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Articles Posted in Litigation

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Insurance Implications of High Court Affirmative Action Ruling

For decades, affirmative action programs were implemented within educational institutions across the country with the stated goal of maintaining a diverse student body. This practice was severely curtailed on June 29, when the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling in Students for Fair Admissions Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, striking…

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Are Insurers’ Panel Counsel Rates Reasonable?

It is a settled principle of insurance law that a liability insurer’s duty to defend is broader than its duty to indemnify. In most jurisdictions, if any portion of a complaint against a policyholder is even potentially covered, the insurer must defend the entire action. Moreover, it is also well-settled…

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U.S. Supreme Court to Decide Whether State’s Public Policy Interest Could Sink Insurance Policy’s Choice-of-Law Provision

The rare insurance dispute has appeared on the horizon for the nation’s highest court. Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari and agreed to take up the case of Great Lakes Insurance SE v. Raiders Retreat Realty Co., LLC, on appeal from the Third Circuit. The key issue: whether…

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Insurers Seek to Avoid Coverage for BIPA Claims by Using Old Exclusions for New Purposes

When Illinois enacted the Biometric Information Privacy Act in 2008 (BIPA), the concept of “biometric privacy protection” was foreign to many observers. Yet less than 20 years later, consumers are familiar with the concept of biometric privacy and class action plaintiffs’ lawyers have spotted an opportunity. As many other states…

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PFAS Liability and the Need for Coverage

In the last decade, per- and polyfluoroalkyl compounds (PFAS) increasingly have become the subject of actual or potential liability for a widening group of companies, with potential liability arising from both private tort lawsuits and governmental enforcement of environmental laws and regulations. In a recent Practical Guidance® Practice Note, Insurance…

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Closing Up the SPAC Shop: Insurance Consequences and Opportunities for Liquidating SPACs

In 2020 and 2021, Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) were all the rage. A SPAC is a “blank check company,” publicly traded, and organized for the purpose of merging with a private company. It’s a mechanism for a private operating company to go public without doing its own IPO. Though…

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When Actual Knowledge Is Not Notice: Harvard Loses Excess Coverage for Defense Costs in Case Litigated All the Way to Supreme Court

Recently, amid the tempest of media coverage surrounding Supreme Court oral arguments in the case of Students for Fair Admission v. President & Fellows of Harvard College, another federal court quietly issued a dispositive order in related coverage litigation, holding that Harvard’s excess carrier, Zurich, had no coverage obligation in…

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California and New York to Open One-Year Windows Reviving Time-Barred Adult Sexual Assault Claims

Four months ago, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed the Adult Survivors Act (ASA) (S.66A/A.648A), creating a one-year window, beginning November 24, 2022, for adult survivors of sexual assault to bring civil claims against their alleged attackers which otherwise would have been time barred. On September 19, 2022, California Governor…

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Strengthening Corporate Officer Protection: Delaware’s Updated Corporate Exculpation Law and Its Impact on D&O Liability Insurance

As the preferred place of incorporation for most U.S. companies, Delaware has long been a leader in the development of statutory and common law on corporate governance. In keeping with this role, the Delaware legislature recently amended its corporate code to permit enhanced legal exculpation of officers of Delaware corporations.…