Practice Areas & Industries: Marshall, Dennehey, Warner, Coleman & Goggin

Practice/Industry Group Overview

From the moment of its inception and continuing through its years of sustained growth, Marshall, Dennehey, Warner, Coleman & Goggin has enjoyed unusually close ties to the insurance industry generally, and to claims operations in particular.  Where two of the three original founders came from staff counsel and where a substantial amount of past and present business emanates from insurance company claims and legal departments, the firm's policy of handling exclusively defense work has engendered relationships of mutual trust and respect between the firm and its insurer clientele.  That policy has also enabled the firm to develop a broad based understanding of how this segment of the industry functions and an appreciation of the demands under which its management and staff operate.

Services Available

Experienced Coverage Counsel

In today's claims environment, our Insurance Practice Group draws on that experience in two separate, but often related, areas of concentration: insurance coverage and bad faith.  With a dedicated group of attorneys headquartered in Philadelphia and augmented by experienced insurance counsel in other regional offices, the Insurance Practice Group focuses a significant percentage of its practice on matters involving both first and third party insurance coverage, including both primary and excess policies.  The Group handles each and every phase of such matters, from consultations and opinions to litigation and appeals.  As the industry itself has grown more sophisticated and specialized, the Group's experience has widened concurrently.  That experience encompasses coverage issues arising in a wide variety of insurance products, including:

• Professional Liability
• Directors & Officers
• Errors & Omissions
• Commercial Property
• Commercial Auto
• CGL
• Personal Umbrella
• Environmental
• Life Insurance
• Homeowners
• Personal Auto
• Inland Marine 
• Commercial Umbrella
• Municipal/Public Officials Liability
• Garage
• Workers' Compensation
• Employment Practices Liability
• Reinsurance
• Aviation
• Truckers' Liability
• Healthcare Management
• Special RIsk
• Event Liability
• Disability

Leading Bad Faith Cases

Dating back to its early days, the firm's relationship with its industry clients also created frequent opportunities to consult with and represent carriers in cases involving alleged bad faith.  From the days when such claims were limited to common law failure/refusal to settle third party claims and continuing through the explosive evolution of statutory bad faith and punitive damages, the firm has been fortunate to be directly involved in the leading cases responsible for shaping the law under which we all now operate.  As in any other substantive practice area, but perhaps even more importantly, in this particular instance, the breath of this bad faith practice offers both an opportunity and a responsibility to manage issues, not just cases.  In an evolving area of the law where both substantive and procedural issues are often being decided for the first time, we believe that both the firm and its clients greatly benefit from this unique issue management perspective.

Publications and Lectures

Members of our practice group have lectured and written extensively on issues involving insurance defense coverage and bad faith litigation, not only in our firm's own publication, the Defense Digest, but also in other legal periodicals and trade journals.  We welcome the opportunity to present educational seminars and workshops to your company as a mutually beneficial working introduction.