When clients need to collect from insurers, Reed Smith lawyers—simply put—make that happen. Last year was particularly successful for the Chicago insurance-recovery group, which has 25 attorneys. Firmwide, 86 Reed Smith attorneys are in the group.
A September Texas state court bench ruling, followed by an October written order, allowed Anadarko Petroleum Corp. to recover more than $112 million from insurers in defense costs for third-party claims stemming from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill of April 2010.
Anadarko’s hurdle was an insurance policy with several insurer subscribers that substantially limited coverage for claims arising out of a co-venture situation, said John Shugrue, Reed Smith insurance-recovery group partner. Anadarko, BP PLC and Moex Offshore 2007 LLC were joint lessees on a federal oil and gas lease in the Gulf of Mexico, he said.
“We were operating on new ground in terms of litigating over those issues,” Shugrue said.
Ultimately, Shugrue’s team convinced the state court that a 2012 ruling in the Deepwater Horizon federal multidistrict litigation created an exception to the coverage limits.
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