Insurance Law

Does $100M D&O Policy Require Lloyd’s to Pay Stanford’s Legal Bills? Federal Judge Will Decide

Jailed Texas financier R. Allen Stanford and three of his company’s former executives have racked up millions in legal bills as they defend themselves against accusations that they participated in a $7 billion Ponzi scheme. So far, Lloyd’s of London has paid their criminal defense fees. But the famed insurer…

Aug 25, 2010 7:28 PM CDT

‘Massive Amorphous Blob’ of Evidence Slows Case Against Alleged Madoff Cohorts

What one defense lawyer described as a “massive amorphous blob” of evidence seized from Bernard Madoff is slowing down a criminal prosecution of three of the convicted Ponzi schemer’s alleged cohorts. But prosecutors told a federal judge in Manhattan today that they have a database of documents and would be…

Aug 16, 2010 8:00 PM CDT

Insurance Guru Eugene Anderson Dies; Known for ‘Triple Trigger,’ Hitchhiking to Harvard

As a foster child growing up in Portland, Ore., in the 1930s, on farms and in an orphanage, Eugene Anderson must have seemed an unlikely prospect for success as a New York lawyer. However, he not only put himself through the University of California, Los Angeles, but with the help…

Aug 2, 2010 7:30 PM CDT

Judge Refuses to Toss Va. Challenge to Health Care Law

A federal judge in Richmond, Va., has refused to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the health care law signed by the president in March. U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson held that the court had jurisdiction to hear the challenge to the law requiring people to buy health care coverage or pay…

Aug 2, 2010 5:41 PM CDT

Life Insurers Give Beneficiaries Checkbooks, But the Accounts Aren’t FDIC-Insured

When it comes time to pay out life insurance benefits, a number of companies have found a way to do their duty and yet keep the money in their own hands, too. They send the beneficiary a checkbook for what might seem to be a checking account. But in fact…

Jul 29, 2010 5:17 PM CDT

Lewis Brisbois Can’t Use SLAPP Law as Shield Against Ex-Client’s Malpractice Suit

A law firm known for its insurance expertise has arguably now made a bad situation worse–twice–by litigating insurance-related issues. Sued for malpractice by ex-client Kmart Corp., Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith invoked the protection of a California civil rights statute, contending that its effort to seek a declaratory judgment on…

Jul 22, 2010 8:35 PM CDT

Surprising Pundits, DOJ Brief Defends Health Care Law Under Tax Power

In anticipation of a constitutional challenge, Congress included findings with the new health care law intended to show it is a regulation of commerce. The taxation power isn’t mentioned. Indeed President Obama himself dismissed the idea that the new law is essentially a tax, the New York Times reports. “I…

Jul 19, 2010 2:38 PM CDT

Jenner Warns Corporate Clients Harmed by Oil Spill of Impending Pollution Claim Deadline

Jenner & Block is warning its corporate clients that they may be facing a deadline to file business interruption claims related to the Gulf oil spill. According to Jenner, some insurers assert that that 5 p.m. Thursday, Eastern Time, is the deadline for filing business-interruption claims tied to pollution. The…

Jul 7, 2010 4:17 PM CDT

Law Firms Launch New Practice Groups in Effort to Roll with Roiling Economy

Arent Fox has launched a new insurance and reinsurance practice in New York, making it one among a number of law firms that are looking to refocus its practice areas to deal with the difficult economy. Others doing so include Howrey, which established a 25-lawyer energy technology group earlier in…

Jul 6, 2010 5:59 PM CDT

Incoming White & Williams Chair Is a ‘Lifer’ Who Plans to Work on Firm ‘PR Issue’

An insurance coverage partner who has spent his entire career working at White & Williams will soon be the midsize Philadelphia-based law firm’s new chairman and managing partner. “Lifer” Guy Cellucci, 56, will take over the helm in October from George Hartnett, who is required to step down from management…

Jun 25, 2010 5:39 PM CDT

Color-Blind Lawyer’s Retirement Dream: Work as a Sports Photographer for a Fla. Newspaper

Ludwig van Beethoven was deaf in the latter part of his life, when he composed his famous Ninth Symphony. So attorney Daniel Eidsmoe doesn’t see being color-blind as a significant barrier to his own retirement dream of working as a sports photographer for a Florida newspaper. Now 47, the Illinois…

Jun 15, 2010 5:04 PM CDT

Insurer to Pay $72.5M to Settle Alleged Structured Settlement Fraud in Earlier Cases

A federal judge in Connecticut has given a preliminary thumbs-up to an insurer’s agreement to pay $72.5 million to settle a class action over the structured settlements it provided to plaintiffs in earlier workers’ compensation and accident cases. A spokesman for the Hartford still says the company did nothing wrong…

Jun 11, 2010 4:36 PM CDT

Widow of Kramer Levin Co-Founder Claims His Life Insurance Deal Violated Law

New York lawyer Arthur Kramer, the co-founder of Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel, set up an insurance deal before he died designed to raise immediate cash for family members and even more money for investors in the long-term. Now that deal is the subject of “sprawling litigation” that involved three…

Jun 11, 2010 11:49 AM CDT

Tort Law Trumps Workers’ Comp in Parking Lot Shooting Case, Lawyer Says

Ordinarily, workers’ compensation provides the remedy for an employee who is injured or killed at work. But attorney Barry Cohen says he expects tort law to trump workers’ comp immunity for the defendant Florida supermarket in a wrongful death suit he filed over a parking lot shooting in which an…

Jun 10, 2010 2:57 PM CDT

Fraud Victims May Recover Proceeds of Insurance on Lawyer Who Killed Himself, Family

Investors who lost at least $25 million in a Ponzi scheme run by a lawyer who apparently killed himself and his family last year may get the proceeds of an insurance trust because of a ruling by a New York judge. Judge John Riordan ruled that proceeds of a $5…

Jun 10, 2010 2:18 PM CDT