Anderson Kill has promoted three attorneys, who have recovered more than a billion dollars in insurance coverage for their clients, as firm equity shareholders.
Diana Shafter Gliedman, Marshall Gilinsky and Robert D. Chesler became Anderson Kill equity shareholders last Thursday. The three lawyers have more than six decades of insurance recovery experience between them, according to the firm.
"I am an Anderson Kill lifer," said Gliedman, who started her legal career at the firm as a summer associate, on Tuesday. "There is nowhere else I would rather practice law."
The New York-based attorney is the co-chair of Anderson Kill's hospitality industry practice group and represents hotels, retailers, theme parks and restaurants pursuing insurance coverage including losses stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Speaking of goals she hopes to achieve for this new role, Gliedman said she loves helping young associates develop into skilled attorneys "I am especially excited to help a new generation of lawyers fight the good fight on behalf of policyholders seeking insurance recovery," she told Law360.
Gilinsky, who is also based in New York, echoes the same wish and hopes to continue being a mentor for younger lawyers. "This is a very gratifying moment. I'm proud to have worked with such talented attorneys for the past 20-plus years. I love what I do and look forward to doing a lot more of it," he said.
The attorney currently represents companies with multistate property portfolios in the hospitality, entertainment and gambling industries for pandemic related losses, including claims reaching into the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Gilinsky called his COVID-19 related insurance recovery work "some of the most important and fulfilling" in his career. The attorney said his client had seen "some preliminary success" when, for example, the court rejected an excess insurer's dismissal motion filed on the grounds that the primary insurer has not paid benefits. Gilinsky said he is confident there will be "significant victories" ahead for the policyholders he represents.
"As our society becomes more complex, so do the liabilities facing companies — COVID-19 is just one example," said Chesler, who currently represents New Jersey shore properties in business income claims arising from the pandemic, as well as clients pursuing coverage relating to sexual abuse allegations.
Chesler, who is based in the firm's Newark, New Jersey, office, says he looks forward to continuing to help clients with liability coverage for issues stemming from sex abuse, opioids and biometrics, to emerging environmental issues
"Diana, Marshall and Bob are all battle-tested litigators capable of devising and executing successful strategies to win judgments and settlements in complex insurance coverage disputes spanning multiple coverage lines and industries," said Robert M. Horkovich, Anderson Kill's managing shareholder, in a statement Tuesday.