| Biography | Julia is managing partner of the San Francisco office of Meckler Bulger Tilson Marick & Pearson LLP. Prior to joining the firm in April of 2011, she was a partner at Sedgwick LLP and at Bronson, Bronson & McKinnon, where she headed the insurance practice. Julia represents the insurance industry in virtually all aspects of their business, including insurance coverage litigation, insurance counseling, extra contractual (bad faith) liability, insurance fraud, underwriting matters, policy drafting, regulatory compliance, brokerage and agency liability, insurance insolvency and legislative issues. She has more than 30 years expertise in strategically managing insurance risk, on an enterprise-wide basis (state, regional and national), in areas such as construction defects, class actions, intellectual property, and cumulative trauma. Julia has lectured at major professional conferences sponsored by the American Bar Association, Association of Defense Counsel, Defense Research Institute, Association of California Insurance Companies, the California Continuing Education of the Bar, the American Conference Institute, the Property Law Research Bureau, the Insurance Risk Management Institute and the Practising Law Institute. She is a contributing editor the CEB publication California Liability Insurance Practice: Claims and Litigation. She has published numerous articles and scholarly discussions on a variety of insurance topics Presentations: Litigating Questionable Coverage: Strategies for Avoiding Bad Faith to be presented at ACI's 22nd National Advanced Forum on Bad Faith Litigation "Condominium Liability and Coverage," PLRB National Claims Conference, Nashville, Tennessee April 5,& 6, 2011 "California Bad Faith Hotbed Workshop, " ACI Bad Faith Litigation Conference, December 1, 2010 "Litigating Questionable Coverage" (with Richard Harmon), ACI Bad Faith Litigation Conference, Orlando Florida, November 30, 2010 "Cumis Counsel and the Trouble with Tripartites," DRI Insurance Coverage and Practice Symposium, New York, New York, November 19, 2010 "California Unfair Insurance Trade Practices Laws: The Effect on Medical Malpractice Insurers," San Diego, California, November 5, 2010 "Breast Cancer Legal Advocacy workshop," Moderator, ABA Annual Meeting, San Francisco, California, August, August 6, 2010 "Ten Traps for the Unwary Adjuster," Client Claims Conference, Meridian, Idaho, April 12, 2010 "A New Level of Dialogue Between Litigators and Mediators," (with Jeff Kichaven, Guy Kornblum, Otis McGee, and Louis Renne), ABA Section of Dispute Resolution, 12th Annual Spring Conference, San Francisco, California, April 8, 2010 "California Bad Faith Hotbed Workshop," ACI Bad Faith Litigation Conference, Orlando, Florida, February 20, 2010 "Attorneys Fees: Resolving the Issue of Who Pays and How Much," ACI Bad Faith Litigation Conference, Orlando, Florida, February 19, 2010 "Recent Trends in US Bad Faith Law," Canadian Defense Lawyers Annual Meeting, Vancouver, British Columbia, June 5, 2009 "Innovative Pre-trial Theme Building Strategies for Defending Against Bad Faith Claims," (with Tony Zelle and Robert Marshall), ACI Bad Faith Litigation Conference, San Francisco, California, April 29, 2009 "Tips from the Pros" (with Michael Aylward, Shaun Baldwin and Paul White), DRI Insurance Coverage and Claims Conference, Chicago, Illinois April 1, 2009 "Not Your Father's Allocation Solutions for Modern Long-Tail Insurance Claims," ABA Section of Litigation, Insurance Coverage Litigation Committee, Tucson, Arizona, March 7, 2009 "Ethical Conflicts of Interest in Multiple Insurer Actions," DRI Insurance Coverage and Practice Symposium, New York, December 5, 2008 "Insurance Issues in Employment Law Cases," Litigation Counsel of America, Fall Seminar, Napa, California, October 31, 2008 "Allocation Issues in Construction Defect Claims" (with Helen Michael J.D. and Andrea Tecce CPA), Insurance Risk Management Institute (IRMI) Construction Risk Conference, Las Vegas, Nevada, October 