John Ellison

John N. Ellison’s practice concentrates in the insurance coverage area exclusively on behalf of policyholders.  John’s clients range from Fortune 50 companies to small closely-held companies. He has been recognized by Chambers USA 2007-2015: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business as an “analytical and upbeat litigator with a great presence in the courtroom” and “first-class trial attorney.”

John has a wide variety of experience in the insurance coverage field. John is also co-lead counsel for many of the world’s large financial institutions regarding mortgage crisis-related insurance issues.

He has also handled claims under directors and officers policies, fidelity bonds, first-party property policies and other liability insurance products, as well as prosecuting successfully bad faith claims against many of the large insurance organizations.

John has successfully obtained recoveries for environmental liabilities, asbestos related claims and other toxic torts. In addition, he also regularly counsels his clients on insurance-related issues, spanning from structuring insurance programs to reviewing policy wording and related documentation. Over the past few years, John’s clients have recovered in excess of $4.5 billion in insurance coverage for matters that were being contested by their insurance companies.

John’s international practice involves appearing in courts and tribunals throughout the United States and in Europe. As an example, John has been lead US counsel in over twenty Bermuda form arbitrations in London.He has further been lead counsel in some of the largest insurance disputes over the last decade.

He also serves as a party-nominated arbitrator in many insurance arbitrations. He currently sits on the National Advisory Board for Mealey’s Conferences and the Insurance Law Teleconference Advisory Board for Strafford.

Education :

• Pennsylvania State University, The Dickinson School of Law, 1987, J.D., honor society
• The Ohio State University, 1983, B.A., with honors

Professional Admissions & Qualifications :

• New York
• Pennsylvania
• District of Columbia
• Texas

Court Admissions :

• U.S. District Court – Eastern District of Pennsylvania
• U.S. District Court – District of Nebraska
• U.S. District Court – Middle District of Pennsylvania
• U.S. District Court – Southern District of New York

Professional Affiliations :

• The District of Columbia Bar
• Philadelphia, New York State and American Bar Associations

EXPERIENCE :

• Representing major mortgage servicing company against several mortgage insurers seeking to recover in excess of $100 million in mortgage insurance proceeds.
• Lead counsel in precedent-setting decision allowing policyholder to “cut through” fronting captive arrangement and obtain cover directly from reinsurers based on “real-party-in-interest” to the original transactions.
• Lead US counsel in $1 billion arbitration that was successfully settled at preliminary stages for nearly full recovery of claim.
• Successfully represented client that had conflict with a captive insurer, and arranged to pursue coverage by recognizing the “commercial reality” of the arrangement and treating captive as a pass-through and proceeding directly against captive’s reinsurers.
• Lead US counsel in London arbitration regarding mass tort liabilities arising out of underlying product liability claims.  Settled under one Bermuda form policy and successfully litigated to award under another Bermuda form policy.
• Lead US counsel in international arbitration for underlying medical liability claim.  One claim was successfully settled, and the other has been litigated to the award stage, which remains outstanding.
• Lead counsel in pursuing coverage for thousands of underlying personal injury claims for mass tort liability arising out of product exposures under policies originally sold to other “named insureds.”