Linda D. Kornfeld

Kornfeld, vice chair of Blank Rome’s insurance recovery practice group, is a leader in the male-dominated insurance policyholder bar.

She moved to Blank Rome in 2017 from her managing partnership at Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP. “When Kasowitz decided to represent AIG,” she said, naming the multinational insurance and finance giant, “the potential for conflict was huge. So to pursue my policyholder-side practice, moving here made sense.” Kornfeld said the relocation let her reunite with colleagues from her earlier days at Dickstein Shapiro LLP who came to Blank Rome when the firms combined in 2016.

The Covid crisis had led to blanket business interruption coverage denials by insurers. Since March 2020 Kornfeld and her team have worked to develop arguments to support claims for the multi-billion-dollar losses that businesses have experienced. She pointed out that no U.S. insurer has so far agreed to pay on business interruption policies without a fight.

“The insurance industry thinks these claims threaten their very existence, so this won’t be resolved at the trial court level,” Kornfeld said. “The first cases were filed by plaintiff lawyers, not coverage lawyers, and they were largely decided against policyholders. So you have precedent that courts now are relying on to turn away more claims.”

She said that experienced coverage lawyers are developing arguments and strategies that could turn the situation around. “The insurers have filed successful motions to dismiss before there’s been any discovery. They tell courts they never intended to cover anything like Covid, but we are finding inconsistencies in open sources with what they used to say.”

Kornfeld recently filed a complaint on behalf of an NFL team against its insurer contending that the team’s $1 billion property insurance policy is valid and enforceable based on a nuanced analysis of longstanding insurance law practices. Philadelphia Eagles Limited Partnership v. Factory Mutual Insurance Co., 210301454 (Philadelphia Co. Ct. of Common Pleas, filed March 11, 2021).

Early claims in environmental litigation failed in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Kornfeld said, but were ultimately successful. “There were a lot of losses at first, and lots of wins later. The situation here is similar.”

— John Roemer