The Legal 500

Within Insurance: advice to insurers, Cozen O'Connor is a third tier firm,

Cozen O’Connor is a ‘strong’ firm noted for its ‘solid insurance coverage work’. The firm’s insurance group, with more that 120 coverage lawyers throughout the US, handles an array of coverage matters including comprehensive general liability (CGL), professional liability, environmental risk, product liability, intellectual property, employment practices, D&O, securities and antitrust matters, and also offers transactional and regulatory capabilities. Prominent clients include Chubb, ACE, Fireman’s Fund and OneBeacon. The firm is advising insurance carriers in connection with subrogation claims filed against Toyota for its alleged failure to make the insurers aware of vehicle defects that led to accidents, seeking damages for reimbursement of monies paid to claimants in underlying actions against Toyota; Howard Maycon, David Denton and Edward Ordonex are leading the matter. Stephen Cozen and chair of the global insurance group William Patrick Shelley are standout figures, and the recent hire of Mark Rabinowitz adds strength to the team.

Within Product liability and mass tort defense: aerospace/aviation, Cozen O'Connor is a first tier firm,

Cozen O’Connor’s aviation and product liability practice provides comprehensive and forceful defense of its clients’ interests. The firm has proven adept in acting both as national coordinating counsel and as lead trial counsel, and is renowned for its broad-ranging advice. The team served as defense counsel in product liability wrongful death suits relating to the bombing of PanAm Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, and advised TAM Airlines concerning an aircraft accident in 2007. Other clients include well-known aircraft and components manufacturers such as Bell Helicopter, Hartzell Propeller, Honeywell, Raytheon and United Instruments. The team also represents insurers, with US Aviation Underwriters a key client, and receives instructions from other carriers including ExcelAire private charter airline and from a mix of other aerospace-related clients such as Aero Kool and Jeppesen Sanderson. Airports and other facilities also draw on the firm’s highly regarded construction litigation team. The practice’s leading individuals include insurance litigator Thomas Harrington and Ann Thornton Field, who chairs the general litigation department. Both are based in Philadelphia. Also recommended is the firm’s vice-chairman Patrick O’Connor, who divides his time between Philadelphia and West Conshohocken.

Within M&A: middle-market (sub-$500m), tier 5

Cozen O’Connor has extensive experience in representing purchasers, target companies and financial advisors. The practice’s typical experience includes acting as US acquisition counsel for a London-based market research company, that is listed on the London Stock Exchange, in a series of acquisitions valued in excess of $100m, representing a network integration, consulting, maintenance and support company in its acquisitions, and advising a pharmacy benefit management company listed on the New York Stock Exchange in a $500m merger. Philadelphia-based Larry Laubach chairs the corporate law group.