Professional Liability Insurance Recovery

Professionals live with the knowledge that every job and client brings with it the potential for great reward . . . and the possibility of a crippling lawsuit.  Professional liability insurance (also known as errors & omissions or malpractice insurance) is intended to provide peace of mind and protect against claims of malpractice.  Too often, however, professionals are told by their professional liability carriers that their claims are not covered, leaving them with two bet-the-company battles on their hands.  Many companies simply do not survive.

Anderson Kill’s professional liability insurance recovery group represents lawyers and law firms, architectural and engineering firms, accountants and accounting firms, brokers, real estate professionals, hospitals, financial institutions and more to obtain the defense and indemnification promised by their professional liability insurance policies so they can stop fighting and get back to the business of doing business.  We also work with in-house legal departments and general counsel looking to maximize recovery under Employed Lawyers’ Professional Liability insurance policies.

Selected Representations:

• Successfully represented a law firm whose professional liability insurance company declined coverage for multiple malpractice cases brought against the firm on the ground that if a partner knowingly commits malpractice, the firm as an entity will be deemed to have knowledge of the malpractice, resulting in a published decision holding that one employee’s knowledge of his own wrongdoing will not necessarily be imputed to the firm.

• Represented architectural firm seeking coverage for alleged malpractice arising out of the design of a multi-story building; insurance company denied coverage, arguing that the claim was related to a prior claim alleging a different injury to a different part of the building.  After Anderson Kill filed a summary judgment motion arguing that the two claims were not related, the insurance company agreed to provide a defense and indemnification.
  
  
• Counseled partners of an accounting firm about right to coverage after discovery that one partner had allegedly engaged in wrongful acts, leading to civil litigation and criminal investigation.

• Successfully represented lawyer at mediation, convincing malpractice insurance company to contribute sufficient funds to settle underlying malpractice case even though insurance company had disclaimed coverage and stated it would not contribute towards settlement.

• Represented financial institution seeking coverage for fines mandated by an OCC-issued Consent Order under a Bankers Professional Liability for Financial Institutions Policy.

• Counseled a financial institution on coverage in connection with alleged misrepresentations in the marketing and sales of securities.  The client sought coverage for investor lawsuits and FINRA arbitrations, shareholder class actions, and regulatory investigations and proceedings.

• Represented a European technology services company in London arbitration, as well as related court proceedings in the U.S. and U.K., in connection with allegations that the client misrepresented the functionality of its software products.