Experience

• We represent a software support provider seeking insurance coverage under its excess errors and omissions insurance policies. The excess companies “follow form” to a primary insurance policy with limits of $10 million that was found last year to have defense obligations. Specifically, in January 2021, the primary insurance company commenced a declaratory judgment action against the policyholder, seeking a declaration that it has no obligation to cover a third-party claim. In June 2021, the policyholder filed a motion for partial summary judgment on the duty to defend. The insurance company opposed it and filed a counter-motion, seeking a declaration of no coverage. The policyholder opposed the counter-motion and filed a motion to strike extrinsic evidence on which the insurance company relied. In August 2021, the state court in Nevada granted all three motions in the policyholder’s favor. It ordered the insurance company to honor the duty to defend, granted the motion to strike and denied the insurance company’s motion for summary judgment. The following month, the insurance company filed a motion to certify the three rulings as a final judgment, for purposes of filing an interlocutory appeal. In October, following a full briefing and argument, the Court denied that motion as well. The action was resolved in March 2022 through the remaining insurance company’s decision to withdraw all remaining claims with prejudice and to forego an appeal. In 2022, the policyholder filed a coverage action in Illinois against its five excess insurance companies. That action is proceeding through litigation.
• We represented an investment management company in two separate disputes under its professional liability policies. The retention arose from a recommendation to the investment management company by the opposing counsel in a matter in which we represented a national railroad company. That counsel recommended Anderson Kill to the investment management company when the recovery of its own legal fees was at stake: a vote of confidence from a professional adversary that we greatly appreciated. Anderson Kill assisted the client in resolving both matters by settlement through mediation, at minimal cost for the client. Both of the settlement amounts substantially exceeded the amounts that were under discussion prior to our retention.