J. Russell Stedman

Russell Stedman is an insurance and reinsurance partner based in our San Francisco office. With an AV® Peer Review Rating by Martindale-Hubbell, and more than 24 years of litigation experience, Mr. Stedman focuses on the client’s goals in each individual assignment, tailoring the firm’s services as needed. He has developed long-term relationships with many companies by learning and applying his extensive knowledge of insurance law to the client’s business philosophy and procedures.

Mr. Stedman is a member of the Firm’s Development Committee and served as Managing Partner of the San Francisco office from 2002-2007.

Examples of Mr. Stedman’s insurance and reinsurance experience include:

• Large property and business interruption loss claims, for example oil refinery accidents and earthquake damage to a major Port.
• Liability coverage under multiple-layer excess program for toxic cloud dispersal.  Liability coverage for mass torts, including primary and excess, exhaustion, aggregate limits, contribution.
• Reinsurance disputes and arbitrations, including traditional, financial, captive, fronting and pooling, and MGA.  Drafting of agreements, including reinsurance and assumption agreements.
• Life and disability, including traditional claims disputes, ERISA and other issues such as agent misconduct, elder abuse, tax loss, suitability, twisting and FINRA arbitrations for sales of registered products.
• Class action defense, for example a suit filed against life insurer for failure to pay death benefits on policies issued between 1895-1915 to persons allegedly killed in the Turkish-Armenian conflict.
• Unfair business practices claims, including sales, claims adjusting, reserve and experience modifier practices, non-renewal and group health insurance discriminatory rating.
• Insolvency law, including representation of insurers or reinsurers in California, Bermuda, Texas, Illinois, Florida and Mississippi.

Non-insurance experience includes partnership dissolution disputes, closely held business freeze-out and taking of business opportunity, drug testing by employer, ERISA investment manager breach of fiduciary duty and employee overtime class action.