Insurance Law - Wiley Rein LLP

Practices | INSURANCE

Wiley Rein's Insurance Practice is one of the largest and most prominent groups in the United States with more than 40 lawyers and a diverse client base. Our lawyers have extensive industry experience in private practice, insurance companies and associations. Recognized by Chambers USA as a highly regarded insurance giant and one of the best insurer-side practices in the nation's capital, we represent insurers and industry organizations in claims, underwriting and regulatory matters, as well as in complex settlements and transactions. Our attorneys also advocate on our clients' behalf in federal and state courts throughout the United States, in arbitrations and alternative dispute resolution proceedings and before federal and state regulatory and legislative bodies. Specializing in federal and state regulation, health care, general liability and property coverage, professional liability, reinsurance, transactions and insurance fraud, we are often called upon in high-profile and business-critical matters for our ability to provide innovative and pragmatic solutions.

Areas of Specialty | Contact Us

Areas of Specialty

General Liability. For more than two decades, Wiley Rein attorneys have been at the forefront of the insurance industry’s response to tough, high-stakes coverage issues. Beginning with the seminal asbestos and hazardous waste coverage disputes, we have represented general liability insurers, both individually and through associations, in important coverage litigation nationwide. That work continues today.

Our attorneys have litigated some of the most important coverage cases of the last two decades and helped establish crucial legal precedents helpful to insurers in an era of hotly contested insurance coverage disputes. We have earned a reputation for careful, innovative, aggressive and effective representation, often in opposition to some of the largest policyholders in the world. Wiley Rein also offers clients a unique capability in the strategic management of complex claims and litigation. The firm combines nationally recognized insurance litigators with strategic claim management capabilities, including the former chief claims officer of one of the nation’s largest commercial insurers. With more than 20 years of experience in global management of mass tort and complex litigation exposures, Wiley Rein attorneys offer clients an additional dimension in developing winning strategies targeted at managing every aspect of financial and corporate risk, including the development and negotiation of claims handling, risk financing and other agreements terminating complex coverage disputes.

For more information, please visit www.wileyrein.com/gl.

Professional Liability. Wiley Rein is today one of the leading law firms in the professional liability field, representing numerous insurance carriers. We are regularly called upon to represent professional liability insurers in high-stakes, significant matters that raise complex issues on the merits and that raise important coverage issues. Our work involves both directors and officers coverage and the full range of errors and omissions coverage. The firm often conducts detailed assessments of underlying litigation to assist clients in resolving claims on a basis that properly takes into account defenses available to insureds. Wiley Rein has worked extensively to raise the awareness of insurers and defense counsel to flaws in the damages assessments embraced by the plaintiffs’ bar. We also assist professional liability insurers in navigating issues triggered by policyholder bankruptcies. Clients frequently tap Wiley Rein to represent them in professional liability coverage litigation across the United States.

For more information, please visit www.wileyrein.com/pl.

Property Coverage. Property and other first-party claims have been a significant part of our coverage work in recent years. Beginning with helping insurers to resist efforts to shift massive Year 2000 remediation costs to commercial property policies, we have extensively represented insurers in responding to novel as well as more conventional claims. These range from information technology to hurricane to construction defect losses. We recently represented several major industry groups as amicus curiae in a prominent appeal regarding homeowners’ claims arising out of Hurricane Katrina. Business interruption issues have also been a substantial part of our property practice.

For more information, please visit www.wileyrein.com/property.

Reinsurance. Wiley Rein represents both reinsurers and ceding companies in addressing the complex issues regarding their relationships that arise under treaty, excess treaty and facultative reinsurance arrangements. We have handled reinsurance litigation and arbitrations in connection with significant disputes involving asbestos, environmental and product liability losses as well as ancillary litigation regarding arbitrability and the scope and structure of arbitrations under the Federal Arbitration Act.

Wiley Rein also represents reinsurers and ceding companies in negotiating settlements, commutations and other agreements resolving contested reinsurance claims. We have assisted our clients with respect to underwriting issues, have examined the adequacy of reinsurance in mergers and acquisitions, and frequently provide our clients with advice concerning communications with their respective reinsurers and retrocessionaires.

For more information, please visit www.wileyrein.com/reinsurance.

Health Insurance. Our lawyers advise health insurers, employers and third party administrators on the full range of issues affecting health insurance programs and related business activities. We provide regulatory advice, negotiate and draft contracts and similar documents, advise on compliance obligations and represent these parties in proceedings before the courts and federal agencies.

