For nearly 25 years, the lawyers of K&L Gates have been developing and implementing innovative legal strategies to assist businesses and individuals in obtaining insurance coverage for an ever-increasing range of liabilities and losses.  Over 150 of our lawyers are concentrated in what has become one of the largest Insurance Coverage Practice Groups in the world.  The results of our efforts on behalf of clients over the years have been reported in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Business Insurance and various trade periodicals.  Of Counsel Magazine devoted a lead article to the nation's top insurance coverage law firms.  While discussing several firms and their practices, the article observed that our Firm “is recognized as perhaps the leader in insurance coverage representation.”

Our Clients
K&L Gates has represented not only large corporate policyholders but also numerous midsize and smaller companies and their officers and directors, as well as governmental entities, in connection with insurance claims and issues as well as insurance-related strategic concerns.  Many policyholders, in all sizes and in all industry groups, including professionals, have turned to K&L Gates to help evaluate the role of their insurance policies in their overall risk management approaches, to negotiate policy wordings, and to address large and small loss or liability issues.

Our insurance coverage clients include accounting, aerospace, automotive products, broadcasting, building products, chemical, clothing, construction, consulting, energy, engineering, environmental services, financial services, food, heavy machinery, hospital, health care, hotels, information technology, legal, manufacturing, medical products, mining, paper, piping, private equity, publishing, retail, timber, waste disposal, travel and leisure, retail, utilities and welding product businesses, government entities, counties, cities and port districts.

• Click here for a list of client references.
  
  
• Click here to view a listing of Insurance Coverage Cases in which K&L Gates Represents the Policyholder (listed alphabetically by jurisdiction).
  
  
• Click here to view a listing of Insurance Coverage Cases in which K&L Gates Represents the Policyholder (listed alphabetically by subject).
  
  
• Click here to view a listing of Insurance Coverage Cases in which K&L Gates Represents the Policyholder (listed alphabetically by client).
  
  
• Click here to view a listing of Insurance Coverage Cases in which K&L Gates Represents the Policyholder (listed alphabetically by plaintiff).
  
  
• Click here  to view a listing of Insurance Coverage Cases in which K&L Gates Represents the Policyholder (listed alphabetically by industry).

Claims Dispute Resolution Services
K&L Gates has pioneered insurance-based strategies for some of the largest companies in the world seeking to survive the onslaught of large underlying claims or losses by maximizing the value of their insurance assets.  On behalf of one of our clients, the Firm filed the first mega-insurance coverage case in the United States against hundreds of insurers seeking coverage for environmental and toxic tort liabilities arising throughout the world.  K&L Gates has successfully prosecuted comprehensive environmental coverage litigation for some of the largest companies in the United States.  The Firm was at the forefront in accessing, on behalf of its clients, first-party insurance in addition to liability coverage for environmental liabilities, and the Firm obtained the first bad-faith jury verdict against a major insurer in this area.  The Firm has counseled and litigated on behalf of numerous corporations facing substantial asbestos liabilities.  In connection with some of these engagements, the Firm has conceived and implemented complex, largely insurance-based strategies to work out the clients' substantial asbestos problems.  Also, the Firm has counseled some of the largest international corporations regarding their directors and officers coverage issues, and has litigated D&O claims on their behalf.  K&L Gates' coverage litigation experience spans every major line of coverage for property and casualty losses.

With its emphasis on settlement of coverage disputes when possible without litigation, the Firm has concluded thousands of settlements on behalf of our clients with hundreds of different insurers.  These settlements have resulted in billions of dollars of insurance recoveries for our clients with respect to liability, property, business interruption, D&O, E&O, employment practices policies and a variety of other insuring instruments. 

Our work in developing strategic responses to the liabilities and losses facing our clients has arisen in many contexts: asbestos, breast implants, business interruption, business torts, computer systems, construction, directors’ and officers’, employment, employee benefits, environmental contamination, fidelity, fire, firearms, intellectual property, lead paint, medical devices, mold, nuclear, pharmaceuticals, professional, PVC pipe, public liability, repetitive-stress injuries, residual value, securities, “sick” buildings, silica, tobacco, trade finance, travel insurance, welding fumes, and liabilities and losses arising out of the September 11 tragedy, Hurricane Katrina, and other natural and man-made disasters.

Insurance Counseling Services
In addition to representing policyholder clients in the litigation and settlement of disputed coverage claims, K&L Gates performs a variety of insurance counseling services for clients, including the following:

• INSURANCE POLICY REVIEW
  K&L Gates reviews and analyzes the existing commercial insurance policies maintained by our clients (e.g., general and excess liability, property, business interruption, D&O, E&O, EPLI policies, etc.) to provide advice regarding language present or missing in those policies that may cause difficulties if and when possible claims arise.  Moreover, the Firm will provide advice regarding alternative coverage or policy provisions that may be sought to be added to those policies to enhance our client’s insurance program."
  
  
• CLAIMS AUDIT
  K&L Gates reviews and assesses pending liability claims being incurred by the client to determine if those claims are being handled in a manner so as to maximize insurance recovery.  Specifically, the Firm will review pending claims and losses in connection with the details of the client’s insurance program to analyze whether the claims are being defended in a manner to promote coverage and to consider whether applicable policy terms and conditions are being satisfied to avoid potential loss of coverage otherwise available to respond to the claims. 
  
