Ryan Smethurst > McDermott Will & Emery LLP > Washington DC, United States > Lawyer Profile
McDermott Will & Emery LLP Offices
THE MCDERMOTT BUILDING, 500 NORTH CAPITOL STREET, NW
WASHINGTON, DC 20001-1531
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
United States
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Ryan Smethurst
Work Department
Litigation & Dispute Resolution
Position
Ryan S. Smethurst is co-head of McDermott’s Insurance Litigation & Counseling Team. He has tried numerous insurance coverage cases to judges and juries, has litigated insurance coverage appeals presenting questions of first impression, and has arbitrated reinsurance disputes to final award. For nearly two decades, Ryan has represented insurers in insurance coverage litigation and claims disputes with respect to their most difficult and high-profile exposures, including more than 11,000 personal injury actions against the City of New York and 140 of its contractors in In re World Trade Center Disaster Site Litigation; approximately 750 childhood sexual abuse cases against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles and other Roman Catholic, Episcopal and youth organizations nationwide; and nine-figure environmental and asbestos liabilities.
Please visit McDermott website for full biography: https://www.mwe.com/people/smethurst-ryan-s/
Lawyer Rankings
United States > Insurance > Advice to insurers
McDermott Will & Emery LLP handles a range of insurance and reinsurance disputes for its clients, including insurance tax liabilities and issues concerning captive insurers. Insurance coverage litigation is the core work of the practice, which is particularly strong in the health insurance sector, where it advises major clients on disputes and appeals across the United States. The firm has also handled environmental insurance disputes centered on asbestos claims and issues arising from Superfund Sites, and furthermore is able to advise on regulatory matters, including cross-border insolvency matters. The practice’s leadership group is made up of insurance and reinsurance litigators Margaret Warner
and Ryan Smethurst in Washington DC, following the December 2022 retirement of Jane Byrne. Dan Brown left the firm in August 2022 while John Finston took up a role with the New York State Department of Financial Services in October 2022.
Lawyer Rankings
Top Tier Firm Rankings
- Media, technology and telecoms > Technology transactions
- Healthcare > Health insurers
- Healthcare > Life sciences
- Media, technology and telecoms > Outsourcing
- Healthcare > Service providers
- Tax > US taxes: contentious
- Tax > US taxes: non-contentious
Firm Rankings
- Insurance > Advice to insurers
- Labor and employment > Employee benefits, executive compensation and retirement plans: design
- Labor and employment > Employee benefits, executive compensation and retirement plans: transactional
- Energy > Energy regulation: electric power
- Tax > Financial products
- Labor and employment > Immigration
- Tax > International tax
- M&A/corporate and commercial > M&A: middle-market ($500m-999m)
- Dispute resolution > Product liability, mass tort and class action - defense: toxic tort
- Energy > Renewable/alternative power
- Intellectual property > Trademarks: non-contentious (including prosecution, portfolio management and licensing)
- Media, technology and telecoms > Cyber law (including data privacy and data protection)
- Labor and employment > ERISA litigation
- Dispute resolution > General commercial disputes
- Insurance > Insurance: non-contentious
- Labor and employment > Labor-management relations
- Antitrust > Merger control
- Intellectual property > Patents: prosecution (including re-examination and post-grant proceedings)
- Real estate > Real estate finance
- International Trade > Trade remedies and trade policy
- Labor and employment > Workplace and employment counseling
- Finance > Capital markets: equity offerings
- Antitrust > Cartel
- Antitrust > Civil litigation/class actions: defense
- Energy > Energy transactions: electric power
- Energy > Energy transactions: oil and gas
- Labor and employment > Labor and employment disputes (including collective actions)
- Intellectual property > Patents: litigation (full coverage)
- Dispute resolution > Securities litigation: defense
- Finance > Structured finance: derivatives and structured products
- Dispute resolution > Corporate investigations and white-collar criminal defense
- M&A/corporate and commercial > Private equity buyouts: large deals ($500m+)
- Real estate > Real estate
- Finance > Restructuring (including bankruptcy): corporate
- Investment fund formation and management > Private equity funds (including venture capital)
- Dispute resolution > Appellate: courts of appeals / Appellate: supreme courts (states and federal)
- Finance > Commercial lending
- Government > Government contracts
- Finance > Fintech
- Investment fund formation and management > Alternative/hedge funds