Practices

Insurance

Why Cooley

Cooley’s multidisciplinary insurance team has significant experience helping clients successfully navigate the full spectrum of insurance needs, ranging from litigation to transactions and regulation. We represent policyholders from numerous industries, including Fortune 500 companies, as well as producers, insurers, reinsurers and investors.

As noted by Chambers, our insurance team is “incredibly client-friendly,” “always available and responsive,” and a “good team to work with.” Chambers’ feedback also notes that our insurance team members are “responsive, incisive and practical,” while The Legal 500 UK ranks the group and comments that the “quality of advice provided is outstanding, particularly when advising on extremely technical and complex issues across different jurisdictions.”

Cooley’s lawyers advise on, handle and litigate claims for clients involving virtually every type of commercial insurance policy, including:

  • First-party insurance – such as cyber risk, property, business interruption, event cancellation, political risk, kidnap and ransom, crime/fidelity, equipment breakdown, product recall/contamination, marine cargo and trade credit
  • Third-party insurance – such as general liability, management (D&O) liability, employment practices liability (EPL), professional (E&O) liability, fiduciary liability, life sciences/product liability, representations and warranties (R&W), litigation buyouts and Bermuda Form

We handle coverage matters in judicial tribunals and arbitrations globally. Our team has conducted hundreds of coverage reviews, with extensive experience in insurance issues relating to a wide range of losses and liabilities, traditional and emerging, including:

  • Natural disasters and loss events
  • Human-made disasters and loss events
  • Governmental investigations
  • Consumer actions and arbitrations
  • Board and investor disputes
  • Securities class actions, merger objections and derivative lawsuits
  • Cyber/data security breach liability
  • Cyber asset loss and business interruptions from hacker attacks
  • Sexual misconduct or harassment by employees
  • Sports-related injuries
  • Intellectual property violations
  • Product contaminations and recalls
  • Political risks, including kidnappings
  • Environmental liability, asbestos-related claims and other toxic tort suits
  • Counter-party insolvency

Cooley’s insurance team is part of our CooleyREG offering, through which we combine an understanding of the impact of disruptive advancements – and the regulatory issues that impose risk and slow progress – to help our clients navigate an increasingly complex regulatory landscape.

Areas of Practice

Corporate

  • Assist clients in structuring, drafting, negotiating and obtaining regulatory approval of operations and agreements, including unique and complex insurance and reinsurance agreements
  • Support insurance companies and insurtech entrepreneurs with shaping new technology within the global insurance regulatory framework and developing peer-to-peer app-based and data-driven insurance solutions and products
  • Represent parties in connection with significant equity investments by insurers and venture capital and private equity firms
  • Provide counsel on the formation, licensing, acquisition and sale of carriers, brokers and agents

Litigation

  • Advise clients on policy coverage issues and provide practical coverage analyses
  • Represent clients in insurance arbitration and court cases, including multijurisdictional disputes
  • Guide clients in resolving disputes through alternative means, such as mediation and negotiation
  • Counsel private institutions – including colleges and universities – on risk management issues and complex insurance claims involving accusations of sexual abuse and other misconduct
  • Review contract wordings and advise on insurance structures and programs

Business restructuring

  • Advise debtors, creditor committees and other bankruptcy stakeholders in connection with bankruptcies, insolvencies and related proceedings
  • Identify and evaluate unused insurance coverages across a wide range of policies, including directors and officers (D&O) insurance and general liability
  • Provide accurate calculations of existing insurance assets, creating a clearer picture of the broader insurance landscape and a more informed insurance recovery strategy
  • Identify and advocate for Caremark-type breaches of duty by directors and officers