Linda Kornfeld

Insurance Recovery

Los Angeles

A stroke of bad luck out of law school turned into good luck that led to Linda Kornfeld's 32 years practicing insurance recovery.

"I had kept in touch with attorneys from [Troop Steuber Pasich Reddick and Tobey] during my last year of law school and when I received the devastating news that I no longer had a job following law school, I contacted them for advice," she said. "It turned out that they needed a first-year insurance recovery attorney for their team."

Kornfeld has recently achieved notable successes in the legal arena, particularly in the context of COVID-19 insurance recovery efforts for prominent sports teams. Her team secured a favorable outcome for the Philadelphia Eagles, where they crafted unique arguments tailored to the team's specific insurance policy language and the impact of COVID-19 on their stadium operations.

This strategic approach led a federal judge to allow the case to proceed to discovery, diverging from the common trend of case dismissals at the outset in Pennsylvania federal courts, Kornfeld said.

Similarly, for the Philadelphia Flyers, her persuasive legal arguments convinced the judge to stay the case, providing a window of opportunity as they await a pivotal decision from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court regarding COVID coverage in the state.

"In the Eagles and Flyers cases, we faced a significantly uphill battle due to the almost uniform Pennsylvania federal court rejection of the other COVID cases presented by other policyholders," Kornfeld said. "We had to dig deep into our policy language and unique facts to help the courts understand the critical differences in our cases that require them to proceed despite what the insurers have argued is the overwhelming weight of Pennsylvania and nationwide case law deciding the general coverage issues against other policyholders."

Beyond these public victories, Kornfeld is also deeply engaged in multiple confidential insurance arbitrations in London, dealing with complex coverage issues under New York law and involving significant financial stakes. The dedication and hard work of Kornfeld and her team on these intricate matters are set to continue well into the next year, reflecting their commitment to navigating the challenging landscape of insurance law with skill and determination.

As far as trends within her field, Kornfeld said she is seeing more policies requiring confidential arbitration rather than litigation of insurance coverage disputes.

"As to the arbitrated cases, the decisions therefore are not public and do not create precedent for coverage lawyers to cite going forward," she said. "Fortunately, the majority of policies still allow for public coverage litigation, the results of which our coverage bar can continue to use to develop law on which we can rely as we pursue the rights of policyholders to obtain the financial benefits of their insurance assets."