitration panel in a billion-dollar insurance coverage dispute.
- Represented a policyholder in insurance coverage litigation for potential liabilities arising from lead pigment tort litigation across the country, including public nuisance suits brought by governmental entities.
- Represented large corporate property owners in coverage disputes arising from damage caused to their properties at Ground Zero on 9/11 and obtained settlements valued at several hundred million dollars.
- Counseled and representing business owners and homeowners in coverage disputes arising from property damage caused by Hurricanes Rita and Katrina.
- Secured D&O coverage on behalf of a high-level corporate officer who was a defendant in shareholder class action litigation and a federal government prosecution.
- Counseled an airplane manufacturer in successfully securing insurance coverage for third-party claims arising from allegedly defective airplane parts.
- Secured a precedent setting decision after a complex, four-month trial in New York State Court involving "non-products" coverage for asbestos-related bodily injury claims. The decision established a new precedent for aggregate limits in commercial general liability policies.
- Represented, in both an arbitration proceeding and in a state court action, a group of mass-tort defendants with respect to insurance coverage for unfunded joint and several tort settlements (so-called “Shortfall Litigation”) resulting in the recovery of several hundred million dollars.
- Served as co-lead counsel in a nationwide series of state-based class actions against title insurers arising from alleged premium overcharges.
- Represented the future claimants representative in a vigorously contested and complex Section 524(g) bankruptcy proceeding in which insurance was one of the Debtor’s most significant assets; secured several hundred million dollars in insurance coverage through a combination of mediation, settlement, and litigation efforts.
- Represented a nationally known auto parts manufacturer with respect to a variety of asbestos-related coverage issues, including insurance issues arising from its pending bankruptcy proceeding.
Reported cases include:
- ACandS, Inc. v. Travelers Casualty and Surety Company, 435 F.3d 252 (3d Cir. 2006)
- Shook & Fletcher Asbestos Settlement Trust v. Safety National Casualty Corp., 79 Fed. App'x 238 (8th Cir. 2003)
- American Motorists Ins. Co. v. GTE Corp., 30 Fed. Appx. 15 (2d Cir. 2002)
- Texaco A/S v. Commercial Insurance Co. of Newark, NJ, 160 F.3d 124 (2d Cir. 1998)
- Pittston Company Ultramar America Ltd. v. Allianz Insurance Co., 124 F.3d 508 (3d Cir. 1997)
- Schlumberger Industries, Inc. v. National Surety Corp., 36 F.3d 1274 (4th Cir. 1994)
- J T Thorpe Co. v. American Motorists, 2003 WL 23323005 (S.D. Tex. 2003)
- World Omni Fin. Corp. v. ACE Capital Re, Inc., No. 02 Civ. 0476, 2002 WL 31016669 (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 10, 2002), vacated in part, 64 Fed. App'x 809 (2d Cir. May 2, 2003)
- Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Co. v. Travelers Indemnity Co., 457 N.W.2d 75 (Minn. 1990)
- Armstrong World Indus., Inc. v. Aetna Casualty & Surety Co., 45 Ca.App.4th 1 (Ct. App. 1st Dist. 1996)
For further information about Kelley Drye's Insurance Recovery Practice Group, please contact:
John E. Heintz
(202) 342-8412
jheintz@kelleydrye.com
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