Insurance and Reinsurance

LEADERS

Overview

The Insurance and Reinsurance Practice Group has successfully represented insurers and reinsurers in high-stakes, complex matters for more than 50 years.

Our insurance specialists are accomplished trial and appellate lawyers who have litigated matters to successful conclusion throughout the world.  Our work extends across all types of insurance claims and includes those related to:

  • Environmental and toxic tort coverage (including pharmaceutical liability)
  • Directors and officers liability
  • Property insurance
  • Comprehensive general liability
  • Catastrophe coverage
  • Professional liability
  • Health policies
  • Managed care programs

The Insurance and Reinsurance group has represented insurers and reinsurers, including many of the world’s largest, in arbitration and litigation of many of the principal issues in reinsurance.  These have included:

  • Allocation and aggregation of complex environmental and other long-tail losses
  • Coverage of defense and declaratory-judgment expenses
  • Rescission for nondisclosure in underwriting
  • Arbitrability of disputes in insolvency
  • Late notice of claim
  • Pre-award security
  • Statute of limitations

Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher’s Insurance and Reinsurance group has been litigating major latent injury/damage coverage disputes for years.  The California Coordinated Asbestos Insurance Coverage Cases are but one example.  Other latent injury exposures we have litigated include construction defect and products claims involving, among other things, breast implants and claimed mold infestation.

Gibson Dunn plays a central role in efforts to limit, both legislatively and judicially, punitive damage awards.  In addition to lobbying and educational campaigns, we have pursued these efforts in U.S. state and federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court.  We are proud of our expertise in defending punitive damage claims and have successfully tried many to defense verdicts.  Although historically we have concentrated on insurers and reinsurers, practice group lawyers also represent insured clients in selected cases where no conflict exists.

We have acted as national coordinating counsel for insurers in a variety of disputes.  We establish efficient procedures for early evaluation and cost-effective resolution, whether through carefully considered settlement, dispositive motion or a successful jury verdict.

Our involvement in the many aspects of insurance company liquidations includes representing claimants and reinsurers of the insolvent entities.  We also have worked with state regulators in negotiations leading to settlement and/or commutation of millions of dollars of reinsurance recoveries.

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

California Supreme Court Holds That An Insured Can Access Its First-Level Excess Policy After Exhausting Only The Underlying Primary Insurance For That Policy Period

-June 18, 2024

Gibson Dunn Ranked in 2024 U.S. Legal 500

-June 12, 2024

Gibson Dunn Earns 112 Top-Tier Rankings in Chambers USA 2024

-June 6, 2024

Supreme Court Holds That Insurers With Financial Responsibility For Bankruptcy Claims May Be Heard In Reorganization Proceedings

-June 6, 2024

California Supreme Court Holds That COVID-19 Does Not Create “Direct Physical Loss Or Damage” To Insured Property

-May 23, 2024

Texas Supreme Court Allows Claimant to Sue Insurers Directly After Settlement, But Holds Settlement Agreement Does Not Bind Insurers

-February 27, 2024

Law360 Names Eight Gibson Dunn Partners as 2022 MVPs

-September 6, 2022

How Courts Are Ruling On The Arbitrability Of ERISA Claims

-February 24, 2022

2021 ERISA Litigation Update

-February 22, 2022

Law360 Names Six Gibson Dunn Partners as 2021 MVPs

-September 8, 2021

2020 Year-End ERISA Disputes Update

-February 11, 2021

Can you sue insurance companies for emotional-distress damages?

-April 8, 2020

COVID-19 and Representation and Warranty Insurance on US M&A Deals: Considerations for Buyers and Sellers

-March 27, 2020

Theodore Boutrous, Richard Doren, Daniel Kolkey and Debra Wong Yang Named to Daily Journal’s Top 100 List

-September 18, 2019

Four Gibson Dunn Partners Recognized in Who’s Who Legal 2019 in Tax, Life Sciences and Insurance

-June 18, 2019

Webcast: Insuring the Deal: Key Considerations when Utilizing Transactional Insurance

-May 16, 2019

Gibson Dunn Ranked in Legal 500 EMEA 2019

-April 19, 2019

When Are Insurance Bad Faith Damage Awards Excessive?

-February 28, 2019

Gewährleistungsversicherungen beim Unternehmenskauf sind in der Praxis angekommen

-December 2, 2016

Ownership and Control of Indian Insurance Companies with Foreign Investment

-October 22, 2015

The Next Frontier in Sanctions Enforcement

-October 1, 2015

RICO Suits Challenge Off-Label Drug Marketing

-August 3, 2015

Indian Government Permits 49% Foreign Investment in the Insurance Sector

-March 11, 2015

Indian Government Permits 49% Foreign Investment in the Insurance Sector

-March 11, 2015

Current Issues in Director and Officer Indemnification and Insurance

-July 31, 2013

U.S. Supreme Court Prevents Class Action Plaintiffs from Evading Federal Jurisdiction under CAFA

-March 20, 2013

Supreme Court of California Exempts Life Insurance Products from Scope of California’s Consumers Legal Remedies Act

-April 27, 2009