For more than 70 years, we have partnered with insurance companies to understand their business and legal needs. Recent confirmation of our outstanding insurance industry qualifications came in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business. The 2007 edition identifies Sonnenschein as one of the top firms in the country representing insurers on their most complex matters. The Chambers description speaks for itself:
This powerhouse litigation firm is known for its ‘sophisticated and thorough’ work in insurance and its ability to pull together a sterling set of resources. The firm fields a wide range of specialists, which it can use to staff complex cases. Its recent track record ranges from involvement in the WTC litigation to Hurricane Katrina-related issues. Matters are handled by a number of offices at any one time and practitioners are said to ‘work tirelessly and creatively to help manage disputes’ and ‘create briefings that are strong and impressive.’ Key areas of interest are bankruptcy and insolvency in insurance companies, class actions and catastrophic loss in both appeals and litigation. The firm also has strength in personal lines insurance and in regulatory proceedings.
When products are attacked, when lawsuits go national, when regulators join the fray, when reputations are on the line, leading insurers turn to Sonnenschein.
We have represented Royal in the World Trade Center litigation. Since Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, Sonnenschein has coordinated the ensuing claims handling and litigation for Allstate, Hanover, Horace Mann and Tokio Marine. For a major domestic insurer, Sonnenschein coordinated their handling of sex abuse cases nationally.
We represented key parties in three of the most significant insurance company insolvencies in the last decade: Confederation Life Insurance Company, Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Co. and Executive Life Insurance Company. We represented The Allstate Insurance Company and The Prudential Insurance Company of America in other bankruptcy and work-out matters.
We represent Liberty Insurance Company on bankruptcy issues concerning the insolvency of their insureds, including issues concerning asbestos trusts and an insurer's right to continue claims handling post-bankruptcy.
For affiliates of Prudential, we handled real estate transactions. We advised All-American Financial on employee benefits matters and handled securities arbitrations for them. We assisted CNA Financial Corporation in the formation of the largest surety insurance company in the U.S. For many of these and other insurance company clients, we have also provided labor and employment, employee benefits, tax, health care, and antitrust advice and representation.
We represented Prudential in a major series of class actions, headed by litigators from our New York office and including partners and associates from six of our U.S. offices, concerning allegations of improper life insurance sales practices. Sonnenschein regularly supervises the work of dozens of other lawyers serving as local counsel around the country.
We routinely handle class action litigation for a number of our clients, including Allstate. We have coordinated Allstate's litigation around the country concerning the use of "after market" auto parts and "diminished value" claims.
Historically, Sonnenschein has served as one of the principal outside counsel for Allstate Insurance Company (and its affiliates) since handling the company's incorporation more than 70 years ago. The firm represented Sears and Transamerica in the Initial Public Offering and spin-off of Allstate and Transamerica Casualty.
Gary A. Hernandez, in our San Francisco office formerly served as the Deputy Insurance Commissioner and Chief of Enforcement in charge of insurer enforcement and market conduct, fraud investigations and management of all failed insurers in California.
In addition, a number of our lawyers have spoken and written extensively on insurance-related subjects. For example, Paul E.B. Glad, the head of our San Francisco office, is a co-author of Bancroft-Whitney's California Insurance Law Handbook and California Insurance Laws Annotated and is an editor of and frequent contributor to a number of major insurance industry publications, including Underwriters' Report and Insurance Litigation Reporter.
William T. Barker of our Chicago office has written over 100 articles on insurance and litigation subjects and speaks frequently. He is a member of the Editorial Board for the New Appleman on Insurance Law, the New Appleman Insurance Law Practice Guide (for which he was also a Contributing Author), and the Lexis-Nexis Insurance Law Center. He is a Senior Contributing Editor and Editorial Board Director of Insurance Litigation Reporter and was Editor-in-Chief of Bad Faith Law Report prior to its merger into Insurance Litigation Report. Sonnenschein lawyers also are active in industry organizations such as the International Association of Defense Counsel (IADC) and the Defense Research Institute.
Sonnenschein offers exceptional national resources and breadth to clients in the insurance industry or with insurance-related problems. We have the capacity, in all of our offices, to handle everything from relatively simple two-party disputes to complex multi-party cases involving mammoth exposure. We are fully equipped to handle, and have handled, litigation, transactions, and other matters for insurance clients throughout the United States as well as abroad.
Through our extensive ongoing work for insurance clients, in virtually all major substantive legal areas, our lawyers have acquired comprehensive knowledge of the insurance industry and a thorough understanding of insurers' special concerns and needs. This familiarity has helped us produce cost-effective results for our clients. In addition, our lawyers regularly work with insurers and their in-house lawyers to develop methods for handling matters in the most efficient manner. While our representation of each client is tailored to that client's particular needs, our representation of each individual insurer also is enhanced by our overall experience in helping all of our insurance clients to address their most challenging problems.
