Overview
(July 21, 2020, Washington, DC) — Law360 has named Steptoe partner Catherine Cockerham a Rising Star in Insurance. The Rising Stars list recognizes individuals under 40 whose legal accomplishments belie their age. The 2020 Law360 Rising Stars list was selected by a team of editors who carefully reviewed more than 1,300 submissions.
In a profile published July 16, the editors write that "Cockerham has helped defend insurers against a variety of complex, multi-party asbestos-related injury claims and insurance coverage disputes, landing her among the insurance law practitioners under age 40 honored as Law360 Rising Stars."
Cockerham, who was promoted to partner in 2018, focuses her practice primarily on insurance coverage disputes involving general liability, directors and officers, and various first-party policies. She has broad experience representing insurers in coverage matters involving asbestos, environmental contamination, pharmaceutical products, and other toxic torts. She also represents insurance companies in bankruptcy proceedings as well as against allegations of bad faith.
In describing the biggest case of her career, Cockerham tells Law360 she represented Travelers Casualty & Surety Co. in a case involving more than 10,000 plaintiffs which was challenging because of how difficult it was to locate witnesses for a massive array of substantive and procedural issues. The plaintiffs asserted that the insurers had misled them about the available insurance amounts for asbestos claims and misrepresented the limits of liability, therefore inducing them to settle for millions of dollars less than they would have otherwise.
"The plaintiffs were saying that they were defrauded of their insurance proceeds and that we pulled the wool over their eyes for a number of years. So it's definitely a win for the insurance company in the sense these claims have to be pled in a timely manner," Cockerham said. "After 15 years of litigation, we've secured summary judgment and a massive fraud case that was brought in 2002 by the more than 10,000 asbestos claimants."
The full profile on Cockerham can be read at Law360 (subscription required).
About Steptoe
In more than 100 years of practice, Steptoe has earned an international reputation for vigorous representation of clients before governmental agencies, successful advocacy in litigation and arbitration, and creative and practical advice in structuring business transactions. Steptoe has more than 500 lawyers and other professional staff across offices in Beijing, Brussels, Chicago, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Washington. For more information, visit www.steptoe.com.
