Richard Pratt

Richard J. Pratt is widely recognized for his creative, efficient, results-oriented approach to high-stakes litigation, and insurers nationwide trust him with their most complex cases. He provides proactive counsel on a broad range of matters and guarantees his clients personal attention.

Clients call on Richard to handle significant and often sensitive litigation and mediation in complex cases nationwide. He represents insurance companies in some of the most high-profile matters in the country, ones involving myriad procedural and substantive issues. He is particularly skilled in the areas of bad faith, mass tort and environmental insurance coverage litigation.

Richard has successfully defended clients in state courts, federal district courts and federal courts of appeal. Notably, he secured a favorable precedential opinion in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in a unique pollution liability insurance coverage matter.

He also is known for successfully representing a defendant in a landmark case that effectively ended all tobacco litigation for the insurance industry. Richard routinely defends clients in matters that have drawn media scrutiny, such as a recent case involving transgender bathroom discrimination.

He is a go-to lawyer for tackling multi-plaintiff concussion and brain injury litigation related to football and soccer, typically representing insurers as lead national coordinating counsel in high-profile matters, and is currently defending a client in the allegedly multibillion-dollar National Football League (NFL) concussion litigation.

Because of this experience, Richard is adept at drafting new policy language, including coverages and exclusions, and has particular experience in the EPL and GL spaces.

Representative Matters :

• Prevailed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which affirmed, with opinion, a lower court ruling in polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) remediation litigation.
• Representing a client in the highly publicized, high-profile, allegedly multibillion-dollar NFL concussion litigation.
• Successfully represented a defendant in a high-profile transgender bathroom discrimination matter.
• Successfully represented an insurer against a Fortune 200 company in a lawsuit concerning dozens of sites spanning more than 20 years of insurance coverage.
• Won summary judgment on reconsideration in an Indiana environmental action involving decades of chemical contamination.

Professional and Community Involvement :

• American Bar Association
• Pennsylvania Bar Association

EDUCATION :

• University of Pennsylvania Law School, J.D., cum laude, 1991, Associate and Special Projects Editor, University of Pennsylvania Law Review
• Duke University, B.A., magna cum laude, 1988

BAR ADMISSIONS : District of Columbia, Pennsylvania

COURT ADMISSIONS :

• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit