Linda D. Kornfeld

Kornfeld moved last year to 600-attorney Blank Rome LLP from her managing partnership at Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP when that firm changed its insurance practice focus toward representing insurers. “I represent policyholders only, and with Kasowitz’ switch, I thought it best to be where there were no conflicts,” she said.

She brought with her client Pennsylvania State University and its efforts to compel its underwriters to pay for the $100 million it spent compensating victims of retired football coach Jerry Sandusky’s long pattern of serial child sex abuse. The case included bad faith litigation against Pennsylvania Manufacturers’ Association Insurance Co. over its refusal to cover the losses. The resulting settlement fell short. “What we eventually got wasn’t nearly enough, so we now are seeking more than $60 million from Penn State’s excess insurers,” said Kornfeld, who is the school’s lead arbitration counsel. That part of the case is in active discovery, with a two-week arbitration hearing set for March 2019.

In addition to running and trying her cases, Kornfeld is the West Coast lead for Blank Rome’s Natural Disasters Response Team, and she arrived at her new firm in time for a grim litany of crises ranging from the California wildfires and mudslides to the hurricanes that devastated Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico.

“Whatever you think about global warming, I feel pretty strongly that there’s something going on,” she said. “The weather patterns are doing some strange things. I have been working with clients to help them navigate their insurance claims to increase the chances of a successful recovery.”

The wildfires, especially, hit home for Kornfeld when she learned that the barn in Lakeview Terrace that once housed her horse burned to the ground.

“I had moved the horse, thankfully, but I helped his trainer with her claim,” she said. “It brought the tragedy close in a visceral way. My work in this regard runs the gamut of client needs. We worked with impacted individuals and businesses immediately before and after the events to help them coordinate and understand their insurance claims and submit them to insurers in ways that don’t walk into policy exclusions or restrictions on applicable policy limits.”

Then she began looking forward. “I was just in Texas again working with Houston business clients to anticipate and prepare for another bad storm season,” she said. “We want them to prepare to respond more effectively and tighten up policy language.”

— John Roemer