Becky is the managing partner of the firm’s Chicago office and the Practice Group Leader for Insurance. She has more than 35 years of civil litigation experience at both the trial and appellate court levels. She specializes in complex litigation and has handled a wide variety of cases, including insurance coverage issues, commercial litigation disputes, constitutional claims, employment discrimination cases and insurance bad faith claims. Becky also provides extensive counseling to insurance companies including advice on the drafting of policies and exclusions.

Becky has achieved a large number of victories, both at the trial level and on appeal. Ranked by Chambers USA for the last six years, Becky was described as “extremely personable and very tough.” Chambers noted that she is “respected as a fine negotiator.”

Representative Experience
Obtained summary judgment for an insurer in a major bad faith action in Mississippi after 12 years of litigation.

Represented an insurer client in a lead contamination case alleging hundreds of millions of dollars in damages in duty to defend and consent to settle issues, winning on motion before the trial court and on appeal to the Eleventh Circuit.

Represented confidential CIA source in litigation in defamation action.

Successfully represented insurer in the Louisiana Supreme Court in an action challenging the insurer’s right to limit its exposure when it wrongfully refused to defend the insured in hearing loss claims.

Successfully represented governmental entity in trial court and on appeal in the DC Circuit in Privacy Act and defamation claim involving government whistleblower.

Represented insurers in asbestos litigation dispute involving 250,000 claims. Obtained summary judgment for insurers on pro rata allocation of losses, number of occurrences, and defense obligations for CGL coverage under Illinois law.

Obtained anti-suit injunction in trial court and on appeal in Illinois Court of Appeals precluding an insured from litigating coverage dispute in multiple forums outside of Illinois.

Successfully represented insurer on appeal in appellate court seeking to limit extra contractual exposure.

Acted as national settlement counsel for a major insurer.

Obtained favorable settlement for insurer involving tens of thousands of asbestos claimants in Delaware.

Handled insurance coverage action in trial court and on appeal in California Court of Appeals.

Represented the government in the trial court and on appeal with respect to various issues under the National Environmental Protection Act and Title VI with respect to the relocation of a hospital.

Represented insurance holding company in various cases seeking to bring them into insurance coverage disputes.

Drafted policy provisions in general liability and specialty policies.

Extensive experience litigating and settling extra-contractual claims against insurers.

Acted as EPL Counsel for major insurer for a variety of claims under various types of policies.

Represented an insurer in a trial where the Delaware Superior Court held that an excess umbrella general liability policy did not “drop down” to fill a coverage gap caused by an underlying insurer's insolvency.

Represented an insurer against a Fortune 200 company in a lawsuit concerning dozens of sites spanning over 20 years of insurance coverage and successfully settled after several months of trial.

Publications
“Handling a Complex General Liability Insurance Coverage Action,” Prepared For The ABA Section Of Litigation Insurance Coverage CLE Seminar (March 4, 2004).

“Developments in West Virginia’s Bad Faith Law: Where Do We Go From Here?” West Virginia Law Review, Vol. 98. No. 1 (October 1, 1995)