Gary Gassman

Gary L. Gassman focuses his practice in the areas of insurance coverage counseling and litigation and is co-chair of the firm’s Professional Liability Practice Group. For more than 20 years, his practice has been concentrated on management liability including directors and officers and entity liability, employment practices liability, fiduciary liability, and various types of professional liability and commercial general liability coverage.

He also has significant reinsurance experience. Gary serves as national coverage counsel for a number of insurance companies in the management of directors and officers and professional liability claims and litigation. He has represented insurers and reinsurers in coverage litigation and domestic and international arbitration and in general business and compliance matters.

He regularly engages in management liability and miscellaneous professional liability insurance policy, application and endorsement interpretation and drafting, and has conducted numerous claim, system and underwriting audits for insurers and reinsurers. He also defends various types of professionals in litigated matters.

Gary is an active member of the Illinois, Wisconsin, and Arizona bars and a member of the Federal Trial Bar for the Northern District of Illinois. Gary speaks at insurance coverage seminars throughout the county and is active in several lead organizations.

He has taught legal writing as an adjunct professor of law and regularly publishes in the areas of corporate governance, securities laws, and international and domestic D&O, E&O, and EPL exposures and trends.

Gary currently serves as Diversity Officer of the American Bar Association, Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Section (TIPS), co-chair of the TIPS Insurance Institute Task Force, and leader of the Cozen O’Connor LGBTQ Attorney Resource Group. Gary earned a Bachelor of Arts from Indiana University in 1990 and a law degree from The John Marshall Law School in 1993.

EXPERIENCE :

• Represent insurers with respect to coverage for underlying wrongful death action against property management company under EPL and E&O policies worth in excess of $30 million.
• Negotiated a nominal settlement in a coverage dispute arising from a class action lawsuit alleging California Civil Code and California Business and Professions Code violations against a property management company valued in excess of $5 million.
• Favorably negotiated a six-figure settlement for an insurer in the coverage dispute component of an FCRA and California Investigative Consumer Reporting Agency Act class action lawsuit valued in excess of $20 million.
• Successfully defeated motion for turnover of policy proceeds on behalf of insurers with respect to coverage for judgments against insureds arising from employment and shareholder disputes under D&O and EPL policies.
• Obtained summary judgment for insurer in coverage dispute under a D&O and EPL policy for a case arising from investments in and the development of a medical center alleging breaches of fiduciary duties and derivative claims valued in excess of $20 million.

EDUCATION :

• The John Marshall Law School, J.D., 1993
• Indiana University–Bloomington, B.A., 1990

BAR ADMISSIONS : Illinois; Arizona; Wisconsin

COURT ADMISSIONS :

• U.S. District Court — Northern District of Illinois
• U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Michigan
• U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Wisconsin

AFFILIATIONS :

• ABA, Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Section’s (TIPS) Diversity Officer –  2017-2019
• ABA, Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Section (TIPS): Council Member, 2015-2018; Chair, Insurance Coverage Litigation Committee, 2015-2016; Chair, Corporate Counsel Outreach Task Force, 2013-2015; Chair, Corporate Counsel Committee, 2012-2013; Chair, Task Force on Corporate Governance, 2010-2011; Chair, International Committee, 2009-2011.
• Member, CGL Reporter Editorial Board, 2007-2015
• Professional Liability Underwriting Society
• Defense Research Institute
• The John Marshall Law School, Adjunct Professor of Law on Legal Writing and Oral Argument Technique, August 1996-December 2001
• American College of Coverage & Extracontractual Counsel