Insurance Coverage and Recovery

Maximize Your Recovery

We understand that maximizing coverage under insurance is a critical component of many commercial disputes, and disputes with insurers over the amount of coverage available can be as difficult to manage as the underlying loss. When circumstances arise that trigger coverage, we counsel policyholders in connection with maximizing their insurance recovery and, if needed, we represent them in disputes over insurance coverage.

We have represented diverse clients in insurance coverage disputes in Illinois and in other jurisdictions. We have fought to enforce several types of policies, including:

• Commercial General Liability policies
• Commercial Property policies
• E&O policies
• D&O policies
• Employee Theft policies
• Pollution Legal Liability policies
• Employment Liability policies
• Umbrella and Excess policies
• Warehouse Legal Liability policies
• Intellectual Property Infringement Abatement and Defense policies.

Representative Matters

• We currently represent BorgWarner, Inc. in a pending lawsuit against numerous insurers involving over $1 billion in potential coverage for asbestos liability.
• We successfully represented Abbott Laboratories in an appeal concerning Abbott’s dispute with Certain Underwriters at Lloyd’s, London, over insurance coverage for a pharmaceutical product recall. The appellate court affirmed the circuit court of Cook County’s award to Abbott of over $80 million in damages.
• We prevailed on behalf of an owner and operator of multiple special events facilities in the Chicagoland area in an action brought by our client’s insurer seeking a declaratory judgment that it did not owe a duty to defend our client from claims in an underlying lawsuit. We won summary judgment award in favor of our client in the trial court, and the appellate court affirmed the trial court’s judgment, adopting our position that the policy exclusions on which the insurer relied did not defeat the insurer’s duty to defend.
• We successfully represented the National Association of Women Business Owners-Chicago Chapter in a lawsuit brought by its insurer seeking a declaration that the insurer had no obligation to defend our client in connection with a defamation lawsuit. The trial court granted summary judgment in our client’s favor, rejecting the insurer’s argument that the insurance policy’s intentional acts exclusions applied to bar coverage of the defamation claims.
• We have represented construction firms to secure declaratory judgments requiring carriers to defend and indemnify third party claims for personal injury and property damage.
• We successfully represented DSC Logistics, Inc. in a lawsuit brought by its insurers seeking a declaration that the insurers were not obligated to defend our client or pay any judgment amount in a lawsuit brought by a former customer of our client. After we took the depositions of underwriters and claims managers from our client’s insurers, the insurers agreed to settle with our client and made a substantial payment that enabled the client to immediately and fully resolve the lawsuit with its former customer.