Conner & Winters has long been committed to assisting clients in all areas of insurance law, and our attorneys possess many years of valuable experience in this practice area. We are skilled in insurance coverage analysis, traditional and complex insurance coverage and risk management advice, insurance coverage litigation, and providing solid and reliable insurance defense.
Corporate insurance guidance
Conner & Winters combines its solid understanding of our clients’ industries with its broad insurance background to provide considered and effective insurance guidance. The firm has assisted clients in developing, structuring, implementing, and maintaining major corporate insurance programs involving both self-insurance and public insurance, particularly in the vehicle rental, pipeline, and construction businesses. We have drafted industry-specific insurance policies and policy provisions. We have performed insurance audits and assessments, helping our clients to fully comprehend their insurable risks.
Varied clientele
We provide quality legal services for both insurance carriers and policyholders. While some firms specialize in one or the other, we find that having a wider perspective gives us the ability to be innovative while providing practical solutions. We represent clients in wide-ranging insurance disputes including directors and officers’ liability claims, securities violation claims, toxic tort and environmental issues, energy-related claims, claims related to the vehicle rental industry, the health care industry, the construction industry, and others.
Policy interpretation and coverage analysis
Our attorneys are routinely asked to interpret and analyze a wide array of insurance products, including casualty and property policies, professional liability policies, bankers bonds, performance bonds, directors and officers, employment and ERISA fiduciary policies, and life and health insurance policies. We have additionally developed a subspecialty in dealing with pollution exclusion issues. In many instances, we can negotiate complex coverage issues and help create a partnership of common interest between the insured and its insurer. For example, the firm’s attorneys served as coverage counsel regarding directors and officers and ERISA fiduciary insurance in the largest securities and ERISA class actions ever filed in the Northern District of Oklahoma, and all coverage disputes were successfully resolved without litigation.
Defense of insureds concerning a broad spectrum of claims
The firm also works with insurance carriers and self-insureds to defend insureds in a wide variety of insurance claims, including investigation and litigation of personal injury, wrongful death, product liability, property damage, environmental, and business interruption claims. We deal with claims arising in, for example, industrial, health care, commercial, banking and finance, labor and employment, residential, and automobile-related settings. In all matters, Conner & Winters combines its broad litigation experience with its in-depth understanding of the needs of the insured and of the insurance carrier.
The firm’s recent experience includes:
- Counseling major corporations in the development of innovative insurance and self-insurance programs
- Drafting and negotiating manuscript insurance policies and endorsements to policies
- Drafting self-insurance programs and various security devices, such as bonds and letters of credit
- Negotiating and drafting national claims handling programs and agreements with national claims adjusting companies
- Counseling and overseeing national claims handling programs
- Developing emergency response procedures for catastrophic or major casualties
- Providing insurance coverage advice and assessments to multinational corporations
One of the firm’s attorneys is National Coverage Counsel for a major insurance company that writes liability insurance in the rental car industry.
Effective response to an occurrence
In connection with our insurance and litigation experience, our attorneys have acquired considerable credentials assisting both large and small corporations in responding to catastrophic occurrences, including coordinating investigations, dealing with various governmental regulatory agencies, law enforcement agencies, and insurance carriers, and also defending subsequent claims and lawsuits. We have recently managed the legal aspects for the emergency response teams of major corporations faced with these catastrophic events:
- Explosion of a railroad tank car loaded with anhydrous ammonia (4 deaths)
- Explosion and fire at propane storage caverns (4 deaths, 16 serious injuries)
- Propane explosion at a popular crowded mountain night spot (1 death, 3 serious injuries)
- Massive hydrogen explosion at a fertilizer plant (3 serious injuries; destruction of major portions of the plant resulting in nine-month shutdown; extensive property and business interruption damages)
- Investigation and defense of suits arising out of an explosion and fire at a pipeline terminal (personal injuries, extensive property damage, and business interruption loss)
- Rupture of gasoline pipeline resulting in a massive fire and spill (3 deaths, numerous serious injuries); oversaw response to National Transportation Safety Board investigation, as well as liability investigation
- Investigation of a major fire in a downtown high-rise office building
- Major trucking accidents involving personal injuries and death
- Investigation and defense of SUV and other large van rollover accidents
For occurrences involving catastrophic and other trucking accidents, attorneys in our transportation and logistics practice area maintain a Rapid Response Team. The Team is available on short notice to respond to transportation emergencies and includes field adjusters, accident reconstructionists, defense attorneys, and experts. Attorneys who are team members are available 24/7 to help manage the legal aspects of an accident response.
Providing full service
Our insurance attorneys regularly rely on the resources of the entire firm in providing a full range of legal services, including in the areas of corporate governance/corporate services, securities, labor and employment, real estate, employee benefits, litigation, and bankruptcy.
