Fulton M. Smith III focuses his practice on insurance-related issues and disputes. His 30 years of experience includes risk and strategic counseling of Fortune 500 companies, general liability and professional liability underwriting, regulatory compliance, claim investigation, large U.S. and international subrogation investigations, evaluations and recoveries, as well as first-party commercial, third-party, directors’ and officers’, professional liability, environmental coverage analysis and disputes, including evaluating likelihood of success and valuation of cases for legal financing companies.
He has represented clients in large loss international and North American arbitration and has been trial counsel in high-exposure coverage, subrogation and bad faith injury and bench trials in state and federal courts, as well as in appeals to the California Court of Appeals, and the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the 5th and 9th Circuits.
Fulton’s diverse practice includes commercial tenancy jury trials, construction defect litigation, wrongful termination and employment disputes, software licensing disputes, and the defense of municipalities, police and fire chiefs, the California Department of Corrections, and the University of California.
He is an arbitrator for multiple counties in Northern California, and has served repeatedly as an arbitrator/chair for the National Futures Association. Fulton has authored numerous articles on insurance law, lectured on insurance coverage and bad faith issues, given seminars on successfully preparing and trying civil cases for the Stanford Bar Institute and the National Business Institute, and given claims handling and topical seminars to claims professionals.
Fulton received his J.D. degree from Southern Methodist University School of Law in 1984 and his Bachelor of Arts from University of California at Los Angeles in 1980.
EDUCATION :
- Southern Methodist University School of Law, J.D., 1984
- University of California at Los Angeles, B.A., 1980
BAR ADMISSIONS : Texas; California
COURT ADMISSIONS :
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
- U.S. District Court — Eastern District of California
- U.S. District Court — Central District of California
- U.S. District Court — Northern District of California
- U.S. District Court — Southern District of California
Cost
Rate : $$$