Michael A. Hamilton is a partner with Nelson Levine de Luca & Horst LLC. He chairs the firm’s National Insurance Coverage Group. He concentrates his practice in the areas of insurance coverage disputes, bad faith defense, and commercial litigation. He has extensive trial and appellate practice experience in both state and federal courts. He represents insurers in all aspects of insurance coverage litigation, including claims involving construction defects, bankruptcy matters, and complex property and business interruption losses. His expertise includes litigation involving intellectual property, e-commerce, and other technology-related insurance claims. He also represents clients in complex commercial disputes, with an emphasis on class action and appellate litigation. As a compliment to his extensive litigation experience, he frequently publishes articles and gives speeches on critical issues affecting the insurance industry. He is a member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association, the New Jersey Bar Association, the American Bar Association, the Defense Research Institute, the Pennsylvania Defense Institute, and the Philadelphia Association of Defense Counsel.
Claudia McCarron is a partner with Nelson Levine de Luca & Horst LLC. She has represented clients in a variety of matters, including coverage, bad faith, personal injury, professional negligence, and commercial disputes. She has extensive appellate experience, including appearances before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. In addition to trial and appellate experience, she has represented clients in alternative dispute forums, including binding arbitrations and private mediations. She serves as general counsel to the firm in addition to her other responsibilities, and she has been awarded Martindale-Hubbell’s highest rating of A.V. Ms. McCarron graduated with honors from Villanova University School of Law, and she is a regular speaker and author on her areas of expertise. She is a member of the Defense Research Institute, the American Bar Association, the Pennsylvania Bar Association, the Montgomery Bar Association, and the Third Circuit Federal Bar Association.
John Mullen is a partner with Nelson Levine de Luca & Horst LLC. He is the chair of the firm’s Complex Litigation Practice Group. He concentrates his practice on matters involving construction, network and data security risk, product liability, toxic torts, malpractice, and employment litigation. He has significant experience in complex e-discovery and insurance litigation. He has handled a variety of matters in the banking, mold, pharmaceuticals, aviation, heavy equipment, packaging, non-profit, and trusts and estates fields. He has experience in mass tort litigation/asbestos impact on corporate restructuring. He has been involved as counsel to insurance companies regarding pre-packaged and standard Chapter 11 filings. Mr. Mullen is a board member of the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia, and he is a regular speaker and author on his areas of expertise.
Stephen Pate
Stephen Pate has been a partner since 1994 in the Houston office of Fulbright & Jaworski LLP. He focuses his litigation practice on construction, first-party insurance, commercial coverage, fraud, extracontractual, and insurance litigation. He is a vice president of the Federation of Defense and Corporate Counsel and a past chair of that body's Property Insurance Section. He is a recipient of the Appleman Award and the Olshan Award from the federation. He served on the editorial board of the Bad Faith Law Reporter and the Insurance Coverage Litigation Reporter. Mr. Pate is a fellow of the Houston, Texas, and American Bar Foundations and has served as director of both the Texas and Houston Young Lawyers Associations. He is a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates and is listed in Chamber's Guide to Leading American Lawyers and Who's Who in America, Who's Who in America Law, Who's Who in the South and Southwest, and Who's Who in the World. He has been named a "Texas Super Lawyer" and is listed in Best Lawyers in America. He is listed in the Legal Media Group’s Guide to the World's Leading Insurance and Reinsurance Lawyers. Mr. Pate has tried more than forty-five cases, most involving bad-faith and first-party insurance issues.
Peter K. Rosen is a partner in the Los Angeles office of Latham & Watkins LLP and is a member of the Litigation Department. He is the co-chair of the firm’s Distressed Credit Markets Advisory Group, the local chair of the firm’s Recruiting Committee, and a member of the firm’s Technology Committee. Mr. Rosen’s practice is focused on counseling parties who face troubled financial issues or investigations, including financial institutions, their management teams and board of directors, and their professional advisors and investors. He also advises troubled companies about insurance for claims and litigation asserted against them and represents them in subsequent litigation. Mr. Rosen’s practice also includes securities litigation, private securities disputes, broker-dealer matters, and special investigations. Additionally, he counsels boards of directors and senior managers on directors’ and officers’ litigation, compensation and benefits agreements, corporate governance issues, employment practices, insurance strategies, indemnification, and bylaws and agreements. Mr. Rosen has also represented numerous insurance policyholders in matters involving property disputes, professional liability, directors’ and officers’ liability, commercial general liability policies, environmental insurance, fidelity insurance, and surety bonds. Most recently, Mr. Rosen served as the lead lawyer for the retail leaseholder at the World Trade Center in the massive insurance coverage litigation arising from the September 11th attacks. Mr. Rosen was ranked as one of the “leading individuals” among California policyholder lawyers by Chambers USA and was listed in the insurance section of The Best Lawyers in America. Mr. Rosen earned his B.A. at the University of California at Los Angeles and his M.P.A. and J.D. at the University of Southern California. He teaches insurance law as an adjunct professor at the USC Gould School of Law.
David Taubenfeld represents policyholders in every kind of dispute they may have with their insurers. He finds coverage where others may not look, and he attempts to secure coverage for his clients through negotiation and diplomacy before litigation becomes necessary. When litigation becomes necessary, he litigates aggressively, always with the goal of securing coverage for his clients quickly and economically. He has secured millions of dollars in coverage for his clients through negotiation and litigation. Mr. Taubenfeld represents corporate and individual insureds in coverage and bad-faith lawsuits and arbitrations against insurance carriers under directors’ and officers’ liability, first party property/business interruption, errors and omissions, professional liability, general liability, fidelity Surety bonds, performance and payment, primary, excess, and umbrella insurance policies. Mr. Taubenfeld also litigates construction matters for architects, engineers, contractors and owners. He litigates both the construction disputes themselves and any insurance coverage matters related to his construction work. Mr. Taubenfeld is admitted to practice before the State of Texas, the Northern, Southern and Eastern Federal District Courts in Texas, the Fifth and Tenth Circuit Federal Courts of Appeals, and the United States Supreme Court. He is a member of the American Bar Association; College of the State Bar of Texas; Texas Bar Foundation; American Trial Lawyers Association; and RIMS. He received his J.D. from Southern Methodist University, where he was leading articles editor of the Southwestern Law Review.
Gregory S. Thaler, a director at LECG LLC, is a forensic accounting expert and the national leader of property insurance claims at LECG. He has extensive experience preparing multimillion-dollar property, business interruption, and extra expense claims. He has also prepared large computer crime, builders’ risk, and product recall insurance claims. Prior to joining LECG, he was a director and the national leader of the insurance claims practice at Deloitte & Touche. He has assisted policyholders in preparing more than $2 billion in property and business interruption claims, including claims resulting from fires, hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, typhoons, the events of September 11th, and other catastrophes. He has testified in trial and deposition, has published insurance claims articles, and is a frequent speaker at insurance conferences. Mr. Thaler is a member of the Golden Gate chapter of the Risk and Insurance Management Society, and was the conference coordinator for the society’s Western Regional Conference in September 2008. He has spoken numerous times at their national and chapter meetings on insurance claims topics. In April 2008, he spoke on a panel in San Diego at a session with 315 registrants called “The Ten Worst Mistakes Made on Property and Business Interruption Claims.” He also has quantified damages in dozens of litigation matters in the areas of breach of contract, wage and hour, intellectual property, fraud, environmental, and antitrust. Mr. Thaler earned a B.A. in economics at Cornell University and an M.B.A. in finance and accounting at Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Management.
