Goldberg Segalla LLP

• Complex and innovative transactions
• Thorny regulatory concerns
• Cross-border or cross-jurisdictional issues
• Advice on day-to-day operations
• Practical coverage opinions
• Resolving coverage disputes and other contentious matters
• Pragmatic and cost-effective approaches to pre-suit claim resolution
• Bet-the-company litigation

• GIS California: The insurance market in California, valued at well over $123 billion, is one of the largest in the world — and California state law on coverage issues is uniquely well-developed, frequently placing the state on the forefront of emerging coverage issues. Many jurisdictions throughout the U.S. look to and cite California law as persuasive authority on key coverage issues that have not yet been considered in other jurisdictions. The GIS California team is mindful of the distinct challenges and opportunities the state’s market presents, and has a record of thinking ahead to the future implications of taking particular positions or defenses. Goldberg Segalla’s attorneys have decades of experience representing insurers in California with regard to CGL, E&O, fidelity, automobile, commercial property, homeowners, media, aviation, cyber, and excess/reinsurance policies.
• GIS Connecticut: Regularly litigating first party property, construction defect, professional liability, and other coverage issues, our GIS Connecticut team is exceptionally qualified both to know and understand the nuanced, well-developed laws governing the insurance market as well as to identify and work creatively around the coverage-related legal issues that have yet to be sufficiently addressed in the state’s courts.
• GIS Florida: Deeply versed in the difficulties facing Florida insurers — including statutory fee entitlement, a low threshold for bad faith claims, de minimis pleading requirements, and the high incidence of time-limited demands — our attorneys provide front-line investigation and defense of first-party property disputes along with pure coverage analysis on a wide scale, as well as comprehensive third-party insurance coverage and aggressive defense of bad faith matters.
• GIS Illinois: Insurers in Illinois face high penalties for reaching incorrect coverage conclusions, possible estoppel from asserting coverage defenses to judgments or settlements, and the prospect of “going it alone” in casualty claims. With a reputation for anticipating and creatively meeting these challenges, our attorneys have been at the forefront of advising insurers and successfully litigating coverage disputes involving property and casualty claim challenges throughout the Illinois state and federal courts for decades. We routinely represent major insurers doing business in Illinois on high-exposure coverage matters across all product lines, including the litigation of declaratory judgment actions and extracontractual claims.
• GIS Indiana: For decades, Indiana has been a consistently pro-policyholder jurisdiction with its courts routinely ruling contrary to insurance industry-advocated positions. Well-known as exceptional coverage litigators in this market, our attorneys regularly advise insurers and successfully litigate coverage disputes involving environmental, law enforcement liability, and other property and casualty claim challenges throughout the Indiana state and federal courts.
• GIS Massachusetts: The Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ consumer protection statute exposes insurers to the potential of incurring extracontractual liability. Our attorneys are well experienced in counseling clients in responding to demands under the consumer protection statute, the predicate for imposing extracontractual liability.
• GIS New Jersey: Our extensive experience in handling Superstorm Sandy cases, both residential and commercial, positions us well to address similar natural catastrophes and/or property damage claims going forward. Our knowledge of first-party and third-party court decisions with respect to extracontractual claims also positions us well for the battles that will follow if the Insurance Fair Conduct Act is passed.
• GIS New York: Our GIS New York attorneys — who have served as either advisory or litigation counsel for nearly every major insurer in the state — are intimately familiar with the nuances of New York Insurance Law 3420, and have litigated countless cases involving most subsections of that statute, including certain court decisions that have morphed the effect of that statute since its inception.
• GIS North Carolina: Since 2000, the North Carolina Supreme Court has interpreted the state’s unfair claims settlement practices statute to allow insurers to be subject to treble damages based on a standard well below the "bad faith" standard. Our GIS North Carolina attorneys have been advising and successfully defending insurers since decades before this landmark decision, and since then have been at the forefront of litigating extracontractual claims and other coverage matters across all product lines.
• GIS Ohio: Ground zero in national opioid litigation, Ohio remains a challenging jurisdiction for insurers with respect to tort litigation and insurance coverage for that exposure. Our team includes multiple attorneys with experience litigating insurance coverage and bad faith matters in Ohio under nearly every type of insurance policy in the market, including CGL, professional liability, environmental, and property policies.
• GIS Pennsylvania: One of the most significant challenges for insurers operating in Pennsylvania is the state’s well-established bad faith insurance statute, which provides for recovery of punitive damages and attorneys' fees for an insurer's bad faith conduct. Goldberg Segalla's strong GIS Pennsylvania team has four attorneys each with at least 20 years of coverage experience, as well as several other experienced coverage lawyers, with a record of securing dismissals of bad faith claims early in litigation to eliminate the exposure and associated costs. In addition, we routinely provide training to our insurance company clients on good faith claims-handling practices, providing further protection from bad faith exposure.
• GIS South Carolina: South Carolina insurers continue to face the proliferation of high exposure construction defect claims, particularly over multi-family projects along the coast. Our attorneys have been at the forefront of advising insurers and of actively and successfully litigating coverage disputes over construction defect claims in South Carolina for many years — including the successful litigation of many issues of first impression under South Carolina law, such as the allocation of loss across triggered policy periods (pro rata time on risk), the enforceability of business risk exclusions, and the enforceability of the exterior insulation finish system (EIFS) exclusion.
• GIS Wisconsin: Some recent decisions notwithstanding, Wisconsin has for decades been a consistently pro-policyholder jurisdiction — one that allows direct actions against insurers — with its courts routinely ruling contrary to insurance industry-advocated positions, including the adoption of "all sums" allocation in multi-insurer, multiple policy period progressive loss claim scenarios and the holding that CERCLA environmental response costs are considered "damages" under CGL policies. GIS Wisconsin attorneys are well experienced in representing carriers in the state, including in direct actions, simultaneously knowing how to avoid exposing carriers to disputes with policyholders and how to work cooperatively with defense counsel in order to avoid duplicative costs to the carrier.

