Overview
Serving the insurance industry’s needs is one of Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell’s greatest strengths. For over 90 years, the firm has represented insurers in courtrooms and boardrooms throughout the country in some of the largest, most complex lawsuits and transactions the industry has faced.
In 2010,
Chambers: Client's Guide to America's Leading Lawyers for Business recognized Locke Lord as being one of the leading law firms in Insurance and Reinsurance with high national and state rankings in the areas of insurance: transactional and regulatory; insurance: dispute resolution (reinsurance); dispute resolution (insurer); and insurance: dispute resolution. Chambers noted that Locke Lord has
"an outstanding reputation in the legal community thanks to its rich history in insurance, and also benefits from a strong national practice" is
"plainly one of the very best groups in Chicago and beyond" and that clients from various regions
"praise its industry expertise."
Reactions magazine ranked Locke Lord the No. 1 law firm in America in 2010 in the category of Reinsurance and Insurance Litigation & Dispute Management. Locke Lord also was identified by Reactions as one of the top U.S. law firms in Reinsurance as well as being recognized as one of the Best Overall U.S. firms. In addition, Locke Lord has been named a leading U.S. Firm by Who’s Who Legal in its The International Who's Who of Insurance & Reinsurance Lawyers 2010, with six Locke Lord attorneys specifically recognized for their work.
Also, our lawyers individually are regularly recognized as among the top in the field by, among others, Leading Lawyers, SNL Financial, and The Legal 500 United States-2008 Edition.
Protecting Our Clients’ Interests in Creating and Defending Their Policies
The Firm has developed a well-known and highly respected practice representing national and multi-national insurers in coverage and bad faith cases, from single plaintiff cases to mass actions and class actions. We provide the full spectrum of services, from skilled analysis and opinions of policies to claims defense in litigation.
The Locke Lord team represents insurers in high-stakes and contentious litigation around the country, often involving very significant alleged exposure to our clients, sophisticated legal issues, considerable factual and expert discovery, multi-party dynamics, multiple lines of current and historic coverages, and complex jurisdictional battles. We also are selected by insurers to defend insureds in certain tort litigation. We are creative in our litigation strategy and work to see each matter to conclusion, whether to a bench or jury trial, on appeal, by summary judgment motions, or through mediation or settlement.
Our attorneys draft, analyze and interpret policies of all types, including primary and excess insurance, first party and third party policies, manuscript and form language. We work with clients on policy wordings and products. We perform a variety of audits for self-insureds and insurers, including in connection with potential or completed acquisitions of business units with historic policies. We step in following major events or disasters or after corporate acquisitions to “triage” potential claims. Our attorneys also counsel on claims management and risk reduction. Locke Lord's effective strategies for negotiation, mediation, arbitration or litigation seek the best results for each client.
We address all types of direct insurance matters that involve a wide variety of insureds, innumerable types of underlying claims, significant technical and financial issues, and sophisticated legal analyses and strategies. Some of the claims types and industries include:
- Aerospace/Aviation: aviation crashes, satellites, TSA and security issues
- Asbestos and Silica Claims: involving different types of insureds under products and non-products coverages
- Bad Faith / Deceptive Practices: statutory claims and claims of other alleged corporate misconduct, including so-called Spitzer claims; also as to various alleged extra-contractual remedies sought by insureds
- Construction & Construction Products: construction defects, wrap coverages, wood treatment, lead paint, mold
- D&O (Directors & Officers) insurance: financial institutions, Fortune 500, global accounting firms, not-for-profit, public officials liability, school board legal liability, trustees E&O (Error & Omissions insurance)
- Emerging claims: particularly mass torts
- Employment practices: coverage, defense, policy drafting for various types of insureds
- Energy: onshore and offshore exploration and production, pipelines, refining, utilities; as to physical damage, business interruption, operators extra expense/energy exploration and development, and liability claims
- Environmental pollution claims: claims involving wide variety of insureds and policy forms
- ERISA (Employee Retirement Income Security Act): counseling, disability and medical claim litigation, fiduciary litigation and stop loss recoveries
- First party: property, business interruption, recalls for an array of types of insureds and policy wordings
- Life Insurance: sales practices cases in both individual and class action suits; bad faith and proceeds matters
- Natural disasters: hurricanes, fires, flooding and others
- Products: products liability, product recall, advertising liability, deceptive trade practices
- Professional Liability: legal malpractice, medical malpractice, accountants, architects and engineers, insurance brokers and agents, real estate brokers and property managers
- Program-related products: school boards, public entities, religious organizations, public defender programs
- September 11 claims: various first party and third party claims, including defense of Logan airport security company
- Technology: software data, cellular phones, Web issues, intellectual property concerns
- Transportation: aerospace/aviation, railroads, marine and cargo, tire manufacturers
The Locke Lord direct insurance team features attorneys elected as fellows in the American College of Trial Lawyers. Several of the team are instructors in life insurance litigation for the American Law Institute/American Bar Association (ABA) and class action litigation at the Practicing Law Institute. Some of our attorneys are elected members and leaders in the ABA Tort and Insurance Practice Committee, American Board of Trial Advocates, Defense Research Institute, Federation of Insurance and Corporate Counsel, International Association of Defense Counsel and National Institute for Trial Advocacy.