  
• PHASE ONE CLAIMS DISPUTE ANALYSIS
  If a client has received notice from an insurer of a denial, or reservation of rights to deny, coverage for a particular claim, K&L Gates will perform a Phase One analysis to determine the prospects for obtaining coverage nonetheless.  A Phase One Analysis is a written report that reviews:  (a) the relevant facts of the claims situation; (b) the relevant insurance policy language, and (c) the applicable state insurance law.  Based on this review, the Phase One Analysis provides recommendations on whether and how best to pursue insurance recovery for the claim at issue.
  
  
• TRANSACTIONAL DUE DILIGENCE
  Frequently, in a company’s purchase or sale of another business, insufficient attention is paid to insurance issues in the transaction.  K&L Gates can assist the company’s transaction team by:  (1) reviewing a target company’s ongoing liabilities and corresponding insurance coverage to determine if coverage is available to respond to those liabilities and is being maximized; and (2) provide advice regarding whether the transaction is structured in a manner to best effectuate the parties’ intent regarding the assignment of insurance rights and proceeds.  Most insurance policies contain language addressing how insurance rights may be assigned, and there is significant and evolving case law that addresses whether and under what circumstances rights under an insurance policy may be assigned.  These policy provisions and case law must be analyzed in the context of actual and foreseeable claims situations, and K&L Gates is well experienced in such analysis to help clients avoid discontinuity in insurance coverage as a result of the transaction. 
  
  
• INSURANCE COMPANY INSOLVENCIES
  K&L Gates works closely with clients to track and ultimately pursue claims in connection with the insolvency and liquidations of many domestic and foreign insurance companies, many of which have resulted from London Market failures and inadequate reserving practices. Upon the creation of insurance company receiverships, on request, we advise clients in submitting timely proofs of claim, monitoring and negotiating schemes of arrangement, and working with various creditor committees. 
  
  
• BANKRUPTCY COUNSELING
  Insurance policies are often among the most important assets of a debtor’s bankruptcy estate, particularly in bankruptcy filings precipitated by mass tort liabilities. Our Insurance Coverage Practice Group, working closely in conjunction with our Bankruptcy, Business Reorganization and Restructuring Group, is actively engaged in representing a variety of clients in connection with insurance-related issues in asbestos and other bankruptcies. 
  
  
• CAPTIVE INSURANCE COMPANY COUNSELING
  K&L Gates provides multi-disciplinary, policyholder-oriented counseling to our clients on a wide range of captive insurance issues.  We counsel clients on insurance, corporate and transactional, finance, regulatory, securities and tax issues relating to captives.  We review, draft and assist in negotiating direct insurance contracts and reinsurance and retrocession agreements, and we represent captives in the litigation and resolution of such disputes. 

Our Practice Resources
K&L Gates maintains a firm-wide Intranet website portal, including multiple data bases, enabling Insurance Coverage Group lawyers in all of our offices to have ready access to insurance-related legal research, briefs, memoranda, court opinions, articles, depositions, expert reports, and insurance industry documents and other discovery materials.  This Intranet, along with an extensive library of hard-copy insurance materials, is designed to allow our lawyers to deliver client services efficiently and to avoid “re-inventing the wheel.” 

We also are at the cutting-edge of bringing technological resources to bear on difficult multiple-insurer disputes, through our use of insurance allocation models and spreadsheets. These models and spreadsheets, drawing from our insurance policy databases, permit us, when requested, to assist clients in settlement negotiations and in developing optimal coverage strategies by employing real-time “what if” analysis on a range of variables that are crucial in determining the potential value of a client’s historical insurance policies.

Our Approach to Discovery
K&L Gates utilizes a dedicated team of discovery professionals, flexible staffing and cutting edge technology to efficiently and economically handle the high volumes of electronic information and documents in discovery, which is often a significant part of insurance coverage litigation.

Our Contribution to Development of Insurance Law
Lawyers in K&L Gates Insurance Coverage Practice Group have raised the judiciary’s and the public’s understanding of insurance coverage issues through the continued submission to law reviews and leading specialty publications of dozens of scholarly articles and papers on complex issues of insurance law.  In 1997, K&L Gates lawyers conceived of and wrote the Policyholder’s Guide to the Law of Insurance Coverage. The Policyholder’s Guide, an 850-page volume updated annually, is recognized as one of the leading treatises on insurance law in the country.  Our lawyers created and edited the Journal of Insurance Coverage.  Our publications have been quoted in court opinions in numerous jurisdictions in support of coverage-enhancing rulings.  In addition, we have submitted dozens of briefs amicus curiae to courts on critical and developing issues of insurance coverage on behalf of groups of manufacturers, individual companies, utilities, and governmental entities. These amicus efforts have been cited in coverage-promoting court opinions.  The lawyers in the Insurance Coverage Practice Group routinely chair and speak at numerous national and regional conferences on insurance coverage and are active in local and national bar association sections and task forces concerning insurance coverage issues.