Robert G. Levy

Robert Levy is a partner in the firm’s San Francisco office, and has been with the firm for 23 years where his practice encompasses coverage and defense litigation on behalf of major commercial general liability and professional liability insurers throughout the United States. Mr. Levy focuses on delivering creative, strategically planned legal means to achieve clients’ goals.

Representative Engagements

• Obtained the first judgment in California, on behalf of an employment practices liability insurer, that California public policy precluded insurability of class action claims for earned but unpaid overtime wages.
• Served as attorneys’ fee liaison counsel for all defending insurers in the largest dry cleaner environmental cleanup dispute in the United States. Achieved a settlement favorable for the insurers, including modification of the environmental remediation judgment and consent decree.
• Pursued coverage litigation on behalf of related CGL primary and excess insurers having the largest coverage segment of the Southern and Northern California clergy molestation claims.
• Counseled related primary and excess insurers as to appellate and settlement strategy regarding coverage litigation arising out of national MDL class claims for defective home siding. The represented insurers’ exposure exceeded half a billion dollars.
• Obtained the first judgment in California, on behalf of an attorneys’ professional liability insurer, that insurance could not indemnify an attorneys’ fee award under Federal Rule 11.
• Defended numerous professional liability actions including claims against lawyers, accountants, real estate agents, and insurance agents.
• Drafted a policy exclusion for Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) claims for a major insurance group.
• Brought and defended numerous co-insurer contribution actions.
• Non-insurance experience includes partnership dissolution disputes and commercial contract litigation, including claims based on promissory estoppel.

Education

• Cleveland State University, Cleveland Marshall College of Law, J.D., 1976
• Oberlin College, A.B., 1972

Articles & Publications

• Fall From Coverage
  (Los Angeles Daily Journal, November 28, 2006)
• Defending the Insured
  Handbook addresses state-by-state the issues that arise between insurers and insureds regarding the defense relationship (Aspen Publishers, Inc. ed., April 15, 2005)
• A Practical Approach To Implementing Recovery Under Buss
  (Underwriter's Report, September 01, 1997)
• How To Use A Legal Audit Report
  Volume 2 (Legal Audit Review, May 01, 1994)

Professional Memberships

• The State Bar of California