Overview

As a member of the Risk Management and Insurance Team, John resolves insurance coverage, real estate, and construction litigation disputes.  He represents owners, developers, contractors, and investors in both litigation and transactional matters involving complex and diverse exposures.

Litigation And Pre-Litigation Counsel To Real Estate Companies

Representing commercial and residential real estate companies in litigation for over 15 years, John's cases involve construction, insurance, and business matters. He often serves as pre-litigation counsel providing defense strategies for and resolving construction defect claims and other litigation threats before a suit is ever filed. Drawing on his litigation and insurance coverage background, John also routinely serves as personal and coverage counsel to clients who are being defended by their insurer's panel firm, both monitoring the defense and managing the insurance coverage issues that may arise during that process.

Insurance Coverage Claims And Litigation

John represents real estate and construction clients in a wide range of insurance coverage disputes and litigation with insurers under commercial general liability, property, builders' risk, errors and omissions policies, and directors and officers policies. Policyholders routinely look to John for counsel in coverage disputes involving construction liabilities, class actions, toxic torts, property and business interruption losses, errors and omissions claims, products liability, warranty claims, and self-insured retention disputes, among others.

Transactional Insurance And Risk Management

John's transactional insurance and risk management advice includes structuring insurance, risk management and risk transfer legal programs for his clients' real estate projects. This involves negotiating the placement of commercial general liability (including owner controlled or "OCIP" policies), builders' risk, property, and other insurance policies, as well as drafting and integrating insurance and protective provisions into his clients' project documents and construction contracts. 

Experience

  • On behalf of a large, private homebuilder, negotiated the terms of retention buy-down policy to restructure self-insured retentions applicable to builder's portfolio of commercial general liability policies.

  • Successfully negotiated a settlement for a national homebuilder of complex insurance coverage litigation in U.S. District Court concerning underlying construction defect class action involving over 400 homes, with parallel actions in out-of-state court.

  • Risk management counsel for a national developer in connection with sale of partially sold condominium high-rise building, including resolution of dispute with project buyer over potential future liability issues through negotiation of risk transfer provisions and insurance structure.

  • Secured defense of a developer by insurer under liability policy in large construction defect action after carrier's initial denial based on claimed application of multiple, rather than a single, self-insured retention.

  • Represented a mixed-use developer in recovering from its builders' risk carrier its repair and soft costs associated with significant course of construction damage through negotiation without need for litigation.

  • Litigation counsel for a regional developer in defense of homeowners' association suit and obtained 100% coverage of defense and indemnity payments through enforcement of contractual indemnity and additional insured coverage.

  • Served as insurance coverage and personal counsel in obtaining a favorable mediated settlement of a significant bodily injury suit, including a punitive damages claim, by residents of a new ground up condominium project in San Diego, California, with the bulk of the settlement funding contributed by the wrap-up liability insurer for our client.

  • Served as personal counsel for builder in resolving claims brought by numerous homeowners for subsidence of homes built on a old canal that had not been compacted properly. Worked with builder to relocate homeowners and repair damage. Analyzed, secured, and monitored complicated primary and excess insurance coverage issues and use of insurance policy proceeds to settle homeowner claims.

Insights

News

Speaking Engagements

Publications

Awards & Affiliations

Professional Affiliations

State Bar of California, Litigation Section

Building Industry Association of Southern California, BIS Program Committee

Los Angeles County Bar Association, Real Property Section, General Real Estate Subsection Program Planning Committee

Bar & Court Admissions

  • State Bar of California
  • State Bar of Nevada

Education

J.D., Boston University School of Law, 1997

B.A., University of California, San Diego, 1994, with honors

B.S., University of California, San Diego, 1994

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