Ethan focuses his practice on insurance coverage litigation and counseling. He has significant experience with a multitude of policy types, including commercial general liability, directors and officers, errors and omissions, employment practices liability, environmental liability, stop loss, excess, and umbrella, as well as captive and fronting programs.

Ethan focuses his practice on insurance coverage litigation and counseling. He has significant experience with a multitude of policy types, including commercial general liability, directors and officers, errors and omissions, employment practices liability, environmental liability, stop loss, excess, and umbrella, as well as captive and fronting programs.

• Summary judgment for insurer and its managing general agent by establishing no coverage under an errors and omissions policy for a putative class action against an insured employee benefit plan.

• Summary judgment for insurer with successful arguments grounded in the interpretation of an asset purchase agreement to demonstrate no coverage under a commercial general liability policy.

• Summary judgment for insurer against arguments that a reservation of rights letter was a separate contract to pay defense costs even though no duty to defend arose.

• Negotiated several settlements involving primary and excess carriers in insurance coverage litigation over construction defects at a large manufacturing plant.

• Secured favorable settlement for insurer in litigation against a wholly owned corporation of the United States of America regarding alleged coverage for environmental cleanup at the Presidio of San Francisco under remediation stop loss and environmental liability insurance policies.

• Successfully settled litigation on behalf of two insurers after developing defenses based on a computer chip manufacturer’s misrepresentations on its technology errors and omissions policy applications and a lack of covered property damage under a commercial general liability policy regarding the failure of thousands of computer servers.

• Provided coverage advice under directors and officers policies concerning antitrust, qui tam, and class action cases.

• Counseled on personal injury and advertising injury coverage in connection with defamation and false advertising claims against a textile manufacturer.

• Represented primary and excess insurers in litigation against the manufacturer of asbestos-containing products concerning coverage for thousands of bodily injury claims spanning three decades.

• Advised an insurer in litigation against an international manufacturing corporation arising out of property damage and bodily injury claims after discovery of extensive soil and groundwater pollution.

• Provided advice regarding coverage for employment claims under employment practices liability policies.

• Conducted insurance due diligence on large, cross-border corporate transactions.

• Assisted corporations regarding overall insurance programs, identify potential coverage gaps, and suggest means to strengthen coverage.

Ethan spent close to 10 years at a large international law firm. During law school, he won the National Championship at the Saul Lefkowitz Moot Court Competition in trademark and unfair competition law, as well as winning Best Brief and Best Oral Argument at the Saul Lefkowitz Western Regional Competition. Ethan also served as articles editor for the Hastings West-Northwest Journal of Environmental Law and Policy.

Ethan enjoys spending time with his wife and son, including weekend daytrips throughout San Francisco and the Bay Area, swim lessons, and soccer practice.

Ethan served as general counsel and a member of the board of directors of the Cornell Alumni Association of Northern California from 2011 to 2015, and as a member of the steering committee of the United Way of the Bay Area’s Emerging Leaders program from 2013 to 2015.

Ethan was selected by his peers for inclusion in the 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017 editions of Super Lawyers Northern California Rising Stars for the category of Insurance Coverage.

• Co-Author, “Squire Patton Boggs Reinsurance Newsletter,” September 2014

• Co-Author, “Insurance Coverage Litigation,” Continuing Legal Education publication and seminar for the National Business Institute, July 2006

• Co-Author, “Insurance Law: Third Party Coverage in California,” Continuing Legal Education publication and seminar for the National Business Institute, July 2003