D&O Coverage

As some of the leading practitioners of insurance and reinsurance law, our attorneys represent insurers and reinsurers throughout the world in cases involving the liability of directors and officers. Our experience extends beyond claims made against directors and officers of publicly traded companies to include claims involving private companies, nonprofit entities, investment trusts, and limited and general partnerships.

We routinely assess coverage, prepare coverage opinions and investigate directors and officers liability claims. Our experienced litigators prosecute and defend coverage actions in trial courts and on appeal.

Our firm also counsels insurers on claims handling procedures, loss prevention and assist with drafting D&O policies. We routinely provide our clients updates on relevant law and policy. Our publications include the “Directors and Officers Liability Insurance Deskbook,” Second Edition, published by the American Bar Association’s Tort and Insurance Practice Section.

Our firm’s Directors and Officers coverage practice is part of the firm’s Insurance Division, one of the largest international teams of trial attorneys and business advisors dedicated to the institutional concerns and success of the insurance industry. Our clients cover the spectrum of the insurance industry and include some of the largest directors and officers insurers and reinsurers in the business.

Representative Services

Our firm attorneys represent clients nationally and abroad from the firm’s offices in the United States, Bermuda, and Europe. We are retained to provide the following types of services, among others:

• Evaluate coverage for and the defense of D&O claims arising from federal and state securities class action and derivative lawsuits against public companies, including high-tech and biotech. These are often “bet the company” cases for the insured, with important implications for the insurer.
• Advise insurers in complex merger and acquisition claims involving allegations of inflated consideration paid for acquired companies. These cases can present complicated issues involving whether the insurer is being asked to indemnify the insured for the “benefit of the bargain” claimed by the plaintiffs.
• Provide coverage and defense analysis for claims alleging breaches of fiduciary duties under ERISA, a rapidly expanding and important practice area.
• Represent insurers in evaluating the defense of D&O claims alleging civil RICO violations and violations of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
• Represent insurers in employment practices liability claims, under both D&O policies and stand-alone EPL policies. Often these are class action claims, which greatly expand the insured’s, and the insurer’s, exposure.
• Assist in the drafting of policy wordings, including D&O policies, industry-specific errors and omission coverage, and e-commerce policies.
• Represent insurers in judicial and nonjudicial settlement mediations, arbitrations and litigation, including trials.