17, 2008 "Bad Faith Claims Prevention and Handling in the UK and Europe,"C5 11th Annual Reinsurance Claims Conference, London, England, April 24, 2008 "Excess Verdicts - What To Do With the Runaway Train," PLRB Regional Adjusters Conference, Tampa, Florida (June 3-4, 2008). "Primary and Excess Allocation of Policy Limits," Property Loss Research Bureau/Liability Insurance Research Bureau Central Regional Adjusters Conference, Columbus, Ohio (September 18-19, 2007) "Coverage under Professional Liability Policies," The Doctors Company Legal Summit, Napa, California (June 30, 2007) "How to Take and Defend Bad Faith Depositions," DRI Bad Faith Seminar, Washington, DC (June 21-22, 2007) "Primary and Excess Allocation of Policy Limits," Property Loss Research Bureau/Liability Insurance Research Bureau Eastern Regional Adjusters Conference, Richmond, VA, (June 12-13, 2007) "Is Defective Construction an 'Occurrence'," For the Defense (May 2007) "The Insurance Risks of Global Warming," DRI Insurance Coverage and Claims Institute, Chicago, IL (April 12-13, 2007) "Excess and Umbrella Dropdowns," Property Loss Research Bureau/Liability Insurance Research Bureau Annual Claims Conference, Orlando, FL (March 18-21, 2007) "Emerging Bad Faith Defenses," Mealeys Bad Faith Litigation Conference, Marina Del Rey, CA (March 12-13, 2007) "Under Construction - Current Issues in the Building Industry," DRI Insurance Coverage and Practice Seminar, New York, NY (December 7-8, 2006) "Black Cats and Falling Ladders: New Risks and Recent Developments in Defending Bankrupt or Suspended Corporations," DRI Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (October 13, 2006) "Crime, Coverage and Intentional Acts," DRI's Insurance Coverage and Claims Institute (April 2005) "Punitive Damages: Life After Campbell," ABA/TIPS 13th Annual Insurance Coverage Litigation Committee Mid-Year Meeting (February 2005) "Coverage for Construction Defects," DRI's Insurance Coverage and Practice Symposium (December 2004) "The Vanishing Trial," Southern California Mediators Association (November 2004) "Making the Most of Expert Witnesses in Bad Faith Cases," American Conference Institute's Advanced Forum on Litigating Bad Faith and Punitive Damages (March 2004) "Working with the Carrier in Mediation," First District Court of Appeal (state) and Northern District of California (Federal) Mediation Panel Joint Session (March 2004) "Strategies in Declaratory Relief Actions," ABA/TIPS 12th Annual Insurance Coverage Litigation Committee Midyear program, (February 2004) "Dealing with Impasse at Mediation," Bar Association of San Francisco, (July 2003) "The Expanding Frontiers of Bad Faith: Direct Actions, Class Actions, and Unfair Business Practice Claims," DRI Insurance Coverage and Claims Institute, (May 2003) "The Incorporation Doctrine and Business Risk Exclusions," ABA/TIPS 11th Annual Insurance Coverage Litigation Committee Midyear program, (February 2003) "Like Dorothy in Oz: Insurers in Bankruptcy Court," DRI's Annual Insurance Coverage and Claims Institute Publications: "The Dilemma of the Defending Insurer," For the Defense, (May 2006) Professional Activities: Member, American Bar Association's Litigation and Torts Trial and Insurance Practice Sections Vice-Chair, TIPS Insurance Coverage Litigation Committee Member, Defense Research Institute (DRI) Chair, DRI Insurance Law Committee (2006-2008) California State Representative to the DRI (1997-2000) President, Association of Defense Counsel of Northern California (1995-1996) Past Chair, State Bar of California Insurance Law Committee Former Board Member, Northern California Conference of Insurance Counsel Former Executive Committee Member, Insurance Law Committee, Bar Association of San Francisco Peer Recognitions/Awards: Who's Who Legal 2007 to present- recognized as one of the foremost insurance and reinsurance attorneys in the U.S. Northern California "Super Lawyer" (2006 to present) Chambers USA (2011) News: MBT opens San Francisco office |