• Regional coverage counsel for multiple insurers — in some cases covering more than a dozen states, and in another spanning more than 20
• National bad faith coverage counsel
• National reinsurance counsel
• National fidelity/crime coverage counsel
• National coordinating counsel for weather-related catastrophes such as Superstorm Sandy
• One of only a select few firms handling 9/11 coverage litigation
• Regulatory counsel for a Japan-based insurer in the $5 billion acquisition of a NYSE-traded U.S. insurance holding company
• National regulatory counsel for one of the largest providers of vehicle service contracts
• A go-to resource for large, cross-border law firms without regulatory capacity to serve the U.S. regulatory needs of their multinational financial and other service-provider clients

• Past President, Defense Research Institute (DRI)
• National Committee Chairman Emeritus, Claims and Litigation Management Alliance (CLM)
• Past Chair, Federation of Defense and Corporate Counsel (FDCC) Insurance Coverage Section
• Co-Chair, FDCC Advance Committee
• Past Director, Senior Director, and Insurance Industry Committee Co-Chair, FDCC
• Past Chairs, International Association of Defense Counsel (IADC) Insurance and Reinsurance Committee
• Chair, IADC Eastern Pennsylvania State Committee
• Editorial Board member, Insurance Law360

“It all starts with truly understanding the client’s business. Our philosophy is, you have to walk in their shoes and feel their pain. You have to understand the pressures they are under and do everything you can to help them face those pressures. As one example, we have worked extensively to develop processes in our firm to ensure we follow our clients’ guidelines so we can help them keep their claims leakage numbers down.”

We are extremely proud that our commitment has received regional and national recognition for the innovative programs we have developed and the results we have been able to achieve. The following is a sampling of the firm-wide or individual honors we have received for implementing initiatives that make a difference:

• George B. Vashon Innovator Award, Minority Corporate Counsel Association
• MCCA Firm Affiliate Network
• Vault/MCCA Commitment to Diversity
• Community Service Award, Defense Research Institute
• Good Works Award, American Bar Association Section of Litigation
• Outstanding Committee Chair, ABA Section of Litigation
• Diversity Trailblazer Award, New York State Bar Association
• Legal Service Award, Minority Bar Association of Western New York
• Lawyer of the Year, Bar Association of Erie County
• Legal Community Leader Award, National Federation for Just Communities of Western New York
• Diversity Excellence Award, Buffalo Niagara Human Resource Association
• Value Award for Diversity, Leadership Buffalo
• Western New York Game Changers, Buffalo Spree magazine

What we are most proud of, though, is that our efforts have shown significant results and continue to make a lasting impact on the lives of many.

