Insurance Law: Solutions to insurance protection gaps and understanding agent/broker liabilities

Ethan W. Middlebrooks | Anderson Kill P.C.

Ethan Middlebrooks is a shareholder in Anderson Kill’s New York office, where he concentrates his practice in insurance recovery, exclusively on behalf of policyholders. He is a member of the firm’s Construction Group and COVID Task Group.

Ethan has assisted numerous policyholders with insurance recovery on a range of matters, including first-party claims involving property and business interruption, and liability claims involving construction losses, D&O liability, educational management liability, and public officials’ liability. His clients include companies in the real estate, construction and hospitality industries. A member of the firm’s Covid-19 Task Group, he is part of a team that won a decision in New Hampshire state court finding that the presence of Covid-19 caused “direct physical loss or damage.”

Ethan joined Anderson Kill in August 2014. He took leave in 2015-16 to clerk for the Honorable R. David Proctor of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, where he had previously served as a Judicial Intern in the summer of 2012. As a clerk in the Northern District of Alabama, Ethan frequently worked on cases involving claims pertaining to civil rights, municipal liability, employment and labor laws, and bankruptcy appeals, among other things.

Alexander I. Loy | Ver Ploeg & Marino

Alexander (Alex) Loy represents first and third party insureds in coverage disputes. His experience in litigation covers several areas of law including health care, commercial law, and financial services. Alex’s background enables him to counsel clients on complex issues and advance their interests efficiently in and out of the courtroom.

Alex routinely litigates coverage under high-limit commercial and liability policies (primary and excess), including multi-layer property policies that insure property in several states or abroad. He represents clients involved in business interruption, property, liability, life & disability, and other claims in state and federal court. Alex is accustomed to opposing major players in the insurance market, including multi-national organizations that offer insurance products and services on a global scale. Alex has helped clients proceed with innovative claims against those entities.

Alex is a graduate of Trinity College (Hartford, CT) and Albany Law School of Union University, where he served as the Note and Comment Editor for the Albany Law School Journal of Science and Technology. Alex is a former member of the Immigration Branch of the Albany Law Clinic and Justice Center. He also clerked for the Office of the Albany County District Attorney. Shortly after his law school graduation, Alex represented the United States in the Lightweight Men’s Quadruple Sculls (“LM4X”) at the 2018 World Rowing Championship Regatta in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.

Session I – Insurance Protection Gaps: Searching for solutions | 12:00pm – 1:00pm

• How to use other people’s insurance to cover your gaps: Maximizing your “additional insured’s “rights
• Is there really a gap? searching for and analyzing historic insurance policies
• Maximizing indemnification rights
• Specialized insurance products (ie cyber coverage, pollution liability coverage)
• Exploring “captive” insurance coverage

Break | 1:00pm – 1:10pm

Session II – Insurance Agent and Broker Liability | 1:10pm – 2:10pm

• Duty of care
• Causes of action
• Recoverable damages
• Ripeness issues
• Best practices & tips