Michael A. Hamilton

Michael Hamilton, a leader of the GIS Pennsylvania Team, handles sophisticated and high-exposure insurance coverage claims and commercial litigation. He focuses his practice on environmental, professional liability, construction defect, transportation, and business torts/advertising injury claims.

Mike has been lead defense counsel in class action litigation, representing insurance companies, self-insurers, and transportation entities. He also has extensive appellate experience, arguing numerous appeals in state and federal courts across the country.

Mike has more than 25 years of experience handling insurance coverage claims and litigation on behalf of major insurers throughout the United States. He has an extensive background in environmental claims under commercial general liability policies and specialty environmental policies. He has assisted clients with claims involving the application of the pollution exclusion, surface and groundwater contamination, ground pollution, and hydro-fracking.

Mike also has advised clients on a number of significant claims involving data privacy, intellectual property, false advertising, and business torts. He counsels carriers on policy form wording with respect to data breaches, cyber liability, and intellectual property infringement claims, and he was involved in a case closely watched by the insurance industry that involved insurance coverage for a highly publicized data breach.

Mike was also involved in two groundbreaking cases holding that claims for faulty workmanship in construction were not covered under CGL policies. He has represented insurance companies in bankruptcy court and has formulated strategies for carriers to best protect their rights when policyholders are in bankruptcy.

He has also represented clients in commercial disputes and litigation, including matters relating to contractual indemnity, transportation accidents, and governmental immunity.

Mike recently served a two-year term as chair of the Insurance and Reinsurance Committee of the International Association of Defense Counsel, an invitation-only professional association for corporate and defense lawyers around the world.

He is also a frequent speaker and author on insurance litigation and emerging issues. Mike was also recently named a fellow of the American College of Coverage and Extracontractual Counsel, an exclusive group of the top insurance attorneys in North America.

Professional Affiliations:

• American College of Coverage and Extracontractual Counsel, Fellow
• American Bar Association, Tort and Insurance Practice Section
• American Bar Foundation, Fellow
• Defense Research Institute: Member, Insurance Law Committee

Education:

• Dickinson School of Law of the Pennsylvania State University, J.D., 1993
• Pennsylvania State University, B.A., 1986