Ice Miller’s environmental insurance coverage team helps policyholders secure the protection they paid for and turn environmental risk into recoveries that fund remediation and resolve third party claims.

We pursue reimbursement, indemnity, and other cost recovery avenues under our clients’ own policies and from insurers for third parties responsible for contamination—leveraging decades of environmental experience and policyholder side coverage advocacy.

Environmental losses can implicate multiple layers and lines of insurance, including:

• commercial general liability (occurrence and claims made)
• pollution legal liability/environmental impairment liability
• site specific or project policies; contractor’s pollution liability
• excess/umbrella layers and historic occurrence based coverage

We have appeared as counsel of record in more than 327 reported opinions involving insurance coverage issues and have recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for claimants and policyholders. Our team assists with:

Coverage Strategy & Recovery

• Rapid policy review, claim mapping, and notice/tender strategies
• Negotiating with carriers to unlock defense and indemnity, including in mixed carrier and multi site programs
• Cost recovery for investigation, remediation, natural resource damage (NRD), and third party claims under first party and liability policies

Coverage Litigation & Alternative Dispute Resolution

• Declaratory judgment actions, duty to defend enforcement, and allocation/trigger disputes
• Motion practice addressing pollution exclusions and late notice defenses
• Trials in state and federal court, arbitration, and mediation to accelerate recoveries

Historic Policy Archaeology

• Locating and reconstructing legacy occurrence based policies
• Developing trigger/allocation frameworks to maximize vertical recovery

Coordination with Environmental Matters

• Aligning coverage with cleanup strategies, consent orders, and enforcement posture
• Integrating coverage claims with Superfund and other cost recovery actions
• Locating and procuring litigation funding in appropriate situations