For more than a quarter century, Hogan & Hartson has been on the cutting-edge of insurance coverage law and directly involved in many of the landmark decisions in the field. With more than 30 lawyers actively engaged in our insurance coverage practice, the firm has represented insurance company clients and others with respect to coverage issues related to virtually every form of insurance, including general liability, directors and officers, fidelity, health, property, surety, and reinsurance. Whether the issue requires litigation, arbitration, or alternative dispute resolution strategies, we are well-versed in handling all types of disputes.

Our practice extends to assisting clients to evaluate claims through sophisticated modeling techniques. In order to address the full range of issues our clients face, we bring in lawyers from different practices across the firm, including the bankruptcy and securities groups. Our comprehensive approach won praise by the esteemed legal directory Chambers USA, which described our insurance coverage group as “widely accepted to be among the leading practices representing insurance carriers.”

In addition, we serve as general counsel to the National Structured Settlements Trade Association (NSSTA), a non-profit insurance industry association that promotes the use of structured settlements as a means of resolving tort and workers’ compensation claims. Through this association, we participate, often in tandem with NSSTA’s insurance company members, in a wide range of legislative and regulatory proceedings and litigation affecting structured settlements.

Representative Experience

• Representing The Hartford, we obtained a significant ruling from the California Supreme Court in Henkel Corp. v. Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company that insurance rights do not transfer by operation of law in an assets acquisition by a third-party entity.
• We obtained summary judgment for our client, The Hartford, that the attack on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001 was one occurrence, not two, thereby capping our client’s exposure with respect to this loss. The trial court's decision was affirmed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
• In two separate cases, we convinced the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida to dismiss insurance coverage actions filed against our clients, Federal Insurance Company and Great Northern Insurance Company, by firearms manufacturers, Berretta and Taurus Holdings Inc., seeking coverage for more than 30 lawsuits for alleged tortuous conduct in the manufacture, sale, and marketing of firearms.
• In cases that could involve claims in excess of $100 million, we represent a major insurance company in connection with coverage issues relating to the highly-publicized mutual funds trading investigations by the SEC, the New York Attorney General's office, and various other regulatory agencies, as well as SEC enforcement actions and scores of private lawsuits that have been filed against mutual fund companies, including many of our client’s insureds.
• On behalf of NSSTA, we helped to safeguard approximately $1.3 billion worth of structured settlement obligations in the rehabilitation proceedings of Confederation Life Insurance and Annuity Company and Confederation Life Insurance Company (U.S.)
• We obtained summary judgment for our client, Federal Insurance Company, in a case filed by CompUSA seeking coverage for a jury award exceeding $70 million on the ground that coverage was barred by late notice of the claim. The decision was affirmed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
• We convinced the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit to reverse the District Court and grant summary judgment to our client, Federal Insurance Company, in a landmark decision against Level 3, Inc. The Seventh Circuit held that amounts paid in settlement of a claim against Level 3 for fraud in its purchase of shares were not a “loss” because they constituted the return of allegedly ill-gotten gains.
• In combined state and federal court proceedings in Alabama, we are representing a major insurance company in a rescission action arising out of the HealthSouth corporate scandal, in which numerous HealthSouth directors and officers have pled guilty to participating in a securities fraud that is estimated to have involved $4.6 billion in fraudulent entries in HealthSouth's financial statements.
• We are litigating in federal district and bankruptcy courts issues arising out of a major insurance company's rescission of a D&O liability excess insurance policy issued to a cable and high-speed internet company, which filed for bankruptcy as a result of what the company has described as "one of the largest cases of corporate looting and self-dealing in American corporate history."
• We drafted and have assisted NSSTA and allied insurance industry associations in promoting enactment of federal and state legislation designed to protect structured settlements and their participants against abusive transactions in which “factoring” companies offer to cash out future settlement payments at sharp discounts. Since 1998, statutes based on the NSSTA model structured settlement protection legislation developed by our lawyers have been enacted by Congress and by 37 states, and corresponding legislation is pending in most of the remaining states. The National Conference of Insurance Legislators (NCOIL) has recently adopted the NSSTA model act as NCOIL model legislation.

• Member, American College of Trial Lawyers
• Former Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Columbia
• Former Chief, Career Criminal Unit, District of Columbia
• Former Chief Counsel, U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Juvenile Justice

• Chambers USA 2004-2005 describes the firm’s “prominence in the market” with a “strong heritage of sound advice in important cases.” It also hails partner William Bowman as "a veteran of some of the biggest and bloodiest insurance campaigns of the last twenty years," with "the tactical skill to deflect the fiercest of onslaughts."
• Partner David Hensler was featured in the June 16, 2003 Legal Times as one of the D.C. area's top twenty "go-to litigators" in its segment, "Leading Lawyers - A Litigation Special Report." The report identified him as “the city’s commercial litigator par excellence.”
• Chambers USA 2003-2004 called the firm “widely accepted to be among the leading practices representing insurance carriers.”

• American Capital Access
• Charles Taylor Consulting PLC
• Chubb Atlantic Indemnity
• Chubb Insurance Company of Europe
• Executive Liability Underwriters
• Federal Insurance Company
• Geisinger Health Plan
• Great Northern Insurance Co.
• Hans Und Rolf Gerling GMBH
• Harbert Management Corporation
• Horizon Management Group
• Izba Gospodarcza Towarzystw Emerytalnych
• MONY Life Insurance Company
• National Crop Insurance Services
• Pacificare Health Systems Inc.
• Powszechny Zaklad Ubezpieczen
• PTE PZU S.A.
• SCI Management Corporation
• Seguros Bancentro
• The Hartford
• The Livery Companies’ Mutual
• Torchmark Corporation
• United Educators Insurance Risk Retention Group Inc.