A major area of our health insurance work is representation of insurers and other entities who participate as government contractors or otherwise need advice on federal and state health care programs, including Medicare, Medicaid, the Federal Employees Health Benefits program and the Department of Defense TRICARE program. Furthermore, for both government programs and private health insurance programs, we represent clients in regulatory audits, investigations and lawsuits involving allegations of contract nonperformance, false claims and other integrity-related issues relating to their provision of services to the government. We also provide regulatory counseling, perform legal reviews of corporate compliance programs, negotiate pharmacy benefits contracts and undertake due diligence reviews for corporate transactions. In addition, we are involved extensively in privacy and security matters for our clients, focusing on the implementation challenges associated with the HIPAA Administrative Simplification regulations, including the Privacy Rule, the Standards for Electronic Transactions and the Security Rule.

For more information, please visit www.wileyrein.com/healthcare.

Regulation and Legislation. Drawing on our familiarity with what is—or may soon be—happening "inside- the-Beltway" and our knowledge of the insurance industry, we provide insurers with practical, timely assessments of important new regulatory directions. In the fast-changing insurance regulatory arena, we represent clients before Congress, the executive branch, independent agencies and the courts with respect to federal regulation. Our experience includes advocating for insurers in legislative and regulatory matters, meeting with policy decision makers, providing substantive analysis of insurance issues to our clients and to congressional, state and agency staff, testifying before legislative committees and drafting and negotiating legislative proposals. We are actively involved in issues from privacy regulation to terrorism risk reinsurance, and are closely monitoring proposals for more comprehensive federal involvement in the business of insurance.

On the state level, we are often called upon to help the industry respond to legislative or regulatory initiatives, including those of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, and to address the myriad requirements of state regulation for individual insurers and providers and to help the industry respond to legislative or regulatory initiatives. Our attorneys, who include a former Insurance Commissioner for the District of Columbia, have testified before state legislatures and insurance agencies on issues affecting the industry. Our knowledge of the industry has also positioned us to assist insurers and brokers in navigating through the various regulatory and corporate issues arising from mergers, acquisitions, and restructurings. Toward that end, we provide regulatory counseling, advise on compliance obligations and undertake due diligence reviews for corporate transactions.

For more information, please visit www.wileyrein.com/insurance_regulation.

Bankruptcy. Bankruptcies from asbestos, corporate scandals and mass torts today have a dramatic impact on the insurance industry. In recent years, we have increasingly focused on the interplay between insurance coverage disputes and policyholder bankruptcy. In light of aggressive initiatives by claimant and policyholder counsel in recent years, policyholder bankruptcy has far more than a technical impact on an insurer’s exposure, potentially implicating broader coverage, re-opening pre-bankruptcy settlements and threatening the acceleration of obligations that would otherwise arise over time. We also regularly represent insurers as creditors in bankruptcies where they assess claims for unpaid premiums and other obligations. Wiley Rein's Insurance and Bankruptcy attorneys have the expertise and experience to help insurers develop and implement effective, innovative strategies to manage the challenges and opportunities in reorganization and liquidation cases of all sizes. Our attorneys regularly represent insurers and insurance industry organizations in major policyholder bankruptcy proceedings and in coverage litigation and counseling matters related to insolvent insureds.

For more information, please visit www.wileyrein.com/ins-bankruptcy.

Insurance Fraud. Our lawyers play a unique role in representing the interests of the insurance industry in combating insurance fraud. In litigation matters, Wiley Rein is the country’s leading firm in assisting insurers at fighting fraud and has pioneered the representation of insurers in pursuing recovery of moneys defrauded from them. We also have been involved in a wide range of non-litigation matters, including advising health insurers and property/casualty insurers on business and legal options related to health care fraud investigations. Our anti-fraud work further encompasses compliance work on behalf of the insurance industry.

For more information, please visit www.wileyrein.com/fraud.

Appellate. Wiley Rein's insurance attorneys are particularly skilled in appellate practice. Laura Foggan, one of our leading insurance attorneys, co-chairs the firm’s Appellate Practice. We have represented individual insurers in prominent appellate cases in both federal and state courts throughout the United States. Clients often ask us to take a fresh look at a coverage issue at the appellate stage. In addition, we represent the insurance industry collectively as counsel for the Complex Insurance Claims Litigation Association (formerly the Insurance Environmental Litigation Association), a group of the largest commercial U.S. insurers that appears as amicus curiae in important coverage and claims practice cases at the appellate level. For CICLA and its predecessor organization, the firm has submitted amicus briefs in courts in almost every state and has, by invitation, frequently participated in oral argument of particularly significant cases.

For more information, please visit www.wileyrein.com/appellate.