Doug serves as the Global Head of Legal Personnel and is a member of Reed Smith’s Senior Management Team. He previously served as Managing Partner, Americas. He is also the immediate past global chair of the firm’s Litigation Department. His own practice involves all areas of civil litigation, including complex insurance coverage disputes, asbestos property damage and other products liability cases, intellectual property litigation, trade secret / restrictive covenant disputes and general commercial disputes.
Since 1985, Doug has devoted a significant amount of his practice to representing policyholders in insurance coverage matters under virtually every type of commercial insurance policy. In particular, Doug has counseled on, negotiated, mediated and litigated complex insurance coverage disputes for commercial policyholders involving coverage for toxic torts and product liability claims (including asbestos exposures), environmental contamination, intellectual property and general business torts, as well as claims involving Directors & Officers, Errors and Omissions, professional liability, and employment liability insurance coverage.
As a result of multiple mortgage insurers walking away from billions of dollars in coverage obligations during the foreclosure crisis of 2009, Doug, along with several Reed Smith Insurance Recovery Group partners, was retained by several large financial institutions to represent them in litigation, arbitrations and negotiations regarding the mortgage-related insurance issues that followed.
Doug has advised and represented clients in substantial insurance coverage disputes in state and federal trial and appellate courts throughout the country, including Pennsylvania, California, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, and Ohio, and in various arbitrations and alternative dispute resolutions. On behalf of his clients, Doug has negotiated, mediated and litigated coverage disputes resulting in the recovery of more than $2 billion in insurance policy proceeds.
Doug also has had significant experience litigating complex commercial cases, including products liability (including several substantial trials involving asbestos-containing building products), trade secrets/restrictive covenant and intellectual property cases. He has advised and represented clients in complex commercial litigation in state and federal courts in Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, Vermont, California, Massachusetts, Florida, Kentucky, Washington and West Virginia.
