Richard Giller

Richard C. Giller draws upon over 30 years of experience to craft litigation strategies for complex insurance and commercial disputes. A strong advocate for policyholders, he focuses his practice on recovering insurance benefits for his clients from reluctant insurance companies, including securing payouts for professional athletes arising out of disability, loss-of-value and workers’ compensation insurance policies as well as event cancellation and production policies issued to production companies in the movie and music industries.

He has represented both individual and institutional policyholders across the country in complex business disputes with insurers, and in that capacity, he has successfully secured hundreds of millions of dollars of defense and indemnity payments for clients under a variety of insurance lines.

In court, Richard is adept at using summary judgment procedures to either secure a duty to defend, gain coverage outright or eliminate insurer coverage defenses, thereby establishing a structure that is favorable for the client’s settlement objectives.

Richard has tried a number of state and federal cases and has substantial arbitration and mediation experience. In addition, Richard also has extensive appellate experience including numerous appearances before several California Courts of Appeals, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals as well as authoring several amicus briefs filed with the California Supreme Court concerning significant insurance issues.

Education :

• Southwestern Law School, 1984, J.D.
• College of the Holy Cross, 1981, B.A.

Professional Admissions & Qualifications : California

Court Admissions :

• U.S. Supreme Court
• U.S. District Court – Central District of California
• U.S. District Court – Southern District of California
• U.S. District Court – Eastern District of California
• U.S. District Court – District of Massachusetts

Professional Affiliations : Member of the Editorial Board, Professional Sports and the Law publication

EXPERIENCE :

• Successfully represented the respondent in a California Court of Appeals case deciding the extent to which confidential communications between an insurance company’s employees regarding legal advice and strategy were protected from disclosure during discovery.
• Successfully resolved, through ADR mechanisms, numerous insurance and product liability cases involving a variety of claims.
• Obtained summary judgment, affirmation of that judgment on appeal and, ultimately, judgment and settlement in excess of nine figures on behalf of a product manufacturer in litigation arising out of a California False Claims Act action brought on behalf of over 100 municipal entities.
• Successfully resolving, on behalf of several MLB and NBA players, a number of disability, loss-of-value and workers’ compensation insurance claims.
• Involved in a week long jury trial in Federal Court involving property damage and insurance coverage issues relating to the Northridge Earthquake.