Leadership and Action

To put our philosophy and commitment into practice, we have a Diversity Task Force, which includes our managing partner, in place to conceptualize and implement diversity-focused programs as well as give diversity a voice in our decision-making at the highest level. The individuals on this task force share the firm’s strong commitment to increasing diversity, and they use their unique experiences and backgrounds to support and advance that goal. The team meets regularly to create programs, schedule events, establish diversity initiatives both inside and outside of the firm, set long-term goals, and develop the strategy to recruit and retain people from diverse backgrounds.

The chair of our Diversity Task Force, Joseph M. Hanna, has spearheaded numerous diversity initiatives in various organizations and outreach programs, serves on several diversity-related committees, and is a frequent author and speaker on diversity. Among other positions, he is co-chair of the American Bar Association (ABA) Young Lawyer Leadership Program, former chair of the association’s Minority Trial Lawyer Committee and its Special Committee on Human Rights, and former editor-in-chief of the ABA’s Minority Trial Lawyer; a 2014 fellow of the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD); a past president of the Minority Bar Association of Western New York (MBAWNY) and the MBAWNY Foundation; and the Diversity Liaison for several committees at the 22,000-member DRI.

For more than a decade, Goldberg Segalla has proudly supported the ABA’s Judicial Internship Opportunity Program, which provides racial and ethnic minority law students, along with members of other groups underrepresented in the legal profession, opportunities to serve as an intern with a judge during the summer after their first or second year of law school. Joe Hanna — an alumni of the program himself — acts as a mentor and leader in the program, through which he has conducted more than 100 interviews for students across the country.

In 2017, Goldberg Segalla participated in the Thurgood Marshall Summer Law Internship Program, the New York City Bar Association’s flagship pipeline program for high school students. As a participating legal employer, we hosted high-achieving inner-city students for the summer and collaborate with the NYC Bar to provide them with additional programming before, during, and after the summer designed to help them prepare for a legal career.

Each summer, Goldberg Segalla proudly welcomes interns through a formal Diversity Clerkship Program that was conceived by Joe while he served as president of the MBAWNY. The program was developed in collaboration with the MBAWNY and the SUNY Buffalo Law School to provide opportunities for minority UB Law students to gain firsthand experience in the legal system. Since it was launched in 2011, the program has placed more than 100 students in clerkships in area courts as well as in several area law firms, with more judges and law firms asking to participate every day. It provides participants with an in-depth look at the legal process and the interaction between the bench and the bar that they would not otherwise get. At our firm, a dedicated team of partners monitors the work of these law clerks and ensures they obtain valuable experience to help develop important legal research, writing, case management, and client service skills critical to their long-term success. Our program earned the firm the Minority Corporate Counsel Association’s 2012 George B. Vashon Innovator Award.

We also have sponsored Success in the City, an annual diversity networking and mentoring event developed by Joe that brought together students, legal and business professionals, educators, nonprofits, and political leaders to make lasting partnerships. Many employment, business, and mentoring relationships resulted from this event. Past events have drawn more than 500 political and business leaders, legal professionals, and students. Success in the City has influenced the development of similar programs in Baltimore, Cleveland, Birmingham, Dallas, and elsewhere.

Our firm is committed to spreading the message throughout the broad legal and business communities that embracing diversity contributes to greater overall success. We conduct training sessions for in-house counsel at Fortune 500 corporations on increasing and promoting diversity. Our attorneys have authored articles and delivered presentations on diversity for various legal organizations, including DRI and the ABA, and our efforts and accomplishments in this area have been profiled in publications such as Law360, the New York State Bar Association’s State Bar News, Business First of Buffalo, the Buffalo Law Journal, and others.

