Roland Goss

Roland C. Goss focuses on the defense of class actions and other complex litigation and arbitration matters for insurance companies, reinsurance disputes, reinsurance contracting, and counseling. Rollie also handles the settlement of class action lawsuits and multistate regulatory matters.

He has represented parties in the arbitration and litigation of reinsurance issues relating to life, property, and workers’ compensation risks and disputes involving reinsurance brokers, U.S. risks, London Market risks, and Bermuda domiciled reinsurers.

Rollie has counseled clients on reinsurance strategies and a range of reinsurance transactional issues, and he represented the ceding insurer to the largest fully collateralized reinsurance catastrophe bonds ever marketed.

Rollie created and served as blogmaster for many years of Reinsurance Focus, an award-winning blog focusing on reinsurance and arbitration matters. He has written and lectured extensively on reinsurance issues and on electronic discovery issues and arbitration.

Rollie has long been active in and a regular provider of pro bono legal services for foster care and adoption matters.

Experience :

• Lead role in representing a major life insurance company in the preparation and trial of a major insurance market conduct class action lawsuit.
• Obtained partial summary judgment of approximately $65 million for issuer of jumbo life insurance policies that had lapsed (2017).
• Prevailed in a combination jury/bench trial of an annuity suitability case in Illinois State Court (2011-2016)
• Represented the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as ceding insurer from the National Flood Insurance Program in the initial all-flood catastrophe bond – FloodSmart (2018)
• Multistate market conduct examination representing large life insurance and annuity company
• First Allmerica Insurance v. Minnesota Life Insurance Co. (arbitrations – AAA arbitration of dispute over the price for a block of defined benefit plan contracts purchased by one insurance company from another)
• Personal Accident reinsurance market (counseling and strategic planning with respect to disputes regarding reinsurance of personal accident and occupational accident risks through the London Market, which resulted in both arbitrations and litigation)
• White v. CUNA Mutual (Florida state court, Palm Beach County) (insurance coverage – secured pre-emptive denial of class certification in disability claim/policy interpretation case)
• Larson v. Union Security Life Insurance Company (Minnesota state court, Minneapolis) (insurance sales practices (non-class action), secured summary judgment for insurance company in case alleging that the company charged a premium in excess of the amount allowed by Minnesota law)

Education :

• Northwestern University School of Law, J.D., 1978, cum laude, Order of the Coif
• Michigan State University, B.A., 1975, high honors

Bar Admissions : District of Columbia, Florida, Illinois

Court Admissions :

• U.S. District Court, Middle District of Florida
• U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida
• U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, Third Circuit, Fourth Circuit, Fifth Circuit, Eleventh Circuit.
• Trial Bar, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida
• U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Wisconsin
• U.S. Court of Federal Claims