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Pasich LLP Recognized as a 2021 “Practice Group of the Year” by Law360

Jan. 29, 2021

An award that identifies the firms behind the nation’s most significant litigation wins in the past year, Pasich LLP’s premier insurance recovery practice was recognized by Law360 as a 2021 “Practice Group of the Year”—one of only three policyholder side practices nationwide to earn this distinction.

In one of many notable successes for the firm in 2021, the Delaware Supreme Court affirmed a precedent-setting ruling from the trial court in favor of Dole Food Company and David H. Murdock, upholding a series of pro-insured decisions on issues of first impression relating to Directors & Officers Liability claims.

“It was really significant because there was such a dearth of Delaware law on a lot of issues that were raised in the Dole case,” Partner Pamela Woods said. “It just sets the precedent for D&O issues in Delaware going forward, and there are so many corporations that are incorporated under Delaware law. It's a ruling that's going to have an impact on a lot of businesses across the country.”

When the insurers sued in 2016, Partner Kirk Pasich said Dole was not expected to win, as the trial in one of the underlying suits led to a finding of fraud against two of the company's executives.

“I think a lot of people thought we had bad facts,” Pasich commented. “The key was going back to these sort of key insurance principles about how you read policies and where policies fit in the grand scheme of things. I like to think we applied traditional principles to get an untraditional or nontraditional result.”

The firm was also lauded for obtaining some of the few early victories in COVID-19 coverage suits for Metallica and for investors in the Boston Marriott Long Wharf, which hosted a February 2020 conference that may have been the first “superspreader” event in the country.

“What these two cases show is that there are insurance policies that insureds are out there buying that at first blush, one might not think provides or potentially provides coverage for business interruption or event cancellation as a result of this pandemic, but in fact they do,” Managing Partner Jeffrey Schulman said.

Since the firm launched in August 2017, it has grown to 16 attorneys in three offices in New York and California. The firm represents an impressive client roster, including Huntington Ingalls Industries, Pacific Gas & Electric Company, Sempra Energy, Madison Square Garden, ViacomCBS, the Broadway theatre industry, ASICS America, Blue Buffalo Company, and Petco.

“We really pride ourselves on the quality of work we do and also on the efficiency that we bring,” Partner Shaun Crosner said.

With one of most experienced insurance recovery benches in the country, Pasich LLP’s lawyers are credited as being among the nation’s foremost thought leaders on insurance and risk transfer issues, and have argued many issues of first impression, with more than 50 appellate decisions.

Law360 selected 186 winning groups across 39 practice areas from nearly 900 submissions.

Read the full Law360 article here (subscription required).

Shaun H. Crosner
Partner
Named to The Best Lawyers in America list for work in insurance law (2021 - Present)
Kirk Pasich
Partner
Daily Journal — Named a member of the “Legal Dream Team” as one of California’s Top 25 litigators
Jeffrey L. Schulman
Managing Partner
Name a Northeast Trailblazer in 2021 by The American Lawyer
Pamela Woods
Senior Counsel
Recognized in 2021’s The Best Lawyers in America© list for Insurance Law

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