Barger & Wolen’s Insurance Litigation and Regulatory Law Blog provides coverage on insurance industry related case law, regulation and legislation at both the national and state level, with an emphasis on California law and federal cases applying California law. We also report on those news events and other happenings that impact or are of interest to the insurance industry.
Larry M. Golub is an insurance litigation partner in the firm’s Los Angeles office. His practice focuses on a wide range of litigation matters for insurance companies and non-insurance clients. His insurance expertise includes coverage litigation, class action litigation and appellate practice, as well as California Unfair Competition Law 17200-17210.
His non-insurance experience includes employment litigation and construction litigation.
Mr. Golub speaks regularly on insurance-related claims handling topics for continuing legal education providers, clients and trade organizations.
Education
Note and Comment Editor, Hastings Law Journal (1982-1983)
Judicial Extern, California Supreme Court Associate Justice Joseph Grodin, Court of Appeal, First District, (1982)
Professional Memberships
Royal Oakes is an insurance litigation partner in the firm’s Los Angeles office. He has extensive trial and appellate experience in the fields of insurance and general business law, having litigated hundreds of cases in the areas of bad faith law and unfair business practices.
A substantial part of his practice is devoted to the defense of class actions.
Mr. Oakes has served as lead counsel in numerous appellate cases, including victories in the California Supreme Court and the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. He was lead counsel in Farmers Insurance Exchange v. Superior Court, 2 Cal. 4th 377 (1992), in which the California Supreme Court established the doctrine of primary jurisdiction.
Mr. Oakes’ most recent trials involved complex cases in both the property-casualty and life insurance fields. He won a bench trial involving a $1.5 million life insurance claim submitted by the heirs of an insured murder victim. He also won a jury trial involving a putative class action that alleged an automobile insurer’s “direct repair program” violated the rights of policyholders.
In addition to his work with Barger & Wolen , Mr. Oakes is one of the nation’s best-known television and radio legal commentators. Nationally, he is an ABC News Legal Analyst, and airs a daily feature, “It’s The Law,” on Westwood One’s “Metro Networks.” In Los Angeles, he serves as the on-air legal commentator for KFWB All-News Radio.
Professional Associations
Education
Bar Admissions
Gregory Eisenreich is a partner in Barger & Wolen LLP’s Los Angeles office. He has been with the firm since 1995. Mr. Eisenreich has represented insurance companies throughout the United States, appearing in many state and federal courts. He has worked on a wide range of litigation and regulatory matters, including those that have been brought by plaintiffs in a representative capacity, such as class actions.
Mr. Eisenreich’s experience includes insurance coverage and insurance bad faith litigation, reinsurance disputes, class actions challenging insurers’ business and claims handling practices, as well as various other insurance related contractual and business disputes. In addition, he has extensive experience handling regulatory matters before the California Insurance Commissioner.
Mr. Eisenreich’s experience includes a wide variety of matters. Among the more notable, he has represented several insurers in class actions brought by insureds challenging the practice of using computer software to estimate the value of property damage claims and the reasonableness of medical bills. Mr. Eisenreich also represented an insurer seeking reinsurance recoveries for its settlement of coverage disputes involving breast implants and non-breast implant product liability claims and has defended insurers in multi-insurer, multi-site, environmental coverage actions. He has defended an insurer’s underwriting practice of refusing to provide coverage for elderly pilots in certain classes of high performance aircraft and has represented an insurer in a putative class action brought by the insurer’s agents alleging that it was a breach of the agents’ agency agreements for the insurer to cease selling homeowners insurance following the Northridge Earthquake. He has also represented an insurer in a number of first party bad faith actions involving alleged toxic mold.
Mr. Eisenreich is admitted to practice before the United States District Court for the Central, Northern, Eastern and Southern Districts of California, the Eastern District of Michigan, and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Education
Professional Memberships
.jpg)
Michael Newman is a litigation partner in Barger & Wolen's Los Angeles office. He is involved in a broad range of litigation matters, including insurance coverage disputes, bad faith liability actions, class actions and contractual disputes.
Mr. Newman is a regular guest columnist for the Los Angeles Daily Journal and the San Francisco Daily Journal, engaged to write book reviews, opinions, and analyses of both current and historical legal issues.
Education
Chief Comments Editor, UCLA Law Review
Articles & Publications (2007-present)
The Bizarre Law That Punishes the Kindness of Strangers
Posted with the permission of Daily Journal Corp. (2009). (Los Angeles Daily Journal, March 03, 2009)
Messing With a Time-Tested Method
(Los Angeles Daily Journal, September 29, 2008)
Failing the First Amendment
(Los Angeles Daily Journal, September 04, 2008)
Reforming Class Action
(Los Angeles Daily Journal, November 20, 2007)
Guns, Blood and Gavels
Profile of California Chief Justice David S. Terry (1823-1889). (Los Angeles Daily Journal, February 14, 2007)
Professional Memberships
Mr. Castle is an associate in Barger & Wolen's Los Angeles office. He practices in the litigation department where he handles a wide range of matters, including insurance coverage and bad faith proceedings.
Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Castle was a Deputy District Attorney for the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, where he prosecuted criminal cases on behalf of the People of the State of California.
During law school, Mr. Castle was a judicial extern for the Honorable Gladys Kessler of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and a law clerk for the United States Senate Judiciary Committee.
Education
Admitted To
.jpg)
Lee A. Cirsch is an associate in Barger & Wolen’s Los Angeles office where he focuses on a broad range of complex civil litigation, including matters involving contract, business tort, and unfair competition.
Mr. Cirsch has successfully represented clients in federal and state court proceedings, arbitrations, and hearings governed by the Administrative Procedures Act. He is admitted to practice before the United States District Court for the Central, Southern, Northern and Eastern Districts of California.
Education
Scott Moot Court Honors Board, St. Thomas More Law Honor Society
Professional Memberships
Enter keywords:
Add this blog to your feeds by clicking the orange RSS icon seen above, or subscribe by entering your email address into the form below
