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Cohen Ziffer Frenchman & McKenna

Policyholders’ Heaviest Hitters | Attorneys | New York

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General Liability

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With decades of experience adeptly guiding clients and a record of recovering billions of dollars for them, we’re the lawyers to call when companies face significant liabilities allegedly caused by their products or work. We’ll move quickly to procure coverage for your defense costs and work with you and your insurers to ensure that any settlement or judgment entered is ultimately covered.

When our clients’ products or operations have allegedly caused harm, we help protect their interests and their commercial viability by ensuring that they obtain sufficient insurance recovery for claims of bodily injury, personal injury, and property damage. Our lawyers obtain the insurance that companies are owed under commercial general liability, umbrella liability, all-risk, wrap-up, and excess liability policies, among others. In high-stakes, bet-the-company liability cases we craft detailed strategies and plot our course of action step by step to put clients in the best position for full recovery and optimal settlements.

Our lawyers don’t just advise on the law, we make it.  When a client sells allegedly defective products, numerous thorny questions often arise.  What law should apply? What policies’ coverage obligations are triggered? How should liability be allocated where injuries or damage may be covered under multiple insurance policies?  How should deductibles or retentions be applied? Are state consumer fraud claims covered?  We have obtained precedent-setting decisions for our clients on these and other complex issues in cases involving numerous insurers and products that have helped our clients forge a path to recovering their significant defense and settlement costs. 

Our Inventive Approach

Eliminating surprises. We always work to eliminate the surprise factor for clients by mapping out the issues and charting a course for recovery as soon as coverage issues arise.  We explain to our clients the arguments that insurer are likely to make and how we will counter and overcome them. As clients gain a greater understanding of the overarching approach, they frequently offer valuable information and helpful facts that support and strengthen the case as a whole.

Understanding the Venues. Our lawyers have in-depth insight into how various jurisdictions operate and are highly skilled in determining how to shepherd particular cases through the courts that are most likely to produce outcomes favorable to those we represent.

Accommodating Alternatives. Embracing flexibility in payments, we are willing to consider full contingency, partial contingency, and flat-fee arrangements.

Our Strengths

Our team recovers the insurance coverage our commercial clients are due when their products or operations have resulted in liability claims, including:

  • Bodily injury
  • Property damage
  • Personal injury

We have significant experience and ability advocating for our clients on coverage issues involving:

  • Allegedly defective work or products
  • Class action products liability
  • Environmental liability
  • Trigger of coverage
  • Allocation of liability among multiple insurers
  • Application of policy deductibles and retentions in cases involving multiple products or claimants
  • Consumer fraud and other statutory claims
  • Class action liability

Experience Highlights

  • As counsel for Warren Pumps LLC in a precedent-setting case stemming from asbestos claims, our lawyers won rulings that enabled the client to procure more than $500 million in insurance

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  • As counsel for Pella Corp., our team secured nationally significant judgments concerning coverage for numerous class action lawsuits alleging property damage caused by defective workmanship and products, resulting in Pella’s successful settlement with insurers who had been disputing coverage.

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Recognition and Rankings

  • “Insurance Practice Group of the Year” – Law360 (2016 – 2020)

  • National Tier 2 for Insurance Law: “Best Law Firm” 2021 Edition, published by S. News-Best Lawyers

  • In 2020, Chambers USA again ranked our team in Band 1 for Insurance: Dispute Resolution: Policyholder in New York. Our group “handles the most complex and high-profile coverage cases and class actions” and is “well known for regularly securing key verdicts at trial and appellate levels for major corporate clients facing significant liability exposure. They have been at the top of the game for a long time and do a great job for clients.”

  • Our team was also ranked in 2018 and 2019 as a leading insurance litigation group (nationally and in New York) by Chambers USA.

  • 2020 The Legal 500 ranked our team as “leading lawyers” in Insurance: Advice to Policyholders:
    • Robin Cohen – Hall of Fame
    • Adam Ziffer – Recognized
    • Ken Frenchman – Recommended
    • Keith McKenna – Next Generation Partner

  • We were also ranked by The Legal 500 in 2018 and 2019.

  • 2016 The Legal 500 ranked our team as “top tier” for Insurance: advice to policyholders. The publication noted that the . . . insurance recovery practice has “experience across a wide range of insurance issues, including asbestos-related matters, as well as other product liability, environmental, toxic tort cases and D&O matters. The team also has significant regulatory expertise."

  • “Insurance Litigation Department of the Year” – The New York Law Journal (2017)

  • Our team ranked “Tier 1” nationally for insurance litigation by Benchmark Litigation in 2018 – 2020.

  • Numerous individual awards and rankings for Robin Cohen, Adam Ziffer, Ken Frenchman and Keith McKenna.

News/Insights

  • Cohen Ziffer Frenchman & McKenna named Insurance Practice Group of the Year by Law360

    January 22, 2024·Media Coverage·less than a minute

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