For more than 30 years, Covington has been successfully assisting corporate and other policyholders in maximizing their insurance coverage. We help policyholders recover insurance -- both in the US and abroad -- for a wide variety of claims, including mass-tort liabilities, catastrophic losses, property losses, and D&O and E&O exposures. We have more than 100 lawyers (including 25 partners) in our coverage practice, and a long history of successfully negotiating and litigating with virtually all major insurers.
Our successes include numerous recoveries in excess of $100 million, including recoveries ranging from $600 million to $1.5 billion each for Merck for Vioxx claims, Armstrong and Owens Corning for asbestos claims, Dow Corning for breast implant claims, and Exxon for the Valdez grounding. Over their careers, our coverage lawyers have helped policyholders recover well in excess of $15 billion.
Covington has the top-ranked policyholder practice in the US and one of the leading practices in the UK according to the most recent legal rating guides published by both Chambers and Legal 500. In addition, in 2010, we received the Chambers USA Award for Excellence in Insurance, which is awarded annually to only one policyholder firm in the US. This marks the third time our practice has received this award in the four years since Chambers USA has been awarding it. According to the 2010 edition of Chambers USA, interviewees identified our practice as possessing “impressive bench strength” and lauded our coverage lawyers as “the strongest player[s] in th[e] market,” and according to the 2010 edition of Legal 500 US, clients describe our practice as “the strongest [they] have encountered.”
Confirming the unmatched depth of our coverage practice, we have more individually recognized leading practitioners than any other policyholder firm in the most recent editions of Chambers USA and UK (13 lawyers, including 7 in the US national rankings) and The Legal Media Group Guide to the World's Leading Insurance and Reinsurance Lawyers (12 lawyers).
We have achieved coverage victories in trial and appellate courts, and in domestic and international arbitrations. We also have a leading negotiation practice in the US and abroad, helping policyholders reach negotiated settlements with their insurers. And a significant portion of our practice involves advising our clients as to how to position themselves favorably in future coverage disputes or to avoid such disputes altogether. We also analyze proposed and existing insurance policy language and negotiate manuscript provisions to advise our clients in the purchase or renewal of insurance. We have experienced policyholder coverage lawyers practicing in our London, New York, San Francisco and Washington offices.
Representative Matters
Here is a brief summary of some of our recent results:
- Vioxx coverage — We recently achieved a major victory for Merck in a London arbitration involving coverage for Vioxx-related claims. Although the arbitration ruling was confidential, Merck disclosed that it had recognized approximately $590 million in income as a result of that ruling and negotiated settlements (its total limits were approximately $630 million), plus approximately $45 million in fees and interest payments. According to an American Lawyer survey, the Merck arbitration involved the largest amount at issue in any pending international arbitration between a policyholder and its insurers.
- Missing Policies/Asbestos Coverage — Through intensive discovery in an ongoing asbestos coverage lawsuit in North Carolina state court, we proved up for our client SPX Corporation over $100 million worth of previously “missing” or disputed insurance policies. We also won summary judgment on a variety of key legal issues, including rulings that the Defendant insurers are required to pay 100 percent of SPX’s defense costs for thousands of underlying asbestos claims and virtually all of SPX's indemnification costs under lines of insurance coverage governed by New York, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin law. In addition, we negotiated with various insurers a favorable resolution of SPX's contractual and extra-contractual claims.
- Solvent schemes of arrangement — We have a leading practice representing clients in opposing solvent schemes in the UK courts. We were lead counsel in the landmark BAIC ruling by the High Court of Justice in London, where the court sided with our policyholder clients and refused to sanction the BAIC scheme. We were also lead counsel in the WFUM solvent scheme, where the court again sided with policyholders on the key issue of class composition (that ruling has been widely followed in subsequent schemes). We currently represent a group of policyholders challenging the Scottish Lion solvent scheme in the Scottish courts, where the appellate court affirmed key principles of fair treatment for dissident policyholders while remanding for further proceedings in the trial court; as well as other groups of clients opposed to the EAUA and CUAL solvent schemes. We also have deep experience assisting clients in solvent scheme claim submissions and settlement negotiations with solvent scheme insurers.
- Asbestos coverage — In October 2007, the New York Court of Appeals unanimously affirmed a key choice-of-law ruling for our client in a major asbestos coverage dispute. Foster Wheeler retained us in 2005 after the trial court ruled against it on the choice-of-law issue. We secured a unanimous reversal from the Appellate Division in a ruling of broad precedential value. The Court of Appeals has now affirmed that ruling. Since we were retained by Foster Wheeler, we have finalized ten settlements with different insurers or groups of insurers.
- Settlements (first-party and third-party coverage) — In addition to our litigation and arbitration victories, we continue to achieve outstanding results for our policyholder clients at the settlement table. Since January 1, 2007, we have concluded more than 50 settlements for our clients, with total recoveries well in excess of $1 billion. These settlements ― some of which relate to the matters listed above ― have included first-party losses (e.g., hurricane-related losses) as well as a wide range of third-party liabilities (e.g., D&O, environmental, E&O, theft loss, data breach liability, asbestos, employee claims, product liability, benzene, and a variety of other toxic torts).
Accolades
- Chambers USA (2009-2010)
- Exclusive top-tier US national ranking for our practice group, with twelve individual lawyers recognized, including seven in the national category
- Chambers USA Award for Excellence in Insurance (2010, 2009, 2007)
- Sole recipient in 2010 of Chambers USA’s national award to a policyholder coverage practice
- Sole recipient in 2009 of Chambers USA’s national award to a policyholder coverage practice
- Sole recipient in 2007 of Chambers USA’s first ever national award to an insurance practice group
- The Practical Law Company (PLC) (2010)
- Exclusive top-tier ranking of "leading," with six individual lawyers recognized
- Legal 500 US (2009-2010)
- Exclusive top-tier US national ranking for our practice group
- Legal 500 UK (2009)
- Top-tier UK national ranking for our practice group
- Chambers UK (2009)
- UK national ranking for our practice group
- The Legal Media Group Guide to the World's Leading Insurance and Reinsurance Lawyers (2009)
- Twelve individual lawyers listed
- The Best Lawyers in America (2010)
- Ten individual lawyers listed in the insurance category
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