Helping Our Clients Engage in the Business of Insurance
Locke Lord's direct insurance team helps clients adapt to market changes and protects them before regulatory agencies. We nurture insurance clients by addressing licensing and formation matters, answering day-to-day operating questions such as insurance holding company filings, investment and capital requirements and corporate governance. Our attorneys also help clients confront problems when they run into matters such as capital infusion, insolvency and guaranty fund issues.
Insurance regulation can change dramatically from state to state, and we are skilled at addressing and meeting differing demands in multiple jurisdictions. We target a particular state or structure businesses and products for multi-state transactions. We also implement national insurance programs.
The Firm conducts a wide range of investment transactions for insurance companies and other financial institutions. Our globally recognized skill in the insurance and reinsurance industries gives us a unique perspective in effectively representing insurance companies and their affiliates in all aspects of their investment activities.
We help our clients grow through mergers and acquisitions of other companies and the purchase of blocks of business. We assist them in completing deals to better their distribution or arrange more efficient servicing of their business. We help businesses adapt to changes in the market through e-commerce and alternative risk financing transactions.
The variety of structured finance investment opportunities continues to grow, and we represent insurance companies in a wide range of investments, including guaranteed investment contracts, collateralized debt obligations, collateralized mortgage obligations, equity and debt investment funds, financial asset securitization investment trusts and others.
We also represent insurance companies and their affiliates in a variety of real estate fund investments and direct real estate investments. Our experience in representing insurance companies in mortgage financing transactions, including the restructuring and workout of troubled real estate investments, is extensive. We regularly represent insurance companies and their affiliates in connection with strategic investments and business arrangements with partners.
Our team includes former state insurance commissioners and those who have served in senior executive and legal positions in insurance companies and trade associations. They regularly write and speak on insurance issues before professional groups. Our attorneys serve leadership positions or are members in the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, an industry group made up of state life insurance commissioners and attorneys for regulatory matters, the American Council of Life Insurers and the Professional Liability Underwriting Society.
Client Support
Locke Lord's direct insurance team goes above and beyond client expectations through added value services.
We have arranged secondments where one of our attorneys works at a client’s office temporarily or where a client representative spends time in one of our U.S. offices. We regularly prepare “Client Alerts” on developments of interest to the insurance industry. The firm provides an annual update seminar on the “U.S. Tort System: Trends & Developments over the Last Year,” as well as interim update presentations and training seminars on a variety of topics.
Our attorneys provide a “quick query” courtesy service, addressing questions of a limited nature that can be answered quickly from our general knowledge. “Value-added” for Locke Lord means more than courtesy services. We are committed to maintaining, at our cost, various resources that help us provide our legal services in a cost-efficient manner. For example, we establish free extranets to create a secure electronic file shared with clients that includes electronic versions of documents (draft agreements, correspondence, pleadings, insured-specific policies, policy forms and others). We also have a generic web based application for claims databases that allow production of reports designed to meet a particular client’s needs.
Our internal depth and our external experiences join together to provide our clients with extensive resources. Our direct insurance team closely collaborates within the team and also with the firm’s other practice areas, including antitrust, construction, corporate and securities, environmental, financial services, intellectual property and real estate. Our insurance regulatory partners practice across the country and have strong relationships with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), with the insurance departments throughout the U.S., and with the various insurance liquidators. Our nationwide network of local firms has helped us form strong partnerships to provide the most effective representation in all types of matters. We have worked with technical experts in many different scientific and financial disciplines and we can seek their assistance on key factual matters.
As it continues to grow and change, the worldwide insurance industry needs counsel who understands the business of insurance and who has the team and the reputation to tackle litigation and to make transactions happen. Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell’s direct insurance team has proudly been that counsel for more than 75 years and is ready to continue to help our clients achieve results.