Pasich LLP

Insurance Recovery

Los Angeles Manhattan Beach

Pasich LLP celebrated its one-year anniversary in August, but is no infant in the insurance industry. Pasich’s attorneys handle some of the country’s highest-profile insurance recovery efforts for Fortune 500 firms such as AECOM, Northrop Grumman Corp., and Pacific Gas & Electric Co. to entertainment and sports industry giants such as the Los Angeles Lakers and Lions Gate Entertainment.

“I’m proud of the group’s breadth and depth of experience in insurance law,” said Shaun H. Crosner, a partner at the firm. “Collectively, we’ve seen it all over the years.”

“We’re not general litigators who dabble in insurance,” said Sandy Smith Thayer, a partner at the firm. “We have worked on every type of insurance policy.”

Managing partner Kirk Pasich is an insurance industry titan. Pasich has handled over 60 trials and arbitrations and more than 50 appellate proceedings and spilled much ink, authoring more than 500 articles and columns about the industry.

“Kirk is a walking encyclopedia of insurance law,” said Pamela Woods, a partner at the firm. “If only he had a USB port so that we could download all of that knowledge into our heads.”

The firm’s partners can be counted by hand and comprise a select group skilled at counseling insureds.

“We handpicked everyone here,” said Pasich. “We have to be a family. We’re all in this together.”

“There is a trust and a bond that develops within a small group,” said Jeff Schulman, a partner at the firm. “That trust extends to client relationships as well.

“We have a document we call ‘Our Commitment,’ which we provide to clients,” said Pasich. “We work with clients to set the framework to deliver what they need and guarantee that we will return phone calls and emails within a business day.”

The trusting relationship stretches even across the courtroom.

“We get referrals from adversaries,” said Pasich. “They see us as both reasonable and practical. They know we are not going to overreach.”

“It’s a reputation and credibility that we built over time,” said Crosner.

The firm attributes its success in litigation to carefully calibrated argument.

“Our success has often been found in the nuance and fine-tuning of our arguments,” said Schulman.

“We prepare jury instructions right out of the box,” said Pasich. “That’s ultimately what determines whether you win or lose a lawsuit other than the facts.”

The firm represents Bill Cosby in lawsuits filed by his homeowner’s and excess insurer American International Group Inc. AIG claimed it did not have to defend or indemnify Cosby in defamation lawsuits where Cosby’s agents allegedly denied allegations the stand-up comedian committed sexual assault. AIG Property Casualty Co. v. Cosby, 17-1505 (1st Cir. Jan. 12, 2018)

“We represent a lot of high-profile people, but we try to not do it in a high-profile way,” said Woods. “I’m just trying to get them what the insurance company promised to give them.”

“When insurance is available to pay victims of alleged assaults, I think it’s a good thing,” said Pasich.

The firm also represents Dole in a lawsuit filed against them by Dole directors and officers “D&O” liability insurers who claim they are not obligated to pay for any part of a $148 million settlement. The settlement comes from underlying lawsuits brought by Dole shareholders in connection with a merger between Dole and a subsidiary of DFC Holdings. This is one of the country’s largest pending D&O actions and a trial is scheduled for early 2019. Arch Ins. Co. v. Murdock, N16C-01-104 (Del. Super. Ct., filed Mar. 1, 2018).

“The insurance companies were trying to argue that they got a terrible opinion rendered against them and made an emotional argument,” said Woods. “In point of fact, insurance is a contract. You look at the contract and you determine whether it provides coverage or not.”

“We try in our litigation to focus on what the basic principles of insurance are,” said Pasich. “Avoid the rhetoric and focus on the facts. That’s the approach we took with Dole and all of our other cases.”

— Sean Kagan