Michael Best’s insurance coverage attorneys assist companies of all sizes with their complex insurance issues. With decades of experience for clients across a wide range of industries, our attorneys possess a deep understanding of the ever-changing sources of liability and the role of insurance in addressing them.
Whether advising a client in the initial negotiation of insurance policy terms or litigating a contested insurance coverage claim, Michael Best’s attorneys focus on developing a cost-sensitive approach that is tailored to the client’s needs, the specific issue, and desired outcome.
Our insurance coverage attorneys have counseled clients on many different insurance issues, including: corporate governance/directors’ and officers’ (“D&O”) liability, cyber risk and liability, privacy, property damage, business interruptions, toxic tort and environmental liability, governmental/regulatory investigations, professional liability, employee theft and other crime-related loss, employment-practices liability, liability as an ERISA fiduciary, corporate acquisitions or divestitures, securities litigation, subrogation, and others.
Beyond providing practiced advice on insurance issues, our attorneys can and will litigate insurance coverage claims when the situation calls for it. Our litigators handle scores of cases every year in federal and state courts throughout the country. Michael Best’s litigators include attorneys who previously served as U.S. Attorney, Assistant U.S. Attorneys, and judicial clerks and interns in the Eastern and Western Districts of Wisconsin and the Northern District of Illinois. Michael Best is skilled in all aspects of pre-trial procedure, discovery, and alternative dispute resolution options. We are also well equipped to help minimize the substantial burden of electronic discovery. In fact, our attorneys served on the bench/bar committees that wrote the electronic discovery rules now being implemented in the Eastern District of Wisconsin.
In some cases, litigation in the trial court is not the end of an insurance coverage claim. When a party decides to appeal, Michael Best has the insurance-specific appellate expertise to guide clients to the best final outcome. Our attorneys have handled insurance coverage cases before multiple states’ appellate courts, as well as in several federal courts of appeal. Our insurance-coverage attorneys include formers judicial clerks to the Wisconsin Supreme Court and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.
For those insurance claims best resolved through mediation or arbitration, our insurance attorneys have represented clients successfully in domestic arbitrations, as well as arbitrations in London and Bermuda. In mediations with and involving insurers, our attorneys have assisted clients resolve coverage disputes and underlying claims.
Michael Best also has extensive experience dealing with issues arising out of the Wisconsin Office of the Commissioner of Insurance and has assisted numerous clients with issues related to domestic and off-shore captive insurance companies.
Finally, Michael Best’s insurance attorneys speak at conferences around the country on cutting-edge insurance issues and are frequent authors for publications that desire deep expertise on insurance topics.