The Tucker Ellis Insurance Group assists our clients – including many of the world’s largest and most respected insurers – in meeting their business program, claim, and litigation needs.

We draft coverage programs and endorsements that ensure compliance with all regulatory obligations. Our specially prepared broker/agent agreements strengthen and support business operations under clear standards to avoid unnecessary disputes that can detract from successful and profitable relationships. And when disputes arise with business partners, the Insurance Group has the experience to represent our clients in enforcing and defending their rights in both judicial and arbitration settings.

We provide claim assistance, including the development of complete and thoughtful coverage opinions, the ongoing monitoring of claims and defense counsel (and the analysis of legal defense fees), and active participation in strategic and settlement discussions. Our approach supports our clients’ business relationship needs, while protecting their financial interests on an individual claim and programmatic basis.

When necessary, we file and defend declaratory relief and bad faith litigation in jurisdictions throughout the United States, often partnering with our Appellate & Legal Issues Group to boil down complex or challenging issues into persuasive factual and legal arguments.

Our experience in assisting clients with their reinsurance and retrocession claims, submitted under both domestic and international treaties and agreements, also provides important guidance that ensures the successful and stable management of these important agreements and the financial resources they provide.

The Tucker Ellis Insurance Group is Band 1-ranked in Chambers USA in the area of Insurance: Insurers (Ohio). Clients say, “It’s a very dedicated and smart nationwide firm,” describing our team as “very smart and well respected.” Another source adds, “They are good at putting complex contract matters in layman’s terms.”

Areas of Emphasis

• Comprehensive General Liability (CGL). CGL policies continue to present challenges to our clients, particularly in the areas of products liability (mass tort, product recalls), construction defect, and the management of “additional insured” rights and obligations. We provide thoughtful guidance that addresses obligations actually owed, while avoiding unnecessary defense, indemnity, and “independent counsel” disputes that can needlessly increase costs and exposures.
• Employment Practices Liability (EPL). Retained as national coordinating counsel and local counsel for claims brought under EPL policies (one of the more challenging insurance practice areas given limitations imposed by policy language and different states’ public policies), we work closely with all involved parties to address defense and indemnity exposures in a manner that often navigates emotional and financially significant exposures.
• Professional Liability (E&O). We represent foreign and domestic insurers in the evaluation and management of high-stakes exposures presented under healthcare (medical center and individual providers), legal, accounting, securities dealers, and architect liability programs, offering practical guidance when coverage extends to both civil and regulatory exposures. Our analysis also takes into account differing state laws and policies that can impact coverage obligations, while also ensuring consistency in program administration.
• Directors and Officers (D&O). Our attorneys have managed claims programs as both outside counsel and as part of in-house claims management teams (secondment with Lloyd’s Syndicate as Interim Professional Liability Claims Manager), involving public and private securities offers (individual claims and industrywide exposures), corporate mergers and acquisitions, and health and welfare benefits programs. We develop and implement innovative defense and settlement strategies, and we work closely with reinsurers and retrocessionaires.
• Malicious Product Tampering and Accidental Product Contamination Policies. As food contamination issues and recalls of food products have become more prevalent, insurance policies designed to cover at least a portion of those losses attributed to that event have become more important; however, insurance is limited and, therefore, litigation over the scope of coverages provided in those policies has grown. Tucker Ellis represents carriers around the country where these cases are litigated.
• Specialty Policies and Programs. As risks change, so do our clients’ needs for specialty programs (food contamination, data security, emergency response). We assist clients in drafting specialty policies and programs, evaluating claims under various insurers’ specialty programs (primary and excess), and litigating coverage and bad faith claims in these emerging coverage areas. We assist our clients in offering new products to their insureds, while also protecting their rights should coverage issues arise under new and evolving liability standards.
• Reinsurance. Reinsurance and retrocession agreements, whether foreign or domestic or facultative or treaty, all receive special attention from our skilled attorneys to ensure that claim notifications, claim management relationships, and financial payments are handled in keeping with the special standards applicable to these programs.
• Agency Risk Pools. In addition to foreign and domestic insurers, we serve as outside general counsel to public agency risk pools, operating as public agencies or nonprofit public benefit corporations, as we partner together to support the many aspects of their legal needs in support of their business operations.
• Regulatory Compliance, Standards, and Training. Having assisted clients in developing internal claim management guidelines, we also provide guidance and training to ensure their legal compliance with state-imposed claim and underwriting guidelines.

Areas of Special Interest

• Authors. Our attorneys are the authors of Ohio Insurance Coverage, the definitive resource for policy and claim issues arising under CGL policies and coverage programs within that state. We also frequently contribute articles addressing issues of concern to our clients.
• Speakers. We are often called upon to speak at local, state, and national conferences on defense, indemnity, and claim management concerns, including the ABA TIPS national programs, CAJPA state programs, and CLE programs.
• Appellate Specialists. Our appellate attorneys handle appeals in jurisdictions throughout the United States.
• Auditors. Audits, which may involve legal counsel (defense fee audits), insureds (claims or underwriting audits), and reinsureds (claims and treaty evaluations), can materially impact important business and claim relationships, requiring that they be conducted by trained professionals who understand how to manage such activities in a positive and productive manner. Our clients retain Tucker Ellis to manage these activities with the security of knowing we will provide them with critical information upon which to base their underwriting and claims decisions, often protecting them from avoidable financial exposures that can negatively affect their bottom line.