In one example of our work to provide inspiration and raise awareness of diversity and women’s issues in the legal community, Caroline Berdzik, chair of our Employer and Labor Practice Group, spoke to Law360 for the publication’s “Female Powerbrokers” series. In the interview, Caroline discussed her career, the challenges of being a woman at a senior level at a law firm, the work-family life balance, and the importance of taking risks. She also offered guidance to female attorneys on moving their careers forward and advice to law firms on both increasing the number of women partners and retaining top female talent. Her longtime advocacy for women (at her previous firm, she served on the Women’s Business Development Committee and was a member of what became the national Women’s Presidents Organization) helped earn her a spot on the 2015 NJBIZ list of New Jersey’s Best 50 Women in Business.

Joe Hanna also was featured by Law360 in its “Minority Powerbrokers” series, in which he shared his perspective on breaking the glass ceiling in the legal industry, the challenges of being a lawyer of color at a senior level, how law firms can increase diversity in their partner ranks, and Goldberg Segalla’s core commitment to diversity.

Partnerships

Goldberg Segalla is proud to be a member of the Minority Corporate Counsel Association Firm Affiliate Network, which was created by the MCCA to assist and acknowledge law firms that are committed to advancing diversity and inclusion in the legal profession.

We are also a member of the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD), a national organization of leaders in law firms and corporate legal departments dedicated to creating a truly diverse legal profession. As noted earlier, Joe Hanna was a fellow of the LCLD in 2014. In this position, he played a critical role in organizing the first-ever New York City LCLD Fellows Roundtable event, and he was instrumental in establishing a mentorship program in Hartford for local diverse first-year law students.

We support the diversity efforts of numerous organizations, including:

• American Bar Association
• Asian American Bar Association of New York
• Columbian Lawyers Association
• Defense Research Institute
• Federal Bar Association
• Korean American Association of Greater New York
• League of First Nations
• Minority Bar Association of Western New York
• National Bar Association
• Native American Rights Fund
• National Association of Asian American Professionals
• National Congress of American Indians
• New York State Bar Association
• Seneca Free Trade Association
• SUNY Buffalo Law School
• Women’s Bar Association of the State of New York

Our outreach efforts led to the creation of a comprehensive database of more than 500 minority law organizations throughout the United States. Contact between these organizations takes place in anticipation of bringing CLE and legal programs together. This group of minority bar associations includes both local and national organizations, such as:

• National Association of Women Lawyers
• National Association of Muslim Lawyers
• Hispanic National Bar Association
• National Asian Pacific American Bar
• Black Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles
• South Asian Bar Association of Philadelphia
• Vietnamese American Bar Association of North Carolina

A Talented and Diverse Team

Diversity is further evident within our firm through the many languages and dialects spoken by members of our team, including Albanian, Arabic, Croatian, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Korean, Malayalam, Mandarin, Marathi, Norwegian, Portuguese, Punjabi, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Tagalog, Tamil, Thai, and Urdu.

Goldberg Segalla’s culture is one that values team-spiritedness, collegiality, and interpersonal harmony within our working community. We are a firm that believes in diversity in the workplace, and we are proud to offer a professional and positive work environment for each and every member of our team.

On these values, and on our commitment to diversity, we will never waver. We are proud of what we have accomplished thus far, but we also realize that this is a long-term mission. We will continue to innovate and to improve diversity in law and business — both within Goldberg Segalla and across the communities in which we live and work.

Diversity Matters — Join the Conversation

If you have questions regarding any of the firm’s diversity initiatives or would like to discuss ideas regarding increasing diversity in the legal profession, please contact Joe Hanna (716.566.5447; [email protected]) or another member of our Diversity Task Force:

• Joseph M. Hanna, Chair
• Elizabeth A. Adekunle
• Kenneth L. Bostick Jr.
• Gregory B. Gilmore
• Chandran B. Iyer
• Reshma Khanna
• Raul E. Martinez
• Esther F. Omoloyin
• Jill C. Owens
• Latha Raghavan
• Peter J. Woo