Insurance Recovery? Forum

[Anonymous User]

I'm at a firm that does a significant amount of insurance recovery work. It's one of the few plaintiff-side practices we have (so, for those unfamiliar, representing corporate policyholders and suing insurance companies for coverage).

Anyone out there in this practice area? I've done some work in it and it's pretty interesting. I'd love to learn more about it, i.e,. how does this compare to other types of biglaw lit areas? Is it less discovery-oriented than other areas?

[Anonymous User]

Are you at Akerman? I know they have a big practice that does this kind of work.

[Anonymous User]

Are you at Akerman? I know they have a big practice that does this kind of work.

Not Ackerman. but another large firm that has a significant practice

[Anonymous User]

I work at a large firm in its insurance recovery group. This is the only practice area I’ve ever worked in, so I can’t comment on the differences to other litigation. That said, I enjoy it. I like reading through the insurance policies, arguing over how different policy provisions should be interpreted, etc. There have been some decent sized doc review projects, but I enjoy getting the occasional doc review because I just put some head phones in and relax. Overall I think I have been happy with being in this practice area.

[Anonymous User]

Not in insurance recovery but interested in this. How do the conflicts work? I would think being at a large firm would have some of the big insurance carriers as clients in some matters.

[Anonymous User]

I work at a large firm in its insurance recovery group. This is the only practice area I’ve ever worked in, so I can’t comment on the differences to other litigation. That said, I enjoy it. I like reading through the insurance policies, arguing over how different policy provisions should be interpreted, etc. There have been some decent sized doc review projects, but I enjoy getting the occasional doc review because I just put some head phones in and relax. Overall I think I have been happy with being in this practice area.

Thanks for the reply. What exactly is the discovery focused on? The underlying suit? Documents regarding the parties' interpretations of policy terms? (you might be able to tell I do not like doc review haha)

[Anonymous User]

Not in insurance recovery but interested in this. How do the conflicts work? I would think being at a large firm would have some of the big insurance carriers as clients in some matters.

My understanding is that there are definitely some large firms that won’t have insurance recovery practices for this reason. For example, AIG is a massive company, and basically will only give your firm business if you don’t sue them. So that stops your firm from having an insurance recovery practice.

[Anonymous User]

I work at a large firm in its insurance recovery group. This is the only practice area I’ve ever worked in, so I can’t comment on the differences to other litigation. That said, I enjoy it. I like reading through the insurance policies, arguing over how different policy provisions should be interpreted, etc. There have been some decent sized doc review projects, but I enjoy getting the occasional doc review because I just put some head phones in and relax. Overall I think I have been happy with being in this practice area.

Thanks for the reply. What exactly is the discovery focused on? The underlying suit? Documents regarding the parties' interpretations of policy terms? (you might be able to tell I do not like doc review haha)

So insurance disputes occur because there is some underlying event that happens and the insurance carrier usually doesn’t want to pay for all or some of it. Discovery can often focus on whatever the underlying matter was. So if there is some pollution litigation for example, the insurance carrier will seek all documents related to pollution event. On the insurance carrier side, you are looking at their claims file, underwriting documents, things like that.