In the 50 years since the firm was founded, GRSM has established itself as a go-to firm for the most complex and highest stakes insurance coverage cases.
We partner with insurer clients to forge effective bad faith and extra-contractual liability avoidance strategies in first- and third-party scenarios across the range of marine and non-marine property and casualty insurance, professional liability insurance, workers’ compensation insurance, life and health insurance, title insurance, and insurance sales practices claims across this spectrum.
Our specialized practice teams provide practical and effective advice for recognizing opportunities in claims handling to extinguish or diminish extra-contractual exposures. We work closely with our clients to formulate resolution strategies that bring contested matters to close on efficient terms, and are particularly good at resolving marginal coverage claims with high potential exposures where an effort is being made to amplify the risk by criticizing the insurer’s handling of the dubious claim. Similarly, our lawyers are skilled at working with insurer clients to contest agreed-upon judgments and assignments of rights by which coverage is attempted to be determined outside of contract terms.
Our lawyers are called upon to help resolve cases that have become mired in discovery or motion practice, or where e-discovery costs or disputes have subsumed the original issues in the case. We are particularly skilled in cutting through to the core of the case and bringing it to closure. Our lawyers understand the importance of resolving these cases on terms that avoid creating cumulative value, and we are particularly proactive relative to the defeat of pattern and practice claims.
Furthermore, our distinguished class action team has a history of favorable outcomes as described in our representative experience. These include the defeat of class action certification, settlement of putative class actions by settling individually with the putative individual class action representative, summary judgment, and enforcement of arbitration or pre-suit mediation.
Our attorneys utilize a full range of effective techniques to address the issues at hand. Our reputation for success hinges on litigating with precision, taking full advantage of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) opportunities, including mediation, and, where appropriate, arbitration. Our clients know that we take the long view as well; we understand the need to provide value and to be consistent in our litigation stances with the company’s overall goals and objectives. And, our reputation in our respective legal communities and courts for subject matter knowledge means that we have credibility on our side.
We have worked with most insurers doing business across the country, including small specialty insurers, mutuals, large companies, risk retention groups, foreign underwriters, and both admitted and non-admitted carriers. Our team includes former in-house attorneys, house counsel, former judges, and a former appellate court chief judge. We are familiar with and have helped to shape insurer guidelines and vendor relationships, as well as many of the policy forms in use today.