Richard Hopkins

Richard B. Hopkins focuses his practice in complex litigation and regulatory matters, with particular emphasis on health care payor/provider disputes, business practices, claims handling practices, reinsurance, trade secrets, insolvency, and inter-company disputes.

Mr. Hopkins regularly represents business entities, including insurers, health plans, underwriters and holding companies in a variety of contexts, such as federal and state class actions, arbitrations, administrative hearings, regulatory investigations and market conduct examinations.

Mr. Hopkins joined Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP in October 2014 as a result of the merger of Hinshaw and the Los Angeles-based firm of Barger & Wolen LLP. Previously, Mr. Hopkins was a legal associate for Activision, a producer and distributor of video games, where his practice consisted primarily of transactional work, as well as intellectual property registration and enforcement.

Mr. Hopkins’ law school accomplishments included having been a member of the Moot Court Honors Program. Prior to his legal career, Mr. Hopkins was a senior analyst at DecisionQuest, Inc., a trial consulting firm, where he provided jury consulting services on a wide range of litigation matters.

Professional Affiliations :

• The State Bar of California, Member
• Los Angeles County Bar Association, Member

Representative Matters :

• Class action litigation concerning insurer’s premium charges, including vanishing premium, gap premium, reinstatement charge, cost of insurance charge, and experience rating claims.
• Class action, individual, and FINRA litigation alleging lack of suitability and deceptive sales practices, including failures to disclose, misrepresentations and other regulatory violations in the sale of life insurance, annuity, and long term care products.
• Litigation in court and before FINRA arising from outside business activities and selling away by agents and registered representatives, including unauthorized sales of annuities, securities, and pension plans.
• Class action and FINRA litigation brought by agents and registered representatives over commissions, production requirements, and other aspects of their relationships with their principals.
• Represented California-based underwriter and provider of expatriate insurance benefits in litigation involving alleged theft of business by Chinese-based subsidiary.
• Represented homeowners’ insurers in purported class action alleging insurer provided “excessive” amounts of replacement cost insurance.
• Represented holding company in action brought by association purporting to alter the terms of the contract between the association’s member and holding company.
• Represented life insurer in class actions alleging failure to pay death benefits in connection with the Armenian Genocide and Pontic Greek Genocide in the Turkish Ottoman Empire.
• Represented life insurer in a class action brought by its senior agents/registered representatives challenging changes in production requirements and compensation.

Education :

• J.D., University of California, Los Angeles School of Law, 1997
• B.A., English, University of California at Los Angeles, 1991

Admissions :

• California
• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
• U.S. District Court for the Central District of California
• U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California
• U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California