D&O and Management Liability Insurance

In today's business climate, directors and officers need to make certain that all their insurance policies are well suited to their individual concerns and that they are adequately protected should an issue arise. Staying on top of what is available in the marketplace is important to securing adequate coverage.

Independent Insurance Advice

The Holland & Knight Directors & Officers and Management Liability Insurance Team (D&O Insurance Team) assists clients in evaluating, negotiating and enforcing their directors and officers, cyber, fiduciary, employment practices and other management liability insurance policies. Our clients range from Fortune 500 corporations to small, private and not-for-profit entities, as well as boards of directors seeking assistance with their insurance programs. We provide independent advice – meaning we have no financial stake in the amount of insurance you buy or in the insurers you select. Our only interest is in helping you obtain the broadest protection possible.

Evaluating and Negotiating Effective Liability Coverage

To ensure that you are adequately protected, we start by listening to your risk transfer needs. Once we learn what your concerns are, we analyze your policy to determine whether it adequately protects you. As part of this process, we employ our substantial claims experience to assess whether or not your policy will actually respond in the event of a claim.

In order to help you get the broadest possible coverage, we utilize our extensive library of policies, checklists and available endorsements to determine how your policy compares with what is available in the marketplace. Using this information and the experience gained from reviewing numerous policies each year, we suggest coverage enhancements and provide wording for requested endorsements.

Armed with the knowledge of what the marketplace will provide, we work with your insurance broker to negotiate selected coverage enhancements using our precedent files, which show how an insurer has responded to similar requests in the past. Obtaining significant policy enhancements for our clients is our highest priority.

Maximizing Your Potential Insurance Recovery

The true test of an insurance program is how it responds to a claim. The Holland & Knight D&O Insurance Team uses its experience and established professional relationships in the market to best position your claim with the goal of securing the maximum potential insurance recovery. Starting with the decision of whether to put insurers on notice of a claim or a circumstance that may give rise to a future claim, and continuing through the structuring of a settlement agreement, we advise you on how to optimize the potential for coverage. Our team regularly counsels clients on issues such as rescission, severability, the applicability of exclusions, and how to respond to reservation of rights and coverage denial letters. We also work with defense counsel during securities class actions, derivative suits, SEC investigations and bankruptcy proceedings in order to maximize insurance recoveries.

Understanding Risk Management as a Whole

In addition to making sure each insurance policy provides strong protections, Holland & Knight can also review corporate bylaws, indemnification agreements and other corporate documents to make sure these documents all work together with your insurance policies.

We also help ensure that each type of insurance policy works with the other types of insurance you plan to purchase or that you have already purchased. This is critically important as it can help avoid gaps in coverage. It can also help eliminate duplicate coverage and potentially reduce your insurance costs. Most importantly, it will give you a more complete understanding of how various types of policies work together – or do not work together – to cover your risks. This is now a particularly relevant issue for data privacy and security risks which tend to fall in a gap between several different types of insurance policies.

Assisting Clients Through High Risk Transactions

A merger or acquisition can trigger significant changes to the insurance policies that protect directors and officers. The Holland & Knight D&O Insurance Team can assist with issues such as extended reporting periods (or "tail" coverage), reps and warranties insurance and even the indemnification provisions of the purchase agreement. Making sure that the directors and officers are fully protected during this high risk period is our priority.

Holland & Knight is Consistently Ranked as One of the Nation's Top Law Firms for Director Liability Issues

Directors & Boards magazine ranked Holland & Knight as one of the top 10 law firms in the United States for dealing with directory liability issues in 2014. This is the eighth consecutive year Directors & Boards magazine has recognized Holland & Knight as a top law firm in this area (2007-2014). In addition, Directors & Boards magazine ranked Holland & Knight among the top five law firms for general corporate governance issues and board-level merger and acquisition issues in 2013.  

Holland & Knight Recognized as 2012 Insurance Firm of the Year

Holland & Knight was recognized as the nation's 2012 Insurance Law Firm of the Year by Lawyer Monthly's Legal Awards, a research-based awards program conducted in association with The Economist magazine. The firm was honored for its achievement in engaging and responding to the demands of a new post-recession business environment and the recent global economic turmoil.

Leading Lawyers on Your Side

Members of our team have been selected for inclusion in leading industry publications, including Chambers USA for Insurance and Best Lawyers in America for Insurance Law. In addition, Holland & Knight was recognized as 2018 Insurance & Reinsurance Law Firm of the Year – USA by Worldwide Advisor Awards Magazine. Our Insurance practice also received a national first-tier ranking in the 2018 U.S. News - Best Lawyers® "Best Law Firms" guide, as well as metropolitan first-tier rankings in the Fort Lauderdale and Jacksonville markets. Additionally, one of our attorneys was named winner of the 2018 Corporate LiveWire Global Award for Excellence in Insurance Law Services for Washington, D.C.